Behind The "Unexpected" Boom Of Cross-Border E-Commerce: Export Growth Of 40% And Freight Rate Of More Than 5 Times

After nearly two years of low ebb, cross-border e-commerce finally ushered in a turnaround in 2020.

"The epidemic still affected exports. We had orders of more than 20 million yuan in December last year because of logistics problems. Although the China Europe train can be delivered, it also faces difficulties, mainly due to insufficient logistics service personnel, such as the low efficiency of unloading. " Recently, song Zheng, chairman of the board of directors and founder of Goodbaby Group, also revealed in an interview with 21st century economic reporter that the export trade accounts for about 40% of the company's total sales volume, and the epidemic situation has promoted the export of products as a whole and promoted the digital upgrading of enterprises.

It's just a small miniature. On January 14, the General Administration of Customs released the annual foreign trade import and export situation in 2020. The data showed that the total import and export volume of China's goods trade in 2020 was 32.16 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 1.9%, rising against the trend. In the whole year, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce was 1.69 trillion yuan, an increase of 31.1%; the total export value was 1.12 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 40.1%; the import and export list of 2.45 billion tickets was released through the customs cross-border e-commerce management platform, with a year-on-year increase of 63.3%.

At the same time, the data of e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba international station and Dunhuang network also continued to improve. Wang Shutong, founder and chairman of dunhuang.com, said in an interview with the 21st century economic reporter that the release of customs data confirmed the huge market space and high potential of the industry, and believed that it would attract more attention, capital and technology investment, which is a good thing for the development of the industry. At present, in the mainstream countries in Europe and the United States, logistics has returned to the same level, or even better than before. "It is expected that the cost of logistics and transportation capacity in the first quarter will fall, and these three months are the off-season of the industry. But it is difficult to make more judgments, because there is no way to make a clear judgment on the severity of the overseas epidemic situation. "

Under the epidemic situation, global consumers are actively or passively transferring their consumption behavior to online. IC photo

Global demand for "housing economy"

At the end of 2020, affected by the new epidemic, many retailers in the United States, including Wal Mart, target and best buy, announced that they would not open for Thanksgiving. Most cities in Sweden and Germany also cancelled Christmas markets

Global consumers are actively or passively transferring their consumption behavior to the online market, and the demand for "housing economy" is breaking out in an all-round way. Cross border e-commerce platform has become an important channel for consumers to purchase. Customs data show that in 2020, exports of notebook computers and other "home economy" products will reach 2.51 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.5%.

Industry data also confirm this trend. According to the data of Alibaba international station, the transaction volume of the platform will increase by 101% in 2020, and the number of orders of merchants will double year-on-year. The top five industries in terms of sales volume are: machinery, home gardening, consumer electronics, cosmetics and personal care, packaging and printing; the heat of consumer electronics has continued unabated throughout the year, with sales in November increasing by 145%; air purifier has become an export black horse, and the cumulative transaction volume from April to November has increased nearly tenfold year-on-year.

Data from dunhuang.com, a cross-border e-commerce B2B export platform, also shows that during the "black five" and "online one" period in 2020, the transaction volume of more than 35% of the commodity categories doubled year on year, and more than 50% of the commodity categories reached the annual peak; a large number of new buyers poured in, with a month on month increase of 68.7%; the average customer price increased by 25.1% year-on-year; meanwhile, it was also achieved in French and Spanish markets The highest daily trading volume of the station.

Especially during the traditional shopping season, the transaction volume of household goods on the platform increased by 111% year-on-year, including household cleaning and cleaning products increased by 423%, festival party supplies increased by 166%, pet products increased by 85%, and kitchen supplies increased by 73%.

However, 2020 will not be easy for Chinese businesses. In the first half of the year, the overall foreign trade import and export downturn, China's total import and export growth did not change from negative to positive until the third quarter, while cross-border e-commerce import and export increased against the trend. Customs data "unexpected" hot. In the first three quarters of 2020, the import and export of Customs cross-border e-commerce management platform reached 187.39 billion yuan, which was higher than that of the previous year, with a significant increase of 52.8% year on year.

"Although we have encountered the problem of epidemic situation, after the epidemic situation in the first half of this year, even if the overseas countries have encountered difficulties, they have passed on some experience, including logistics belongs to the basic livelihood of the people, and will basically give priority to the development of basic livelihood business. In the second half of this year, although there is a counterattack against the epidemic, the overall delivery rate is obviously much better than that in the first half of this year. This shows that overseas countries have also greatly improved and guaranteed their response to the epidemic situation. " Wang Shutong analysis said.

Shipping logistics costs increased 5 times

Li Kuiwen, spokesman of the General Administration of customs and director of the Department of statistics and analysis, said that as an emerging trade format, the import and export trade volume of cross-border e-commerce showed signs of not falling but rising during the epidemic period, becoming an important force to stabilize foreign trade.

It is worth noting that in 2020, cross-border e-commerce has become the first choice for enterprises to carry out international trade and the vanguard of foreign trade innovation and development. With more than 1800 overseas warehouses, it has become an important node of overseas marketing and a new type of foreign trade infrastructure. Independent station and DTC have become hot words in the industry, focusing on the most market and capital attention, and also stepping out of star enterprises such as Anke and sheen. The mainstream e-commerce platform is gradually transforming into an ecological platform, and the industry chain ecology has become a trend, especially in the logistics, capital chain and other links.

