There are three main ways for domestic consumers to purchase overseas goods: purchasing on behalf of others, overseas shopping or cross-border e-commerce. Purchasing on behalf of others means that consumers purchase overseas goods directly through individuals or buyers at home and abroad to meet their personal needs. Overseas shopping means that consumers purchase goods directly on foreign e-commerce websites. Although purchasing on behalf of others and overseas shopping allow many consumers to purchase more abundant overseas goods, the counterfeiting and gray customs clearance are very serious.
In recent years, China Customs has been increasingly strict in supervising direct mail parcels. In the “Notice on Issuing the 2016 Action Plan for the Implementation of the Quality Development Outline” issued by the General Office of the State Council in April 2016, Article 13 focuses on the supervision and strict requirements of direct mail on the development of cross-border e-commerce. Once this article is released, it severely cracks down on illegal smuggling activities carried out through e-commerce platforms and postal and express delivery channels in cross-border e-commerce, and illegal acts of importing and exporting infringing and counterfeit goods through “ant moving” and other methods. A series of national policies have been introduced one after another to regulate the import and export of cross-border e-commerce. Platformization, rationalization, standardization and legalization will become the trend of cross-border e-commerce logistics development in the future.
Definition of cross-border e-commerce logistics:
Logistics refers to the physical flow of goods from the place of supply to the place of receipt. It achieves the ultimate goal of commodity trading by physically moving the goods. Since in cross-border e-commerce, the buyer and seller belong to different territories, in order to overcome the spatial interval and time distance between production and consumption in the two territories, cross-border e-commerce logistics came into being. Unlike the domestic logistics services we often enjoy, cross-border e-commerce logistics is much more complicated.
Cross-border e-commerce logistics refers to an international business activity in which trading entities in different territories reach transactions and make payments through e-commerce platforms, and deliver goods and complete transactions through cross-border logistics. In the entire transaction process between buyers and sellers, there are information flows, capital flows and commodity flows (logistics). Among them, logistics is the only one that needs to be completed offline, and it is also the key factor that determines consumers’ cross-border shopping experience.