The development prospect of cross-border e-commerce is promising, and cross-border logistics has become the focus of attention of all links in the supply chain. According to preliminary customs statistics, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 1.69 trillion yuan in 2020, up 31.1 percent. Of this, exports reached 1.12 trillion yuan, up 40.1%; Imports were 0.57 trillion yuan, up 16.5%. A total of 2.45 billion import and export invoices were examined and released through the Customs cross-border e-commerce management platform, an increase of 63.3% year-on-year.
Cross-border logistics freight forwarding transformation
The rapid growth of cross-border e-commerce has made many freight forwarders consider carrying out cross-border e-commerce logistics business. However, in 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19, the imbalance between imports and exports at home and abroad led to a shortage of cases, a surge in freight rates, and a severe impact on the global punctuality rate. In the face of such a crazy shipping market, how should cross-border e-commerce supply chain and related industries respond?
It is understood that many cross-border e-commerce logistics service providers were international freight forwarders in the shipping field before setting foot in this field. In particular, in recent years, cross-border e-commerce business has developed rapidly, and freight forwarders have come into contact with more and more new customers of cross-border e-commerce. Meanwhile, many original customers previously provided by freight forwarders have gradually transformed from factories to cross-border e-commerce businesses. In this regard, many freight forwarders consider customers' strong demand for cross-border e-commerce logistics and take advantage of their advantages in the shipping field to expand their cross-border e-commerce logistics business.
The current state of shipping poses challenges
Recently, high freight rates, "difficult to find a cabin" again brush screen, so that shippers, freight forwarders are suffering. From the perspective of freight forwarders, the rise in freight rates has a certain impact on cross-border e-commerce logistics enterprises. From the point of view of customers, there are two modes of transportation generally used by cargo owners of Middle East logistics special line, namely air transportation and sea transportation. In terms of the American line market, compared with air freight, although the freight rate of sea freight is at a high level, it can still maintain a certain amount of shipments, and many customers have signed clauses that do not affect shipments. Nevertheless, the overall rise in freight rates will have a certain impact on China's exports.
If the customer's product is of low value, it will be affected by the increase in freight rates. However, overseas customers with online and offline sales channels can adjust online and offline operations through offline turnover, so there is little impact. At the same time, some experts said that the low value of some goods, combined with the "sky-high" freight rates, will increase the cost of export, not only affect the shipping market, but also the entire supply chain.