Overseas replication of China's logistics experience

You have a package that will be delivered to your doorstep soon. "As soon as the phone hung up, Ashard Farouk, a courier from Daraz, a Pakistani e-commerce platform, began preparing for the day's delivery task.

Not long after, he knocked on Amber Bajwa's door. Bajiwa opened the package and found it was the phone case she had been waiting for. She sighed and said, "In the past, there were often mistakes in express delivery, and the items I bought and received often did not match the number." Now, Cainiao has greatly improved the efficiency of delivery by establishing an automated express distribution center for Daraz in Lahore, Pakistan. We used to rely on manual sorting, which took a long time. Now with automated sorting, the speed has indeed improved a lot, "Farouk explained.

Inside the distribution center, the orange chain conveyor line is like a busy highway, constantly transporting various packages. Each package is labeled with an electronic waybill, and this' electronic ID card 'accurately guides the package's delivery route. The electronic waybill system developed by Cainiao has taken the lead in achieving "one order to the end", from the generation of packages to the final delivery to consumers. The electronic waybill and the information processing system behind it ensure the efficient and orderly operation of tens of millions of packages every day.

The automated assembly line is running rapidly, and the work that used to take 4 hours to complete now only takes 1 hour. Sorters stand next to the sorting table, skillfully placing packages onto the conveyor line. After the machine quickly scans the electronic waybill, the packages are accurately diverted to different exits and then delivered by couriers. Bajiwa's phone case was delivered on time by Farouk through this process.

This is a microcosm of China's logistics experience being replicated overseas. Cainiao's logistics technology not only helps partners fill the gaps in logistics, but also provides impetus for the international logistics supply chain, helping to sustain the growth of cross-border e-commerce trade.

For the price of a cup of coffee, British bride Tracy received an embroidered wedding dress from Huqiu, Jiangsu within a week; Dutch Chinese culture enthusiast Mira's "Shandong Caoxian origin" horse face skirt was delivered to her doorstep 5 days after placing an order; Belgian consumer George's long-awaited customized electric toothbrush from Zhuji, Zhejiang, crossed mountains and seas just one week after placing the order and appeared on his washbasin.

In 2023, Cainiao launched its "Global 5-Day Delivery" feature service product, allowing foreign consumers to receive their packages within 5 days of placing an order on cross-border e-commerce platforms. At present, this service has covered more than 10 Asian and European countries including the United Kingdom, South Korea, Belgium, and France. Efficient cross-border fulfillment services cannot be achieved without the support of technology. Ren Junshu introduced that based on the electronic waybill system, Cainiao has further launched intelligent order consolidation technology. Through big data algorithms, packages purchased by the same customer from different cities and merchants are merged into one based on factors such as package flow, order time, and flight schedule, and sent out uniformly, reducing cross-border logistics costs by 15% -20%. After the package arrives at the destination country, it has achieved "instant customs clearance" at more than 50 ports worldwide through an intelligent customs clearance system built in cooperation with various countries' customs. Ren Junshu added, "This not only reduces the cross-border logistics costs for merchants, but also allows overseas consumers to 'buy more and arrive faster'

Minister of Transport Li Xiaopeng previously stated that positive results have been achieved in reducing transportation and logistics costs over the years, but there is still a significant gap compared to the requirements of high-quality development. Next, the Ministry of Transport will carry out a special action to reduce costs, improve quality and efficiency in transportation and logistics from six aspects, one of which is to accelerate the development of smart logistics and green logistics, and promote technological cost reduction, quality improvement and efficiency enhancement.

Focusing on cross-border e-commerce logistics scenarios, the use of digital technology is an inevitable choice to achieve low-cost and rapid transformation of multimodal transportation. Cainiao has achieved intelligent and efficient management of the entire cross-border logistics chain through four key processes: domestic collection, trunk transportation, overseas hub processing, and destination country distribution. In China, the integration of collection and trunk transportation into one process is achieved through the "first line integration". Overseas, packages quickly enter overseas supervision warehouses after landing, achieving "customs warehouse integration" and second level customs clearance and distribution integration operations, reducing end-to-end logistics time in key countries from 60 days to 10 days and reducing package sorting costs by nearly 50%. In addition, the use of automated equipment such as AGV robots and intelligent order merging algorithm systems has further optimized the efficiency of the entire logistics process. In the past two years, customers have received fewer emails, but they are all valid information. When the goods are shipped, notifications are immediately followed up, and the information is very accurate about when they will arrive in Paris and when they will be delivered, "said Yin Tong, sales manager of Cainiao Air Transport.

