Rational allocation of global resources to ensure smooth operation of the "two chains"

Overseas warehouses help the win-win development of international trade

"The 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of 2035 Vision Goals" proposes to "encourage the construction of overseas warehouses and ensure the smooth operation of foreign trade industrial chain and supply chain", which further highlights the important role of overseas warehouses as an important node of overseas marketing and a new type of foreign trade infrastructure in promoting the coordinated development of import and export.

With the booming development of cross-border e-commerce, Chinese enterprises have accelerated the improvement of the logistics system, including overseas warehouses, which have shown strong growth momentum. According to data released by China's Ministry of Commerce, at present, the number of cross-border e-commerce offshore warehouses of Chinese enterprises exceeds 1,800, with a growth rate of 80% last year, covering an area of more than 12 million square meters. At present, the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce is organizing 105 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones to carry out "Special action for high-quality development of overseas warehouses", supporting overseas warehouses to enrich functions, upgrade and develop, and cultivate a number of representative overseas warehouses with distinctive characteristics.

Participate in the global epidemic response and promote brand promotion

In 2020, China's pace of trade innovation will accelerate, more than 10,000 traditional foreign trade enterprises will go online, and cross-border e-commerce will become an important way for enterprises to carry out international trade and innovate foreign trade development. In the face of the challenges of the COVID-19 epidemic, the role of overseas warehouses has been further enhanced to promote the marketing and brand promotion of Chinese goods, and at the same time, China has made use of its own advantages in the procurement and logistics of epidemic prevention materials to strongly support the fight against the epidemic.

Early morning in Birmingham, England, the overseas warehouse is already busy. Loft-style shelves, an object sorter that sorts 3,600 items per hour... Highly automated equipment will quickly and accurately send goods here to the UK, the EU and other markets. "During the epidemic prevention and control period, overseas warehouses have played an important role in helping fight the epidemic and ensuring supply." Michel, head of the company's British overseas warehouse, said that the overseas warehouse gave full play to local procurement, cargo collection, inspection and other functions, and more than 200,000 pieces of masks and protective clothing were purchased and sent back to China in February 2020. After the outbreak of the epidemic in Europe, overseas warehouses also played an important role in the local epidemic prevention and control process in the UK, coordinating the mobilization of various epidemic prevention supplies and household supplies to meet the market supply, and the average daily order processing capacity reached 80,000 orders.

According to reports, the overseas warehouse in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and other major developed countries to establish 36 overseas warehouses, an area of more than 1 million square meters, overseas employees more than 1,500 people. The overseas warehouse has the advantage of flexible and stable supply chain, which can adjust the selection strategy in time according to the conditions, and enhance the response ability of Chinese enterprises to the changes of foreign consumer demand and sales environment.

In the Jebel Ali Free Zone in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, forklift shuttles in the offshore warehouse of China Building Materials cross-border e-commerce in Dubai, a busy scene. The overseas exhibition center built next to the overseas warehouse is also lively: merchants from many countries in the Middle East experience products through various forms such as exhibition shelves, videos, spray painting, online display, or directly communicate with the representatives of manufacturers face to face. Bruce, head of the overseas warehouse, told reporters that the total area of Dubai's overseas warehouse is 52,000 square meters, and the products of the settled enterprises involve building materials, machinery and equipment, etc., and the marketing network covers more than 10 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Algeria. "At the same time, the overseas warehouse and its supporting overseas exhibition center provide comprehensive services such as customs clearance, warehousing and logistics, marketing and channel expansion for Chinese smes' products to enter the local market, which significantly improves the share and popularity of Chinese products in the local market."

Thanks to the high-quality spot warehousing services and brand promotion activities of overseas warehouses, the company's sales increased during the epidemic prevention and control period. "The process of resumption of production in the UAE has gradually accelerated, and shipments of building materials and other products have increased by more than 20%, and we are organizing more supplies." Swami, purchasing manager of Danube, a well-known local building materials distributor, said: "We buy a lot of high-quality Chinese products here at the right price. I hope that through the overseas warehouse, we can know more Chinese enterprises, carry out more cooperation and jointly explore the market."

Improve service functions and optimize shopping experience

In recent years, overseas warehouses have made in-depth exploration in information construction, intelligent development, and diversified services, so as to achieve double optimization of shopping experience and logistics efficiency, enhance the image of Chinese products, and help Chinese brands better take root in local areas.

"Traditional supply chain management companies, with 90 percent of their revenue coming from domestic to international freight charges, can barely provide end-of-journey delivery services from overseas warehouses to consumers." Provide more than 70 kinds of delivery service options for cross-border sellers, with overseas warehouses as fulcrum, carrying out door-to-door service, and basically achieving "two days" or "three days" in major European markets, significantly improving the shopping experience of overseas consumers.

"In addition to basic functions, overseas warehouses also provide a full range of after-sales services." Overseas warehouse tracking and management of goods in the warehouse, to achieve rapid docking with Chinese sellers and overseas consumers, and through after-sales maintenance to achieve secondary sales of some goods, reduce the cost of returns to the seller. According to statistics, the proportion of secondary salable products after maintenance reaches 72%, of which 44% can be sold as full new products, 28% can be sold as open box products, helping many small and medium-sized enterprises in China that do not have independent after-sales service capabilities.

"The perfect after-sales guarantee measures of overseas warehouses greatly improve the online shopping experience of consumers, and help Chinese enterprises and products establish a good image and deeply cultivate the local market." Max Ma, general manager of Meti Electric, a cross-border company that has worked with Cyberport for many years, said, "Thoughtful and meticulous service has enhanced the brand effect of Chinese products and opened up a broader space for our future cooperation."

Strengthen local operations to drive local development

The COVID-19 epidemic has impacted the global physical retail industry, and consumers in various countries have shifted a lot of offline living and shopping needs to online. By improving local operation capabilities, Chinese cross-border e-commerce offshore warehouses not only meet local employment and consumer demand, but also promote the development of local warehousing logistics and e-commerce industries.

"We have developed our own distribution logistics covering 320 cities in Russia, providing 'next day delivery' services to 1,500 settlements." Emle main Russian overseas warehousing, China-Russia, China-Ukraine express business, the existing 4 overseas warehouses, an area of 35,000 square meters, serving 12,000 sellers. The company pays attention to the development of localization and professional operation mode, and the proportion of Russian employees has reached more than 70%. "We not only provide one-stop services for sellers, but also actively strengthen exchanges and cooperation with local enterprises through platforms such as overseas warehouses, provide e-commerce warehousing and sorting solutions, and optimize equipment to help improve and optimize logistics storage conditions."

"Chinese companies have significant advantages in e-commerce and logistics operations, and we hope to deepen cooperation in this regard." Igor Ivanov, Emle's Russian partner, said that through cooperation with Chinese enterprises in overseas warehouses and other aspects, Russian enterprises can learn from relevant technical experience, accelerate the construction of their own sales platform and logistics system, and constantly expand the space for cross-border trade cooperation between Russia and China to achieve win-win development.