At the end of 2016, the Wish Express (WE) project was in full swing, and many traditional direct mail merchants also began to try the overseas warehouse model. Merchants have been trying the overseas warehouse operation model as early as 2010. Many early eBay merchants have achieved rapid development from 2012 to 2015 through the overseas warehouse operation model. With the vigorous promotion of the Amazon platform in 2012, more and more merchants are familiar with the operation of FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon), accompanied by various service providers and various first-mile (i.e. goods from China to the destination country warehouse) and last-mile (i.e. last mile delivery) service channels are becoming more and more perfect. Today’s WE project, similar to the eBay platform’s overseas warehouse support plan, encourages merchants to store goods in the destination country to shorten the delivery time and improve consumers’ shopping experience.
Allowing users to receive the purchased products in a shorter time will undoubtedly greatly improve the purchase conversion rate of the products. Faster delivery time can also achieve better performance in account evaluation. However, the operation of overseas warehouses is very different from domestic direct delivery, so merchants in different situations should pay attention to different matters when participating in the WE project. Generally speaking, the use of overseas warehouses requires a mature solution in terms of inventory control, first-leg logistics timeliness, first-leg customs clearance, price control, and tail goods processing.