Overseas warehouses better serve cross-border e-commerce

Just after 8 o'clock in the morning, at the Cainiao overseas warehouse in Bremen, Germany, nearly a hundred AGV robots received instructions and neatly picked up the goods that were released on the same day according to the path. In the eyes of warehouse outbound team leader Ekwey Semey, this warehouse covering an area of over 40000 square meters seems like a Chinese market, with a wide variety of goods from China including household items, 3C appliances (information equipment), auto parts, outdoor furniture, and more.

The coordinated linkage between cross-border e-commerce and new foreign trade infrastructure such as overseas warehouses reduces intermediate links and direct access to consumers, promoting the optimization of foreign trade structure and stable scale. It is understood that overseas warehouses are established by logistics companies or cross-border export enterprises, which can send goods in bulk to overseas warehouses, achieve overseas direct sales and local distribution, and have the characteristics of "fast customs clearance, fast delivery, fast turnover, fast service, and low cost". Cainiao has set up overseas warehouses in more than ten European countries, covering the entire 24 member states of the European Union and the United Kingdom. In terms of speed, it can reach its official warehouse location within 3 days and process 100000 orders per day. At the Bremen overseas warehouse, the air purifiers from "smartmi" are particularly eye-catching. In the past three to four years, this Chinese brand, which originated from the Xiaomi ecosystem, has become one of the top sellers of air purifiers in the European market and has truly become a popular overseas product.

Timeliness and quality are the key factors for Chinese cross-border merchants to win overseas. Cainiao has tailored a fully integrated digital overseas warehouse solution for Zhimi Technology, covering the entire process from end-to-end transportation, trunk lines to overseas warehouse distribution, from replenishment planning and warehouse layout to customized reports. The logistics manager of Zhimi Technology introduced that after using Cainiao's full chain overseas warehouse solution, Zhimi Technology's final delivery cost in Europe has been reduced by 20%, and the average delivery time has been shortened by 2-3 days. Now, some cities can be delivered as quickly as next day.

In recent years, China has accelerated the promotion of the "express delivery overseas" project to better serve cross-border e-commerce and modern commerce. According to preliminary statistics from various regions, the number of cross-border e-commerce entities in China has exceeded 120000, with over 1000 cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and over 2500 overseas warehouses covering an area of over 30 million square meters. Among them, there are over 1800 overseas warehouses dedicated to serving cross-border e-commerce, covering an area of over 22 million square meters.

Recently, nine departments including the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, and the General Administration of Customs issued the "Opinions on Expanding Cross border E-commerce Exports and Promoting Overseas Warehouse Construction", introducing 15 measures aimed at expanding cross-border e-commerce exports, optimizing overseas warehouse layout, and accelerating the cultivation of new foreign trade momentum.

As an important overseas node for cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses are the infrastructure for new foreign trade, solving the problem of the "last mile" for domestic goods going abroad and enabling more high-quality and cost-effective Chinese products to be efficiently delivered to overseas consumers.

Granary Overseas Warehouse is the first overseas warehouse enterprise in China with a total storage area exceeding one million. Granary will continue to increase investment in warehousing infrastructure and automation. In the future, based on its logistics infrastructure strength, it will continue to refine, deepen, and refine all aspects of its overseas warehouses, improve delivery efficiency, manage its supply chain well, provide more professional logistics services for different types of customers, and help Chinese brands go global, "said Chen Kaibin, Deputy General Manager of Granary Overseas Warehouse. As of July 2024, the total overseas warehouse area of Granary has exceeded 1.6 million square meters, distributed in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. In the past year, the overseas warehouse of the barn has been expanded and upgraded. Currently, there are over 100 overseas processing centers worldwide, and the daily order processing volume has reached 700000 pieces.

With the continuous innovation and optimization of services by overseas warehouse enterprises, overseas warehouses are no longer just "inventory points", but also a new type of foreign trade infrastructure with comprehensive service functions, and an important part of the foreign trade supply chain. Some overseas warehouses can provide multiple services such as exhibitions, after-sales service, and maintenance for overseas enterprises. For example, Yiwu Mall Group has established overseas warehouses in places such as the United Arab Emirates and Mexico, adopting a "front exhibition and back warehouse" operation model of "overseas warehouse+exhibition hall". Some overseas warehouse enterprises have expanded their first mile collection and logistics services to the domestic end, building a closed-loop service system from foreign trade exporters to importers. Nowadays, overseas warehouses around the world are connected into lines and woven into a network, crossing mountains and seas to open up new paths for going global, constantly enhancing the overseas influence and international competitiveness of Chinese brands. (Yan Bing, He Yichen, Hua Yiran)

Translated from: Overseas Edition of People's Daily