Affected by the epidemic situation, cross-border logistics in the air transport capacity, as well as overseas delivery pressure has increased significantly. To a certain extent, it also led to the slow down of cross-border e-commerce platforms in the distribution of overseas and local. It is understood that it will take about 23 days for sea transportation to arrive at the West Port of the United States, 40 days for the eastern port of the United States, and 30-37 days for the European port. Compared with previous years, the delay was about 7 days. It takes about 28-35 days for the railway to arrive at the European station. Compared with previous years, the delay is about 10 days. The special line (air transportation) to Europe and America in the second half of this year is basically completed in 15-20 days. Most of them are sent overseas by post within 20-35 days. Compared with previous years, the delay is 5-10 days.

In addition, in terms of shipping capacity, there is an extreme shortage of shipping containers. Not only that, there is also a shortage of rail containers. Among them, shipping to Europe, the United States, rail transport to Europe, the container appeared "lottery" situation, resources are extremely scarce. Therefore, the whole logistics cost also has a big rise. Recently, shipping container freight has broken through the historical extreme value, reaching more than 5 times in previous years, and the railway transportation cost has also increased by about 2.5 times.

Therefore, the platform side is also actively coordinating resources to ensure logistics services. A person from the cross-border e-commerce industry said that large quantities of products are usually transported by sea or rail. Railway transportation only goes to Europe, which is distributed through Germany and Belgium, while sea transportation actually goes to European and American mainstream countries. Small commodities, or those that sellers think have the potential of explosive products, such as small household appliances, will be stocked to overseas warehouses by rail and sea to shorten the delivery time. In the case that the buyer does not specify the logistics mode, the seller will also choose other logistics channels, such as special line, according to the level and quantity of their own stores.

At present, direct mail is still the main channel in B2C market. "The fastest air transportation is definitely the most expensive, small and light goods, or the goods with very high timeliness requirements. Even if they spend more money, they are willing to take air transportation. The whole market is still dominated by shipping and rail transportation. " The source further disclosed.

Platform upgrade is imperative

In the second half of the year, trade is picking up, orders are exploding in the peak season, and international transport capacity is tight. Many cross-border e-commerce platforms have combined five logistics modes, namely, sea, land, air, express and multimodal transport, to ensure the transport capacity of businesses. In the view of the industry, cross-border logistics is still a very big unstable factor, and it is likely that extreme situations will occur.

This makes the operation ability of the platform also faces a test. "We should not only solve the problem of accurate order acquisition, but also ensure the smooth flow of international transportation and cross-border payment." Zhang Kuo, general manager of Alibaba international station, told reporters of the 21st century economic report that the platform has built a set of global payment and settlement finance, customs affairs, logistics and other full link cross-border supply chain system, which can provide one-stop intelligent solutions for small and medium-sized enterprises participating in international trade. It is equivalent to providing "water, electricity, coal" and other basic security for the trade industry.

In his view, the epidemic is like a catalyst, which will inevitably transform the traditional foreign trade businesses to the digital new foreign trade track.

At present, small and medium-sized sellers with the goal of fast selling generally choose to cooperate with the third-party overseas warehouse. With the opening of trading links and the inclination of resource policy, they can obtain greater price advantage. In addition, the real trade financing needs of enterprises in the industrial chain can also be met, and the overall capital flow in the industrial chain can be optimized. In early 2020, dunhuang.com cooperated with China Construction Bank to launch the first domestic inclusive financial credit product "e-commerce loan" for export cross-border e-commerce small and micro enterprises, which can provide a loan line of up to 2 million yuan and a minimum loan interest rate of 4.5%.

Michael, a seller of outdoor riding goods, told 21st century economic report that he broke the restriction from May to October in the peak season of cycling goods by opening the logistics bottleneck through the overseas warehouse of Dunhuang net, and realized the continuous increase of sales volume in the whole year and the sales volume exceeded 10 million. "The third-party overseas warehouse can only open up logistics, but it is free from my entire trading system. The choice of overseas warehouse of the platform is not only because of the platform endorsement, strong professionalism and compliance, but also because of the operation assistance obtained. "

At present, through the "priority mail" service in cooperation with China Post, under the current situation that air transportation is generally delayed by 5-10 days, dunhuang.com can guarantee an average time limit of 9-15 days to the United States, with a delivery rate of 90%, and an average time limit of 15-18 days to the United Kingdom, with a proper delivery rate of more than 92%. In foreign trade, the European and American transit time limit is generally 15-35 days.

Although the industry is still facing uncertainty, it is still a promising spring for cross-border e-commerce practitioners. The platform realizes the whole link interconnection of the industrial chain through the global trade big data. On the basis of providing information, advertising and online trading services for both sides of the supply and demand, the platform can also combine the upstream and downstream demands of the industrial chain to provide value-added innovation services such as logistics, financial services, e-commerce operation, and usher in further upgrading and shuffling opportunities. In the final analysis, the real competitiveness lies in the cost reduction and efficiency increase of the industrial chain.

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