Cross-border sellers must face up to some unresolved industry problems in cross-border e-commerce in terms of products, logistics, customs clearance, talents, localized experience, etc., which are the main factors restricting the further development of cross-border e-commerce. Although the policy issues in domestic customs clearance, inspection and quarantine, export tax rebates, foreign exchange settlement, etc. have been basically solved, it still takes some time to achieve seamless globalization.
1. Serious product homogeneity
With the rapid development of the cross-border e-commerce industry in recent years, a large number of Chinese merchants have poured in. These merchants have their own advantages and their levels are also uneven, which has intensified industry competition. Especially for 3C products (referring to computer communications and consumer electronics) and accessories, clothing and other hot-selling products, there are different cross-border e-commerce companies competing for the market, but their differentiation is not obvious, so they can only struggle in the price war. Therefore, the transformation and upgrading of cross-border e-commerce and the differentiation of products are the only way, but most cross-border merchants have not done this well.
2. Long logistics time and large fluctuations
Cross-border e-commerce involves many links, and only a few companies can complete all of these links independently. Most of them can only be operated through outsourcing or cooperation, making it difficult to control the overall service quality and delivery time. In addition, due to policy differences among countries, it is difficult for most companies to solve this problem by building their own logistics, so that it usually takes 25 to 35 days for goods to be shipped to countries such as Brazil and Russia. At the same time, there is still an unstable delivery situation in logistics, and the delivery time fluctuates greatly, sometimes even differing by dozens of days.
3. Customs clearance barriers
In the actual operation of goods delivery, cross-border e-commerce has certain customs clearance barriers, because it needs to go through two customs checkpoints-the customs of the exporting country and the customs of the destination country. The specific situations faced by Chinese sellers at the customs of the destination country are different. In some countries, customs may detain goods. There are generally three results: confiscation, return or request for additional documents.
Customs clearance barriers affect the transaction efficiency of cross-border e-commerce, and in a sense, they also increase the difficulty of cross-border trade transactions. Of course, giants like Amazon have provided FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) and “Dragon Boat Project” services, but how to better control inventory is also a difficult problem for Chinese sellers. Especially during Christmas and Black Friday, the sharp increase in orders will pose a greater challenge to the existing international logistics system, and warehouse explosion is particularly common.