The rookie overseas warehouse located in Guadalajara, Spain. Xinhua News Agency reporter Meng Dingbo photo
Overseas warehouse built by Sichuan Honghua Petroleum Equipment Co., Ltd. in Dubai. Photo courtesy of Deyang Municipal Bureau of Commerce
The local logistics personnel in the rookie overseas warehouse are carrying goods. Xinhua News Agency reporter Meng Dingbo photo
     
superiority
● Realize local delivery, shorten the time from more than half a month to three or four days, and greatly reduce the logistics cost.
● Foreign trade export enterprises can play an important role in special periods such as the break of logistics supply chain.
● Derive after-sales service functions such as return and exchange, and become a front-end or back-end logistics platform in the overseas e-commerce industry chain.
Short board
Low upfront cost, only a few leading enterprises have the ability to build their own.
● Enterprises renting overseas warehouses are greatly restricted by overseas lessors.
● Lack of systematic layout, making it difficult to radiate markets outside overseas warehouses.
engineer
● Build a cross-border e-commerce trade support node based on public overseas warehouses, and use overseas warehouses to drive the construction of overseas commodity distribution centers and overseas industrial parks to enhance the integrity and stability of the logistics chain.
● Support and encourage overseas warehouse operators and service providers to build a unified comprehensive service platform, and create an "online collaborative platform+offline warehouse allocation system" to improve the use efficiency of overseas warehouses and reduce the use cost.
"Fortunately, the goods produced in February this year were delivered to overseas warehouses in Europe in March, which timely avoided the impact of the nearly eight-fold surge in logistics prices from Chengdu to Europe in April and May, and the enterprise also saved three or four million yuan in logistics costs, even driving the output value to increase by more than 20%." Recently, Huang Zhaohui, director of the logistics department of Suining Pusi Electronics Co., Ltd., revealed this "trade secret" to reporters.
This year, affected by the epidemic, many overseas enterprises were forced to press the "pause button", which brought opportunities for the export of China products, and foreign trade export enterprises took the opportunity to expand overseas markets. However, cross-border e-commerce is also facing logistics pressure, which has become a pain point that hinders domestic products from "going out to sea".
However, a phenomenon is worth paying attention to: like Suining Pusi Electronics, the number of enterprises that use overseas warehouses to "go out to sea" has increased rapidly. From June to September, Sichuan enterprises built or rented 16 overseas warehouses, with a total area of nearly 100,000 square meters and a total investment of over 100 million yuan.
A
overall arrangement
Smooth delivery during the epidemic of overseas warehouses becoming fragrant cakes.
Overseas warehouses are not new. Many years ago, some domestic cross-border e-commerce companies tried to store SKUs with high turnover rate in the homes of overseas relatives and friends. Once customers placed orders, they asked relatives and friends to send them directly, which not only shortened the time, but also greatly saved the logistics cost. When the business gets bigger, the goods can’t be put in the homes of relatives and friends, so it’s natural to rent a warehouse. This is the prototype of overseas warehouse.
In 2010, Suining Pusi Electronics Co., Ltd., which produces electronic components, set up a 500-square-meter overseas warehouse in Germany and kept 10% stock all year round.
On December 4th, Suining Economic and Technological Development Zone, the production line of Pusi Electronics Workshop was producing at full capacity, fully guaranteeing the overseas market demand. As an enterprise that produces tens of billions of electronic components every year, the main customers of Pusi Electronics are widely distributed in many overseas markets such as Southeast Asia and South America, and the output value once reached 40 million US dollars.
At the peak of the domestic epidemic at the beginning of this year, Pusi Electronics also had a cold sweat for overseas market sales. When many enterprises are worried about the breakdown of the logistics supply chain, Pusi Electronics has successfully "dodged" a robbery because the overseas warehouse has played an important role. "Through overseas warehouses, the company was able to pay more goods accounting for 20% to 30% of the total output value, and this year it sold more than 8 million US dollars of products." Huang Zhaohui said.
Pusi Electronics is not the only one who has tasted the sweetness. Sichuan Chengtai Nanxiang International Trading Co., Ltd. has made a bigger layout of overseas warehouses. At the end of 2019, it invested 1.3 million US dollars to build a public overseas warehouse in Thailand, providing one-stop comprehensive services for cross-border e-commerce enterprises and helping partners expand exports in Southeast Asia. At present, Chengtai South has signed contracts with more than 30 enterprises in the province, and the total trade volume of overseas warehouse business in one year can reach about 90 million yuan.
Cha Peiliang, manager of Chengtai Nanxiang Company, revealed that a big cooperation project is being planned-to negotiate with shopee, the largest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. Once the cooperation is reached, all the products of more than 4,000 cross-border e-commerce companies on the e-commerce platform will enter the overseas warehouse of Chengtai Nanxiang. "This means that at least 4,000 packages will come in and out here every day, when the trade volume will hit a new high."
B
function
Display enterprise products and provide after-sales service
With the increasingly personalized needs of consumers, overseas warehouses have also become a window to display products and provide after-sales service.
In the view of Wang Yinqing, the port bonded project manager of Sichuan Logistics Research Institute, the overseas warehouse was originally a product of cross-border e-commerce, which is equivalent to the transshipment warehouse in the purchasing industry and plays the role of collecting goods overseas. With the increase in export demand, overseas warehouses have gradually derived the functions of after-sales service such as return and exchange, forming reverse logistics. "It has been derived into a front-end or back-end logistics platform for overseas e-commerce in the entire industrial chain, which can play a role in both import and export."
