China is a big manufacturing country and a big exporting country, but whether it is industrial products or consumer products, they are mainly OEMs. Very few products are exported through brand + independent global distribution network, so there is no direct sales and after-sales service. Well, trade is a one-time deal and has nothing to do with overseas localized operations. Therefore, before cross-border e-commerce, it was rare to see professional logistics overseas warehouses serving domestic brands abroad.
Of course, with the acceleration of the internationalization of outstanding companies such as Huawei, Haier, and Lenovo, the demand for overseas warehouses in this field is also growing slowly. However, in comparison, the challenges brought by cross-border e-commerce The breakthrough is unprecedented. Self-built, rented, and FBA warehouses are all overseas warehouses. Self-built is the most difficult, and FBA is the most mature. However, there are many restrictions on product selection specifications, strict warehousing, and high costs. Unconditional returns and exchanges by customers make it impossible to resell. Third-party overseas Warehouse services are more flexible. Based on its “cross-border distribution network and global cloud warehouse system”, Amazon is undoubtedly the world’s largest overseas warehouse operator.
Consumers often tend to buy products using FBA. Sellers’ demand for overseas warehouses is indeed growing, but for the sake of ranking and conversion, more demand flows to FBA, which has traffic and service advantages. Most Chinese sellers selling on Amazon ship through FBA, and their leading position is unassailable.
Nowadays, FBA stores are cheating customers, with more than 90 warehousing centers around the world. Many people may be impressed by the foresight of big sellers to build their own overseas warehouses. In fact, many of them are also forced to do so. The expanded categories have increased professional requirements for packaging, logistics and after-sales. In the past few years, third-party overseas warehouses were not perfect, and direct mail was no longer able to bear the burden. Back-end operations have reached their limits, so they can only build their own overseas warehouses.
For large sellers, building a self-built overseas warehouse means building an overseas branch, which involves many problems involving people, property and property. They have to face financial pressure, cargo safety, operational risks, etc. Those with insufficient financial resources and lack of professionalism should never rush to build their own overseas warehouses. Building a complete business system from start to finish will consume a lot of resources and energy of the company.
If you only use overseas warehouses as another supplement to direct mail, it is best to leave them to third-party overseas warehouses. As the saying goes, let professional people do professional things, even if the scale is large, you can cooperate and rent. Of course, if you have deep pockets, it’s another matter. You can invest or acquire foreign warehousing and logistics companies to do it directly.
Part of the third-party overseas warehouses are sellers who transformed themselves into logistics service providers by discovering the strong demand based on their keen sense of working in the market. Relying on the management experience of overseas Chinese communities and overseas companies, we have expanded from our own overseas warehouses to platform-based services, focusing on our areas of expertise while leveraging the resource sharing effect.
However, it is difficult for the platform to treat self-operated products and other products in the inventory equally, and it will also expand its own product selection advantages through analysis. The second category is freight forwarding and logistics, which started from dedicated lines, air and sea forwarding, customs clearance, etc., and have advantageous transportation resources and customs clearance capabilities. Those with strong funds and large business scale, and even bookmakers at destination ports, provide services such as customs clearance, returns, and transshipment. feature.
In 2017, FedEx also set foot in overseas warehouses and launched FedEx Fulfillment warehousing, a one-stop logistics network service similar to FBA. Corporate customers store goods in its warehouses in the United States and Canada, and subsequent orders are packaged and delivered by FedEx. Full discretion. In addition, we have a strong overseas agent network. In some countries or regions, we can provide distribution warehousing and door-to-door terminal distribution services through logistics partners.
The third foreign trade category is an integrated material and trade enterprise that has mastered the resources of foreign buyers. It has been rooted in a certain commodity field for a long time. It has traditionally provided one-stop customized B2B services for direct customers and has a certain amount of capital accumulation and warehousing. Conditions, relying on domestic supplier resources, or based on the business needs of some core major customers, build an overseas warehouse platform. There are also some small overseas warehouses, which belong to trading, transshipment or Chinese start-up companies. Due to the lack of direct customer resources, they are mostly limited to local and small-scale operations. However, they can provide high-quality services to niche areas or large customers. The ship is small and easy to turn around. “Small but beautiful” “It is also a direction for the development of third-party overseas warehouses.
With the continuous influx of industries, how to rent reliable services in many new overseas warehouses, service, timeliness, price and other factors are all based on the evaluation of whether they have the following professional capabilities. First, for bulk transportation, resources on international freight forwarding and carrier routes ensure stable first-haul space and high-quality operations, as well as timely replenishment and shelves. Overseas warehouses often operate dedicated lines on the basis of integrating logistics resources.
Second, it is easy to clear customs at home and abroad. There are a wide variety of goods, which requires high foreign trade customs clearance capabilities. It meets the requirements of various customs policies and regulations of various countries and reduces tax costs.
The third is warehousing management. E-commerce has high requirements for the accuracy of warehousing inventory and order processing. Coupled with the large daily order volume and high frequency of returns, operations in overseas warehouses are crucial. Foreign labor costs are high, and price factors such as rent-free periods, warehouse rent discounts, and local express discounts often reflect management level.
The fourth is technology. Platform order capture, inventory management, first-in-first-out, batch requirements, etc. are unimaginable without coherent system support, and the picking, packaging, shipping and other aspects of the warehouse should be automated. technology to improve service efficiency and reliability.
The fifth is service. While striving to provide a full one-stop door-to-door service, we also strengthen localization measures, such as providing special packaging, simple repairs, FBA transfer, returns and exchanges, tax declaration, resale and other value-added services. ; Or specialize in specific vertical categories, such as furniture and auto parts, to achieve the ultimate in category services; synchronize new overseas warehouse policies, connect with certain new platforms, expand last-mile logistics channels, etc. Overseas warehouse companies must clearly understand their own advantages and resources and determine their position in the entire value chain.