The supply chain is the network of individuals and companies involved in creating a product and delivering it to the consumer. The supply chain starts with the producer of the raw materials and ends when the finished product is delivered to the end user.
Supply chain management is a critical process because optimizing the supply chain can reduce costs and shorten production cycles. Companies seek to improve their supply chains to reduce costs and remain competitive.
An effective supply chain management system minimizes costs and time wasted in the production cycle. Just-in-time supply chains have become an industry standard, in which retail salespeople can automatically issue replenishment orders to manufacturers. As a result, retail shelves can be replenished almost as quickly as the products are sold. One way to further improve this process is to analyze data from supply chain partners to understand where further improvements can be made.
Currently, China is the largest supply chain country for cross-border Amazon platform sellers, and at least 3/4 of the products on the platform come from China.
If a product can enter the TOP10 in a certain category on Amazon, then the seller must have a good understanding of the product’s supply chain and know a thing or two about the supply chain of peer products. Most sellers will find that peer products belong to the same factory or the same supply chain. In this case, sellers can clearly know the product quality and shipment status of their peers, but it is difficult to widen the gap with their peers because it involves issues such as product design, structure, production process, quality control, etc.
Generally speaking, the main parts of cross-border e-commerce include sellers, e-commerce platforms, third-party logistics agents, and buyers. Unlike the traditional supply chain system, in the supply chain with cross-border e-commerce platforms as the core, there are fewer sourcing and procurement modules, and more involved in the warehousing, inventory management and transportation of goods.
In the supply chain based on cross-border e-commerce platforms, there are currently three main modes for domestic sellers:
The first is that according to the order, the seller sends the goods to the delivery address specified by the buyer by international express;
The second is for some cities with high industrial clusters. For merchants with high sales, the e-commerce platform will purchase goods from these sellers in the form of circular pickup, and then send them to the international storage center;
The third is that the seller first sends some goods to the international storage center on the e-commerce platform, and the e-commerce platform manages the order and transports the goods.
After the goods are cleared, e-commerce platforms will generally reach a cooperative relationship with local logistics, and local logistics will continue to provide transportation services for the goods; a few e-commerce companies will choose to build their own logistics, first transporting the goods to the central warehouse in each region, then transporting the goods to various stations, using a network logistics system, and finally sending the goods to the buyers.