Overseas warehouse

Overseas warehouse

Overseas warehouses refer to warehousing facilities established overseas. In cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses refer to domestic enterprises transporting goods to target market countries through bulk transportation, establishing local warehouses, storing goods, and then sorting and sorting goods directly from the local warehouse in a timely manner according to local sales orders. One-stop inventory management services for packaging and distribution.

Reasons for its rise

The main purpose is to solve various cross-border difficulties, such as long delivery times, inability to fully track packages, customs clearance obstacles, damaged or even lost packages, etc., to improve customers’ shopping experience.

Classification

1. Self-operated overseas warehouse

The self-operated overseas warehouse model refers to an overseas warehouse built and operated by an export cross-border e-commerce company, which only provides warehousing, distribution and other logistics services for the goods sold by the company. That is, the entire cross-border e-commerce logistics system is composed of Export cross-border e-commerce enterprises control themselves.

2. Third-party public service overseas warehouse

Third-party public service overseas warehouses refer to overseas warehouses built and operated by third-party logistics companies, and can provide customs clearance, warehousing quality inspection, order receipt, order sorting, and multi-channel delivery for many export cross-border e-commerce companies. , the logistics model of subsequent transportation and other logistics services, that is, the entire cross-border e-commerce logistics system is controlled by third-party logistics companies.

Common business of overseas warehouses

1. Dropshipping: Sellers send bulk products from China to overseas warehouses, and then the overseas warehouse staff will inventory and put them on the shelves. When a buyer places an order, the seller only needs to issue a shipping instruction in the overseas warehouse system. Yes, warehouse personnel will implement local delivery abroad according to instructions.

2. Change the label. If there is a problem with the seller’s account or the label is wrong, the product needs to be sent to an overseas warehouse to change the label and re-sell it.

3. Transfer. The most common situation is to combine FBA with a third-party overseas warehouse. The goods are first stored in the overseas warehouse, and then transferred to (replenishment) FBA regularly or irregularly. While shipping from FBA, the goods are shipped from the overseas warehouse. Ship;

4. Handle value-added services such as returns and exchanges;

5. Distribution, taking advantage of the local advantages of overseas warehouses to promote and sell products conveniently.

Overseas warehouse delivery operation process

Mainly includes first-leg transportation-warehousing management-local distribution:

Advantages of overseas warehouses

1. Reduce logistics costs

The logistics cost of shipping from overseas warehouses, especially local shipments, is much lower than shipping from China. For example, sending DHL from China to the United States costs 124RMB per kilogram of goods, while shipping in the United States only costs $5.05.

2. Speed up logistics timeliness

Shipping from overseas warehouses can save time for customs clearance, and according to the seller’s usual shipping method (DHL5-7 days, FedEx7-10 days, UPS10 days or more), if it is shipped locally, customers can ship it within 1-3 days The goods are received within the same day, which greatly shortens the transportation time and speeds up the timeliness of logistics.

3. Increase product exposure

If a platform or store has its own warehouse overseas, local customers will generally give priority to local delivery when choosing to shop, because this can greatly shorten the time for buyers to receive the goods. The advantages of overseas warehouses are also It allows sellers to have their own unique advantages, thereby increasing product exposure and increasing store sales.

4. Improve customer satisfaction

Because not all products received can satisfy customers. There may be situations where the goods are damaged, short-packed, or the wrong goods are sent. At this time, customers may request returns, exchanges, re-shipments, etc. These situations The situation can be adjusted in the overseas warehouse, which greatly saves the timeliness of logistics. To a certain extent, it can not only regain the favor of buyers, but also save transportation costs and reduce losses for sellers.

5. Conducive to market development

Because overseas warehouses are more recognized by foreign buyers, on the other hand, if sellers pay attention to word-of-mouth marketing, their products will not only be recognized by local buyers, but also help sellers accumulate more resources to expand the market and expand Product sales areas and sales scope.

Risks faced by overseas warehouses

1. Policy and regulatory risks: including product intellectual property risks and tax risks;

2. Business risk: vulnerable to heavy initial investment and long profit cycle;

3. Risk of slow-selling inventory: According to data from Lianyu International in May 2017, 30% of Chinese cross-border e-commerce companies face the risk of slow-selling goods;

4. Customs clearance risk.