Luzhou Dixintong Technology Co., Ltd. built a "Made in Sichuan" platform for export and after-sales service of electronic and intelligent terminal products based on American overseas warehouses, providing one-stop comprehensive foreign trade services for foreign trade enterprises in the province facing the North American market. Zhi Jing, the person in charge of the company, said that most cross-border e-commerce companies have no problem in sales, and they can complete operations at home, but they have no after-sales service ability for products sold overseas. Therefore, Dixintong aims at this market shortcoming and uses overseas warehouses to create an integrated platform for overseas after-sales service for customers. In 2019, Dickson only deployed 5,000 square meters of overseas warehouses in Noida, India, with a turnover of US$ 12 million.
Chengtai Nanxiang not only built overseas warehouses in Thailand, but also set up "Made in Sichuan" and "Made in Chengdu" commodity exhibition halls, and moved the display and sales window for overseas consumers to the forefront. Since last year, Chengtai’s southward utilization of overseas warehouses has achieved three major events: assisting Chengdu jinniu district government to successfully hold investment promotion activities in Thailand; Help local enterprises in Chengdu to connect with key supermarkets in Thailand and promote "Made in Chengdu" products to enter the Thai market; Help a trading company in Chengdu to inspect overseas factories and develop new business.
In Cha Peiliang’s view, a very important reason why overseas warehouses suddenly came into people’s sight this year, especially when all parties concerned about "stabilizing foreign trade", was that the epidemic caused the global logistics system to be blocked, which suddenly made enterprises and governments more aware of the importance of overseas warehouses.
At present, Chengdu has accelerated the layout of overseas warehouses in 15 key countries and regions such as Europe, America, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. Last year’s Three-year Action Plan for Chengdu’s Integration into the Belt and Road Construction (2019-2021) further proposed "supporting the construction of public bonded warehouses and overseas warehouses"; Deyang cross-border electronic commerce Experimental Zone regards overseas warehouse construction as an important way to reduce overseas logistics costs and promote foreign trade transformation. In the detailed rules for the implementation of special funds for foreign trade and economic development of the central government in 2020, it is clear that overseas warehouse construction, rental expenses and material purchase expenses will be given financial support.
C
Advanced
Build a comprehensive service platform and carry out subdivided management.
Overseas warehouses seem to have become an indispensable configuration for cross-border e-commerce, but there are also many problems.
Both Chengtai Nanxiang and Dixintong face the same problem in the actual operation of overseas warehouses-complaints about product quality by overseas consumers.
"Overseas consumers have different requirements for products, and we often receive complaints from Consumers Association." Cha Peiliang said with a wry smile that they are just warehouses, and the manufacturers are in China, so the company has spent a lot of effort to help solve the after-sales problem.
Dixintong also often encounters the situation that customers ask for a return due to the sale of defective products, which costs the company a lot.
These are just operational details. In the eyes of some insiders, there are some problems in overseas warehouses themselves. For example, overseas warehouses, as commercial facilities rather than main profit projects, cost a lot in the early stage, and only a few leading enterprises have the ability to build their own; Enterprises renting overseas warehouses are greatly restricted by overseas lessors. Once there are problems in the warehousing and distribution of third-party overseas warehouses, or the goods are unsalable and forced to be removed from the shelves, the long-term warehousing costs will increase geometrically. In addition, the lack of systematic layout makes it difficult to radiate markets other than overseas warehouses, which is also a shortcoming that exists at present.
In this regard, the relevant person in charge of the E-commerce Department of the Department of Commerce said that it is actively preparing a "development plan": on the one hand, it will build a cross-border e-commerce trade support node based on public overseas warehouses, and use overseas warehouses to drive the construction of overseas commodity distribution centers and overseas industrial parks to improve the integrity and stability of the logistics chain; On the other hand, support and encourage overseas warehouse operators and service providers to build a unified comprehensive service platform, create an "online collaborative platform+offline warehouse distribution system", and widely share product information to cross-border e-commerce platforms, channel distributors and local retailers to achieve "inventory sharing", improve the efficiency of overseas warehouses and reduce the use cost.
"Overseas warehouses will continue to be promoted and applied." Wang Yinqing further believes that there may be more diversified and personalized overseas warehousing needs in the future. It is advisable to consider designing some overseas warehouses with customized products and implementing segmented management. He also said that overseas warehouses require sellers to have a certain amount of storage. At this stage, it is more suitable for universal and low-priced bulk commodities, but not suitable for some customized products. (Reporter   Chen Bihong)
interlinkage
Our province supports the construction of overseas warehouses
According to preliminary statistics, there are more than 20 enterprises in our province using 53 overseas warehouses by self-construction or lease, with a total area of 194,800 square meters and a total investment of 106 million yuan, distributed in more than 20 countries and regions.
In recent years, the State Council has successively approved the establishment of four cross-border electronic commerce Comprehensive Experimental Zones, namely, Chengdu, Luzhou, Deyang and Mianyang, and the construction of overseas warehouses has been accelerated.
At the provincial level, it is proposed that enterprises will be supported to provide and use comprehensive overseas warehouse services, and cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade enterprises will be supported to lease overseas warehouses.
Among them, Chengdu Comprehensive Experimental Zone supports 50% of the total investment for overseas warehouses (including intelligent port warehouses, import and export warehouses, cross-border e-commerce special cold chain warehouses and other storage places), and the purchase expenses of shelves (containers), video surveillance systems, transmission systems, special carts (forklifts), auxiliary equipment and management information systems, and the amount of support for a single project does not exceed 5 million yuan.
Deyang Comprehensive Experimental Zone will provide support for overseas warehouses (including intelligent port warehouses, import and export warehouses, cross-border e-commerce special cold chain warehouses and other storage places) construction and leasing expenses, and the purchase expenses of shelves (containers), video surveillance systems, transmission systems, special carts (forklifts), auxiliary equipment and management information systems, etc., which will not exceed 70% of the actual amount, with a maximum of 500,000 yuan. (Reporter   Chen Bihong)