Logistics options for cross-border e-commerce from China to the United States

Introduction to the current status of cross-border e-commerce development in the United States

The development of retail e-commerce in the United States is becoming stronger and stronger, the penetration rate of e-commerce continues to increase, and the number of online consumers is also increasing. It is estimated that by 2025, the penetration rate of e-commerce in the United States will reach 17.8%, and the number of online consumers will increase to 280 million. And the proportion of people who frequently or always shop online accounts for as high as 87% of the shopping population in the United States.

How to do cross-border e-commerce in the United States? What to sell?

When going overseas to dig for gold, product selection is king. Product selection is the first step in cross-border e-commerce operations. A product with market potential and competitiveness can bring more business opportunities and profits to the company. For novice sellers, a full understanding of the local hot-selling categories is more conducive to selecting "explosive" products. As a mainstream e-commerce shopping website in the United States, Amazon's hot-selling categories are worthy of attention and reference for American sellers. The following are specific examples of hot-selling categories and products.

1. Home category: smart home products (smart security/speakers, etc.), tablets and accessories, headphones

2. Fashion category: women's tops, sportswear, pajamas, home clothes

3. Garden category: gardening, cleaning, outdoor furniture

4. Home products: bedding, home storage, home decoration, bathing & cleaning

The development of cross-border e-commerce is inseparable from the support of cross-border logistics. If cross-border sellers choose the right logistics method, they can not only save costs, but also improve customer experience. However, unlike domestic logistics, cross-border logistics will face a series of problems such as long distance, long time, high cost, and even customs clearance in the destination country. The various difficulties in the middle have made many sellers brain-wracked, and the various and complicated logistics methods have also made novice cross-border sellers confused and not knowing how to choose.

Therefore, VIPUTRANS has sorted out several logistics methods for cross-border e-commerce for reference.

Postal Parcel Mode

At present, more than 70% of the parcels of my country's cross-border e-commerce exports are delivered through the postal system, of which China Post accounts for a large proportion of the business volume. The reason why the postal system is so popular is mainly because it covers a wide area and can be delivered basically all over the world, thanks to the role of two international postal organizations, the Universal Postal Union and the Kahala Postal Organization.

The Universal Postal Union is an agency of the United Nations that specializes in international postal affairs. Its purpose is to organize and improve international postal services, develop international cooperation in postal affairs, and provide postal technical assistance required by member countries within its capacity. However, due to the large number of members of the Universal Postal Union and the uneven development of postal systems among member countries, it is difficult to promote in-depth postal cooperation among member countries. So in 2002, the postal departments of six countries and regions with relatively developed postal systems held a Postal CEO Summit in the United States and established the Kahala Postal Organization.

The Kahala Postal Organization is a group-based international postal business cooperation organization, which covers postal business between countries such as China, Japan, South Korea, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, Spain and Singapore. This organization requires all member countries to meet 98% of the quality standards for delivery time. If the goods are not delivered to the recipient on the specified date, the operator responsible for delivery must compensate the customer at 100% of the price of the goods. These strict requirements have prompted member countries to deepen cooperation and strive to improve service levels.

The advantage of the postal system is that it covers a wide range and involves the postal systems of various countries, but this is also a disadvantage, which is more complicated. Therefore, when choosing postal shipments, export cross-border e-commerce companies should pay attention to factors such as the differences in shipping ports, the timeliness and stability of freight.

Postal logistics includes China Post Parcel, China Post Large Parcel, Hong Kong Post Parcel, EMS, International e-Postal, Singapore Parcel, Swiss Post Parcel, etc. Among them, postal parcels, international e-Postal and EMS are the most commonly used.

China Post Parcel: The weight limit of the mailed product is within 2kg.

International e-mail: It is an airmail product mainly for small and light items. It is an economical international mail service. It provides parcel delivery services to the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Australia for Chinese sellers. It only accepts goods under 2kg, and supports charging by total weight, with a first weight of 50g and additional weight calculated per gram. There is no registration fee.

EMS: Express Mail Service. It enjoys priority processing rights in the postal, aviation, customs and other departments of various countries and regions, and can handle sensitive goods.

In addition to China Post, other postal services used by Chinese sellers include Hong Kong Post and Singapore Post.

Commercial Express Model

1. International Express

The international express model is the legendary four giants of international commercial express delivery - DHL, TNT, UPS and FeDex. These four international express delivery companies have their own global network, coupled with strong IT system support and localized services all over the world, which can provide the best logistics experience for cross-border online shopping users.

The main features of international commercial express delivery are: guaranteed timeliness, good service, and low package loss rate, but counterfeit brands, products containing batteries, and special products are basically not mailed. In addition, the biggest disadvantage is that the cost of these international express delivery is relatively high. Generally, cross-border e-commerce sellers will only use them when customers strongly require timeliness, and will charge customers corresponding logistics fees.

Let's take a detailed look at the characteristics of these four international express delivery companies:

DHL: It is the world's first shipping and contract logistics provider, which can provide customers with a full range of logistics solutions from documents to supply chain management. Items under 5.5kg have price advantages when sent to America and the UK; items over 21kg have separate bulk prices.

