Shenzhen News Network, May 15, 2024- Modern logistics services are one of the core contents of the productive service industry in the new era. At Shenzhen International Logistics Village, we witnessed the transformation and upgrading of a traditional industrial plant area, and felt the empowerment and enhancement of modern information technology on the traditional logistics industry. Here, we have seen a large number of transportation routes to the United States and Europe, as well as transportation routes to Nigeria, Senegal, and other corners of the world. Here, there are not only sea and air freight lines, but also China Europe freight trains and cruise ships; Not only are there large companies specializing in transportation of trunk lines, but also second-generation and third-generation small companies providing services for trunk line companies.
Here, thousands of companies each fulfill their respective roles, enabling Made in China to move from Shenzhen to the world.
Going Out: From Goods Going Abroad to Logistics Platforms Going Abroad
With more and more Chinese companies going global, Chinese logistics companies are gradually shifting from simply exporting goods to exporting through supply chains and logistics platforms.
Taking Shenzhen International Logistics Village as an example, before 2014, most logistics companies provided supporting services for the four major international logistics companies and did not go abroad themselves. In 2014, China's electric bicycles became a hit and sold well overseas. The services of the original logistics companies couldn't keep up, and the products couldn't be shipped out after production. This forced domestic logistics companies to go abroad on their own, gradually learning to clear customs and rent storage overseas, and gradually building platforms overseas. This not only greatly reduces logistics costs, but also greatly improves service efficiency and quality. At present, there are over 200 enterprises in the international logistics village that have established their own companies overseas.
New strategy: AI support makes logistics easier
With the arrival of a new era driven by domestic brands going global, supply chain going global, and cross-border e-commerce, more and more cross-border logistics enterprises are constantly exploring new strategies that can better adapt to this industry. The trend of digitization, automation, and intelligence is becoming increasingly evident in empowering logistics services through information technology and AI technology.
According to our survey, leading companies like Baiwei International are actively building a digital smart logistics platform called Yunlian Network, driven by professional operations and digital technology, to serve Chinese products and Chinese enterprises going global. With the support of AI technology, industry benchmarks such as Shifang have surpassed the limitations of human capital and overcome language barriers. Not only did they set a record of 10 million orders per day during the Double 11 shopping festival, but they also provided a Spanish customer with a super fast experience of "placing an order in 2 hours and delivering goods to their home", greatly shortening the delivery time and accuracy of the logistics industry.
Landing configuration: Breaking through the final "bottleneck" of cross-border logistics
At present, China's cross-border logistics has basically achieved the same day to Southeast Asia, two days to Europe and America, and three days to reach the world, and has achieved high efficiency, controllability, and traceability throughout the entire process. But it should be noted that this time is only for delivery to the overseas warehouse set up by the Chinese company in the local area. The last mile from the overseas warehouse to the customer's hands is completely indescribable.
In the past few years, Chinese logistics companies have been making continuous efforts in overseas platform construction, including customs clearance, warehouse rental, and fleet construction. All aspects of 2B business have been basically completed. However, in the face of 2C business, especially with the rise of emerging cross-border e-commerce platforms such as SHEIN, TEMU, and TikTok, a large number of landing distribution businesses have basically become a "bottleneck" for Chinese logistics enterprises overseas.
According to industry insiders, a "Made in China" product has achieved high efficiency, controllability, and traceability throughout the entire process, from placing an order with overseas customers to leaving the factory, through cross-border logistics, and all the way to the local overseas warehouse. But when it comes to the "last mile", it becomes very passive in data tracking because we can only rely on local logistics and distribution networks.
In the past few years, several major domestic express delivery companies in China, such as SF Express and Four Links and One Delivery, have attempted to establish their own express delivery platforms in Southeast Asia, but the vast majority have failed. So much so that in 2023, when our team went to Thailand for research, we could still see many storefronts and signs belonging to several major express delivery platforms that have already closed, but still retain their corporate door signs. At present, the situation we understand is that only the younger brother Baishi Express, who was ranked behind the "Four Links and One Delivery" in the past, survived by cutting off his arm and selling his domestic express delivery business to fully compete in the Southeast Asian market represented by Thailand and Vietnam. After several years of hard work, he was able to occupy a place in the Southeast Asian market.
For the logistics industry in China, facing the new opportunities and challenges brought by the development of overseas e-commerce platforms, whether through joint ventures or cooperation, franchising or self operation, it will be the focus and difficulty of industry development in the coming years to quickly establish an efficient, controllable, and traceable overseas "landing distribution" system, and overcome the "last mile" bottleneck.