1、The Iterative Evolution History of Cross-border Direct Shipping Logistics

As a crucial pillar of e-commerce development, cross-border direct shipping logistics has undergone significant product iterations and transformations in recent years, which can be divided into four stages: inception, development, turning point, and convergence.

Source of the image: Shunyou Logistics

Firstly, in 2005, the Hong Kong small packet marked the beginning of the cross-border e-commerce era, initially helping cross-border e-commerce sellers solve global logistics and transportation issues.

Secondly, the subsequent phase mainly involved China Post and international postal services. In 2009, SF Express introduced Singapore small packets, and in 2010, Shunyou Logistics introduced Malaysia small packets. Later, various international postal services such as Dutch small packets entered the Chinese market, aiding the rapid development of China's cross-border e-commerce business.

This was followed by the phase dominated by China Post. As China's largest logistics company, China Post had excellent postal rights within the Universal Postal Union (UPU) and introduced innovative products like EUB (E邮宝), quickly capturing a significant share of the cross-border e-commerce direct shipping market.

During this period, commercial customs clearance channels were also in the nascent stage. However, the survival space for commercial channels was not optimal. On one hand, the settlement system of the UPU was more economically advantageous than commercial channels. On the other hand, commercial channels, just starting to develop, faced challenges in customs clearance, delivery, etc.,

especially as some countries had imperfect infrastructure and understanding of e-commerce parcels. Nevertheless, this phase was also a time for commercial channels to accumulate energy, awaiting an outbreak.

Then came a turning point in 2020, the first year after the pandemic outbreak. Two significant events occurred in the industry that year: the withdrawal of the United States Postal Service from the Universal Postal Union, leading to a significant increase in the shipping rates of EUB between China Post and the United States Postal Service; and the disruption of the global supply chain caused by the pandemic. In this background, many express companies experienced explosive growth due to their flexibility and sharp insight.

Finally, in 2023, significant changes occurred again in the cross-border e-commerce industry. The rise of TEMU forced traditional e-commerce platforms to make corresponding adjustments and changes. The industry trend shifted towards consolidation, with orders increasingly concentrated on platforms, and logistics companies facing higher requirements in acquiring orders. E-commerce

platforms were guiding consumers towards bundled purchases. Due to the platforms' absolute control over logistics, they significantly accelerated the delivery speed of express small packets.

2、Types of Cross-border Direct Shipping Logistics Products

Cross-border direct shipping logistics has diversified into various product categories. Broadly, they can be categorized into postal packets and express packets.

Postal packets can be further classified based on traceability into registered and unregistered categories. Registered packets include innovative products like EUB (E邮宝), which played a significant role in the development of cross-border e-commerce. Other examples include standard registered mail and surface mail. Standard registered mail, indicated by an "R" prefix, provides traceability and security. Surface mail, although untraceable, offers low-cost shipping for lightweight parcels, enabling cross-border e-commerce sellers to quickly acquire orders from budget-conscious customers, playing a significant role in the early stages of cross-border e-commerce.

Types of Direct Shipping Logistics Products

Direct shipping logistics products can be categorized into air freight direct shipping and other types. Air freight direct shipping can be further subdivided into three types: commercial clearance line, postal clearance line, and virtual warehouse.

1. Commercial Clearance Line: This is the most common type of direct shipping logistics product. It is segmented into various series based on factors such as timeliness, product category, and payment method.

2. Postal Clearance Line: This type involves a minority of companies with the capability to deliver parcels worldwide following the rules of the Universal Postal Union (UPU).

3. Virtual Warehouse: This type simulates shipments from overseas warehouses, aiming for the utmost speed.

3、Evolution of Logistics Trends Driven by Commercial Flows

The rise of cross-border e-commerce and the evolution of logistics services are interdependent processes. As e-commerce platforms gained prominence, the direct shipping logistics industry underwent significant transformations to meet the growing demands of commercial flows.

In 2005, eBay emerged, enabling many sellers to market Chinese products globally. Low prices facilitated affordable shipping for overseas buyers, making surface mail packets the mainstream option.

In 2010, Alibaba Group introduced AliExpress, maintaining the dominance of postal packets. The proportion of registered mail packets gradually increased, reflecting the growing demand from overseas buyers for parcel tracking. Meanwhile, the emergence of express packets began.

