Overseas warehouse is also a sales channel and business model, involving overseas customs, taxation, legal affairs, labor and other issues. Enterprises can consider cooperative customization, self-built warehouses, leasing public warehouses, contract outsourcing and other warehouse building solutions based on factors such as demand stability and market density. There are three common forms of using overseas warehouses. The first is to rent warehouses from logistics real estate developers or 3PLs, and the enterprises themselves manage the warehouses as a whole, and fully master the management rights, operating rights and pricing rights; the second is large customer customized warehouses, which lease part of the warehouse area of overseas warehouse service providers, self-start the first leg, use their own last leg freight discount account, outsource management, and hand over the main business of the warehouse to overseas partners for management, including personnel, equipment and related supporting resources; the third is that ordinary sellers use third-party overseas warehouses or FBA and other public services, including warehousing, distribution and even first leg warehousing. According to statistics, more than 200 Chinese companies have established more than 500 overseas warehouses abroad. From the distribution point of view, 40% of overseas warehouses are concentrated in the United States, and countries and regions such as Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia also account for a large proportion. Overseas warehouses in the Middle East, South America, Africa and other places are very scarce. At present, the average area of overseas warehouses in the world is 5,000m2, and the total order processing capacity is 7.33 million orders per day, of which the United States accounts for half. It is common for a single warehouse to handle 30,000 to 50,000 orders per day.
Because the one-time investment in building a warehouse is large, the timing of building an overseas warehouse is related to the company’s own strength and positioning. After obtaining financing, many e-commerce sellers or cross-border logistics companies use a large part of their funds to build overseas warehouses. Self-built overseas warehouses can meet the company’s customized needs or extend services, but there are many challenges in the process of building warehouses and operating. Companies operating overseas warehouses must also register a local warehousing or logistics service company; merchants using overseas warehouses also need an import trader identity. Both situations involve cross-border investment and require in-depth understanding of the local market investment environment and tax laws. “Warehouse” is a heavy asset investment, and you must carefully assess the upper limit of the risk you can bear.