Currently, the logistics costs of cross-border e-commerce account for 20-30% of the total transaction amount, and the overall logistics costs are relatively high. In fact, compared with the logistics cost rate of the domestic express delivery industry (generally less than 5% of the customer unit price), the proportion of cross-border e-commerce logistics costs in the entire cross-border e-commerce cost is much larger.
The main reasons for this situation are as follows:
1. Many links and complex processes:
Both direct mail and overseas warehouse modes involve domestic first-time, including: merchants or logistics companies picking up goods; domestic warehouse warehousing, inspection, classification, labeling, booking and packaging; domestic customs declaration; and shipping goods to the destination country by sea or air.
In the direct mail mode, the direct mail mode is undertaken by local logistics companies or international logistics companies, and the back-end warehouse is used to carry out warehousing, inspection, shelving and inventory in overseas warehouses. After the customer places an order, the warehouse will carry out the final delivery, and then it will be undertaken by the local logistics company. At the same time, overseas warehouses can also provide value-added services such as returns and exchanges, customer service, etc.
2. Directly affected by overseas customs and tax policies:
Whether it is direct mail or overseas warehouse, cross-border goods must go through the customs clearance procedures of foreign customs and pay relevant taxes in accordance with regulations before they can be legally sold overseas. The cross-border e-commerce logistics system directly faces regulatory and legal risks from abroad, and will also be affected by changes in the international political and economic situation. For example, the delayed value-added tax system in the new tax law implemented after Brexit will directly affect related logistics companies, such as the joint and several liability for the flow of goods that needs to be borne by freight forwarders or customs clearance agencies.
3. Diverse transportation entities and forms, lack of resource integration throughout the entire chain:
Transportation entities and direct mail models may involve postal companies, international express companies, freight forwarding companies or domestic express companies with cross-border logistics business, aviation or shipping companies, commercial customs clearance companies, and local express companies in the exporting country. The overseas warehouse model is more about third-party overseas warehouse service providers or self-built warehouses than the direct mail model. The entities and processes of cross-border e-commerce logistics are complex and diverse, making resource integration difficult. There is a lack of effective resource integrators that run through the upstream and downstream to provide customers with end-to-end cross-border e-commerce logistics services.