By 2013, platforms like Amazon and Wish entered the Chinese market, with express packets gradually gaining traction alongside postal products.

In 2015, cross-border e-commerce platforms began exerting more control over logistics. For instance, Wish introduced Wish Post for unified shipping and receiving, while AliExpress launched worry-free logistics services.

In 2018, Shopee entered Southeast Asia and Latin American markets, introducing its own SLS logistics and even providing last-mile delivery in many Southeast Asian countries. eBay also launched SpeedPAK, setting certain performance standards for direct shipping logistics. During this period, platform-led direct shipping logistics became standard practice.

In 2020, SHEIN experienced explosive growth, doubling its turnover and emerging as a fast-fashion cross-border e-commerce company rivaling ZARA and H&M. In 2021, TIKTOK opened TIKTOKSHOP, experiencing rapid growth. In 2022, TEMU emerged, introducing a fully managed model and significantly accelerating logistics.

The development of commercial flows has driven several trends in direct shipping logistics:

1. Weight: Parcel weight has significantly increased from the eBay era's one or two hundred grams to around 1 kilogram on average under the influence of TEMU and TIKTOK.

2. Timeliness: Direct shipping packets are gradually approaching the delivery speed of international express delivery services.

3. Traceability: Platforms demand increasingly detailed tracking of parcel trajectories, including pickup, warehouse entry, warehouse exit, export, customs clearance, flight departure, flight arrival, customs clearance completion, airport pickup, and last-mile delivery.

4. Changes and Constants of Shunyou Logistics

The rise of cross-border e-commerce has led to an increasingly robust demand for logistics services. Traditional logistics methods can no longer meet market demands, necessitating the specialization and efficiency of logistics services. Established in 2008, Shunyou Logistics has also experienced the ups and downs of cross-border e-commerce, witnessing industry transformations and actively participating. In this process, there have been changes as well as constants.

Changes Initially, Shunyou Logistics focused on being the largest player in China's Ma Post market, primarily dealing with special goods. However, its current positioning is as a global delivery service provider for cross-border e-commerce, integrating both special and general goods. Shunyou Logistics has explored a unique route in the field of cross-border direct shipping that differs from the mainstream model.

Constants: What remains unchanged is its original intention, ensuring that cross-border e-commerce faces no worries. This is manifested in three aspects:

- Simplicity: Offering straightforward pricing without additional fees, covering a wide range of countries for worry-free delivery, and transporting products legally sold by e-commerce platforms.

- **Cost-effectiveness:** Complementing postal services with express services to provide the most cost-effective solutions, constantly innovating to reduce the overall cost and passing the benefits to customers.

- Reliability: Driven by products and supported by technology, providing stable and reliable logistics products. In case of any issues, compensating according to agreements.

5. Future Trends of Cross-border Direct Shipping Logistics

The rise of fully managed and semi-managed models has concentrated goods in the hands of platforms, raising the threshold for direct shipping logistics companies to acquire goods. To obtain goods, companies either need exceptionally strong capabilities in certain countries or should be able to solve problems that platforms cannot address.

Based on this trend, more direct shipping logistics companies may transition to providing basic services for platforms at various stages. For instance, providing trunk transportation, customs clearance services, or last-mile delivery accounts.

Air freight trunk lines play an increasingly important role in cross-border e-commerce logistics but also pose significant bottlenecks. Given the explosive growth of platforms, being able to effectively control trunk transportation and quickly allocate resources to meet platform and customer demands is a critical capability.

More domestic enterprises will expand their delivery networks overseas. Successful cases already exist domestically, such as the improving delivery networks of JiTu in the Middle East and Mexico, and UniUni's operations in the North American market. As more Chinese companies venture abroad to establish last-mile delivery networks, they leverage platforms' substantial cargo volume and data to facilitate network layout at lower costs.

Lastly, while the current commercial environment presents challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises, it's essential to recognize that the export logistics market remains vast, with numerous small and medium-sized independent stations and individual users. This provides significant market space for full-service logistics companies throughout the entire chain, offering opportunities for enterprises to achieve better development.

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Cross-border E-commerce Logistics Bai Xiaosheng