TNT: An international express logistics company that provides postal, express, and logistics services to customers in more than 200 countries and regions, and has a more advanced electronic inquiry network. In Western European countries, customs clearance is fast, and it usually takes 3 working days to arrive in Europe.

UPS: It is one of the world's largest express carriers and parcel delivery companies. It is suitable for sending small items, especially to the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. It is very fast to ship to the United States, and there is a price advantage for 6-21kg items to America and the United Kingdom.

FedEx: It entered China in 1984 and is the international express company with the largest number of direct flights to China, serving 220 cities around the world. However, the price is relatively expensive overall. It is fast to send items over 31kg to Southeast Asian countries, and the price is also advantageous.

2. Domestic express delivery

Domestic express delivery includes EMS, SF Express, ZTO Express, YTO Express, and STO Express

SF Express has now opened express delivery services to the United States, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and other Asian countries. In Asia, express delivery can usually be completed in two to three days.

EMS is currently the most developed international express delivery service provider in China. Because it relies on the postal system, EMS can achieve express delivery in more than 60 countries around the world. The time is 2 to 3 days in Asia and 5 to 7 days in Europe and the United States. The cost is much lower than that of the four major international express delivery giants.

Supply Chain Service Model

The logistics service supply chain is a new type of supply chain with integrated logistics suppliers as the core enterprise. Its role is to provide comprehensive logistics services to logistics demanders. The most obvious feature of integrated logistics service providers is to select suitable functional logistics companies to serve logistics demanders through business subcontracting.

The representative of this type is UPS Supply Chain Business Company UPSSCS. It is composed of UPS Express, UPS Capital Company, UPS Logistics Group, UPS Freight Service Company, UPS Mail Business Innovation Company and UPS Consulting Company. It is the inevitable product of the development of UPS Express's nearly 100 years of business and the global economy. Its core business has expanded from simple package transportation to global supply chain management services, providing comprehensive fourth-party logistics management with logistics, express delivery, finance and supply chain consulting as the core for high-tech, automotive, industrial production, health care, retail and consumer products, and has become one of the best practices in global supply chain management. The emergence of UPSSCS indicates that UPS has transformed from a simple cargo transportation company to a supply chain enterprise giant integrating logistics, capital flow and information flow. Currently, it mainly serves FBA in the United States and Canada.

Dedicated Line Logistics Model

        Dedicated logistics is a model that combines domestic air transportation with local delivery at the destination of a cooperative company. A major advantage of this model is that it can deliver in large quantities and reduce transportation costs through scale, so the cost is lower than that of commercial express delivery, and the delivery time is significantly faster than postal parcels, and the package loss rate is also low. The dedicated logistics on the market now include dedicated lines in Europe, America, Australia, the Middle East, South America, Africa and other regions. Common dedicated logistics methods include "Russian Postal Treasure" and "Australian Postal Treasure" under Zhonghuan, Russian Express, Yanwen Special Line, Aramex Special Line, etc.

Overseas warehousing model

The overseas warehousing model is a hotly debated model at present. Its advantages are lower cost and faster delivery. However, for enterprises, there are many factors to consider when preparing for overseas warehousing, especially the supply and demand estimation of goods. It is necessary to clearly judge the quantity of stored goods and the smoothness of the storage goods in and out according to market demand, so as not to form a backlog of goods. This requires cross-border e-commerce companies to have high capabilities in supply chain management, inventory control and dynamic sales management.

Overseas warehousing includes four stages in actual operation, namely first-leg transportation, warehousing management, local distribution and information update.

First-leg transportation refers to the transportation of Chinese merchants to overseas warehouses by sea, air, land or intermodal transport;

Warehousing management refers to the remote operation of overseas warehousing goods and real-time inventory management by Chinese merchants through the logistics information system;

Local distribution refers to the delivery of goods to customers by local post or express delivery based on order information at the overseas warehousing center.

If you don't want to compare the costs of various modes of transportation, it is recommended to choose VIPUTRANS directly. We can provide the most suitable mode of transportation for your products.

VIPUTRANS SERVICES AND ADVANTAGES

Free warehousing for 30 days

Our company has many large warehouses in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Xi'an, Yiwu, etc., which can provide free warehousing services.

Free purchasing and collection services

Our company can provide free purchasing services. You only need to select the products and share them with us. We can help you buy the products or you can buy them yourself and send them to our warehouse

Free photo verification service

When the goods arrive, our company will take photos for verification and send them to you

Service management advantages

We provide one-to-one consulting services. You don’t need to do anything. You only need to ask us any questions and we will answer them online for you

International cooperation advantages

VIPUTRANS has cooperation with DHL, UPS, FedEx, EMS, TNT, DPD, etc. Choosing us is more cost-effective than going directly to their official website to find the price you book

Double clearance and tax advantages

VIPUTRANS has its own customs clearance channel, which can be picked up and delivered directly to your door, including customs clearance and taxes, providing you with one-stop direct service.

If you have shipping need from China to USA please feel free to contact us

Lora Yang    E-mail: sales02@viputrans.com    SKYPE|WECHAT|WHATSAPP|MOB:+86 13424468029