Under the epidemic, in the face of the turbulent situation and the acceleration of the industry reshuffle, how can the cross-border sellers of the European station stabilize the peak season? Hugo Cross-border specially invited William Cai, strategy officer of 4PL, to interpret the latest European consumer behavior and analysis of logistics status in The European region for reference in preparation for the upcoming peak season.
Permanent changes in consumption after the pandemic
From 2018 to 2020, per capita spending on shopping in some European countries increased year by year, and with the outbreak of the epidemic, the proportion rose again.
According to capital 2020 data, if before the epidemic, the whole European consumer group might buy less than or equal to 10 items per month, then after the epidemic, when consumers shifted their shopping mode to online, the number of purchases per month reached about 11-20 items.
In fact, there has been a permanent change in the shopping habits of European consumers as a whole since the outbreak of the pandemic. Online shopping is becoming a new trend, especially the cost performance and convenience of online shopping are more and more sought after by consumers.
According to data, since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, online shoppers aged between 15 and 79 in four key European countries -- the UK, France, Germany and Spain -- have taken up the majority of the age group.
Since 2020, the Cross-border e-commerce market in Europe has also shown a trend of continuous growth. Then, what is the scale of the e-commerce platform in each European country? And what are the most popular e-commerce platforms in each country?
First of all, Amazon is the most popular logistics platform in terms of order payment, delivery speed and complete supply chain services.
Then there is eBay. As one of the most popular e-commerce platforms in the UK, it is well aware of matching the logistics habits of local consumers in the UK. However, compared with Amazon in terms of overall logistics distribution, the delivery of the last mile still needs to be improved.
The French e-commerce platform Cdiscount can cover all regions of France for delivery, and the terminal logistics chosen by Cdiscount in France is relatively stable at present.
In addition, many local e-commerce platforms have also emerged. All the signs show that the development of independence war in each country will become a trend in the future, so the development of multiple platforms will be a development direction in the future.
Current situation and logistics strategy of regional logistics in key European countries
With the development of cross-border e-commerce industry, cross-border e-commerce logistics mainly relies on the development of cross-border e-commerce industry. No matter independent station or third-party platform, logistics is required to carry out distribution in the last mile.
So what are the current logistics models in Europe? What are the logistics modes often used by cross-border e-commerce sellers? This will be combined with the local end service providers in Various European countries.
There are three main logistics service providers in the UK. The first is Royal Mail, the second is Yodel and the third is UK-Hermes. Basically these three local logistics providers support delivery across the UK.
For Germany, I think many sellers often use DHL in Germany and DE-Hermes in Germany. It should be mentioned here that Hermes in Germany and Hermes in Britain are two different companies.
French logistics providers most often choose LaPoste and Chronopost as the service providers of the last mile. Their cost-performance ratio and services are still widely recognized in the French market. So for some economical products, you can choose some service providers like LaPoste and DPD to do a delivery in France.
Italy is still mainly covered by the Italian postal service delivery throughout the country. However, it is suggested that some small items in Italy can be delivered by Italia, and for large items, you can also choose a service provider like SDA.
Spain has several logistics providers such as CORREOS, SEUR and ASM, so SEUR currently has the highest service and cost performance in the whole country of Spain. Its delivery capacity is very good, and it can basically achieve the delivery of the whole administration within 1 to 2 days.
The Netherlands has two major companies nL-DHL and NL-POST to cover the delivery in the Netherlands. Since the Netherlands is not very large, it only takes 1~2 days for normal consumers to place an order and pay to be delivered.
Belgium as the Eurostar, transit from Belgium to various European countries is very convenient, so from Belgium to France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Luxembourg can realize the same day delivery service. Belgium mainly by Belgium post to cover the whole area of Belgium delivery, its delivery time is particularly stable, about 1~3 days.
Poland is also mainly handled by GLS and INPOST.
Austria is a cost-effective commercial express. For those with high timeliness requirements, you can choose Austrian DPD as logistics delivery. In addition, Austrian Post is mainly suitable for postal products.
As you can see, the end service providers in each country are actually based on their main market. In all European countries, postal service is still a mainstream system in these countries.
In fact, the local e-commerce market in the whole European market can be divided into three levels. Large markets, such as Britain, France and Germany, require continuous investment, and their growth rate is not as fast as that of small and medium-sized markets.
Therefore, we can find some small countries through the excavation of the market, do explosive gross profit. For example, for some small and medium-sized markets, we learn about the logistics habits of local consumers, invest some competitive goods, and find some cost-effective logistics, so as to meet the logistics needs of small and medium-sized markets.
With the soaring price of various kinds of logistics market including airlift in 2022, it is worth thinking about how to choose cost-effective logistics.
The following are mainly for the seller's friends' reference from several dimensions:
First, if the price of your product is very high, but the time limit has not been done, or you may not find a logistics product that meets your time limit. It is suggested that sellers mainly make products with high gross profit. In addition, in some countries with underdeveloped logistics areas, gross profit is the main product.
The second is that if we have a star product, its sales is very good, also have hit word of mouth, you will think, this time for such hot style sku to find a price and time are very high in logistics, the logistics can the consumers have been pay for your product, at the same time keep the logistics competitive advantage.
The third is for some newly developed products, which may be some new products excavated by your design team or operation in a certain market, and are not mature at present. At this time you are not quite sure about the price of the product and the effectiveness of the overall logistics delivery, so you can regard it as a low track product and study it well.
In the end, in fact, mainly to see the main European market seller friends for logistics demand. If you tend to send some of the time requirements are not high, you can choose some special line companies for distribution, if you have high time requirements, then try to combine the logistics trend of the European local market, selectively cooperate with some local logistics providers.