At the 7th China Cross-border E-commerce Logistics Trend Summit, Peter Wang, founder of Maple Supply Chain, who has deep experience in the Canadian market, delivered a keynote presentation on "Building Overseas Localized Logistics Fulfillment Capabilities for Cross-border E-commerce."

1. Commonalities in Overseas Localization Development

Irrespective of the market or business type, attention needs to be paid to three aspects:

Legal/Regulatory Environment: Regardless of whether the enterprise is involved in logistics or import/export trade, understanding the rules and regulations is essential.

Culture: Every country has its own culture. Just as the Chinese nation has a 5,000-year-old culture, including Confucianism and Taoism, which influence our decision-making and behavior, Canada also has its own culture. Mastering these cultural nuances can greatly assist enterprises in conducting business or commercial activities locally.

Habits: Whether it's in Canada, the United States, or any other market, businesses primarily engage in buying and selling products or providing services. Therefore, it's important for enterprises to understand the local customers—who are they? What are their habits? What are their lifestyle and consumption habits?

The founder of Maple Supply Chain :Peter Wang

Maple Supply Chain founder Peter Wang attributed the company's success and its establishment of partnerships with leading Chinese enterprises in Canada's fulfillment construction to two main factors: firstly, seizing the trend of Chinese companies going global; secondly, adhering to the principles of "seizing opportunities, clarifying goals, adopting superior techniques, implementing strategies, and collaborating with all stakeholders." By leveraging the developments of the era and aligning them with its own characteristics, Maple Supply Chain has charted its course, focusing on what it deems the right actions.

To illustrate, throughout its years of operation, whether in international trade or in providing cross-border e-commerce logistics services, Maple Supply Chain has never encountered a return shipment. The key lies in understanding the local laws, culture, and customs. Only by grasping these elements can a company smoothly navigate the initial challenges of entering overseas markets, particularly in dealing with customs, taxation, and customers.

Firstly, it's crucial to comprehend the context of communication. For instance, when responding to inquiries from customs, one must consider the purpose behind their questions and how to frame the responses accordingly.

Secondly, timing plays a significant role, such as the day of the week and the time of day when sending emails. For instance, in the case of a return request from customs, determining the appropriate wording of the response, whether it's a simple "sorry" or something more detailed, is essential. Additionally, understanding when to apologize and when not to is critical.

Through numerous cases involving customs clearance, taxation, and customer complaints, Maple Supply Chain has helped its clients resolve issues effectively. For example, when a Chinese e-commerce platform faced inquiries from customs regarding import and export details, Maple Supply Chain assisted by detailing the entire trade process, clearance rules, and sales regulations in emails to customs.

Thirdly, understanding local culture is vital. For example, Toronto, being a major immigrant city, has a saying: "Big City, Small World," signifying its diverse population. Understanding the various cultural aspects of different ethnic groups living in different communities is essential. Canada, being an immigrant nation, means that immigrants develop some Canadian traits or thoughts within five years.

For instance, Canadians are generally friendly and patriotic. Canadian coffee chain Tim Hortons is far more popular than Starbucks, ice hockey is considered the national sport, and Canadians tend to apologize profusely (as seen in my WeChat profile picture). Understanding these cultural nuances helps enterprises communicate effectively with local governments and customers to address any issues encountered in the local market.

2. Building Fulfillment Capabilities in Canada

Canada is a unique country with a relatively small population of only 41 million, yet it has a vast landmass, making it sparsely populated. Many believe that the Canadian market is difficult to penetrate due to its sparse population. However, Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta—four provinces—account for over 80% of Canada's total population. Therefore, focusing on the markets of these four provinces and six cities within them can capture about 80% of Canada's market share. From another perspective, Canada is a lucrative market.

Currently, Maple Supply Chain primarily operates two brands in Canada: Maple Supply Chain Management Inc., established in 2019, and Neighbour Express, established in 2021. Maple Supply Chain collaborates with three main types of clients:

1. E-commerce platforms and sellers, including SHEIN, Amazon sellers, AliExpress, and TEMU.

2. B2B clients, mainly Chinese brands expanding overseas, including energy storage, new energy, and electronic products. Maple Supply Chain offers localized services covering the entire supply chain, warehousing, distribution, and after-sales.

3. Logistics enterprises seeking to establish a presence in Canada. Maple Supply Chain assists in localizing logistics operations such as warehousing.

Through years of development and deep-rooted efforts, Maple Supply Chain has continuously invested in Canada and established robust localized logistics fulfillment capabilities. It provides clients with five core services:

1. Warehousing and fulfillment: Main functions include storage, distribution, FBA forwarding, and dropshipping. With warehouse resources in eastern and western Canada, Maple Supply Chain's warehouse area exceeded 200,000 square feet in 2023, with operational warehouse space totaling over 370,000 square feet. There are two warehouses in Vancouver, one in Montreal, and a fourth warehouse will be signed in Toronto this year, with Calgary also planning to build its own warehouse in May.

2. Last-mile delivery: Apart from FBA delivery, truck delivery services are provided for commercial addresses such as Costco and Walmart, as well as residential addresses. Initially designed as a network similar to Cainiao Stations, Neighbour Express initially provided return services for Chinese e-commerce platforms in Canada and now also handles large-item deliveries for consolidation clients and e-commerce platforms like SHEIN and TEMU.

3. Industry qualifications: To enhance its service capabilities, Maple Supply Chain began applying for qualifications in 2021 and has now acquired all relevant qualifications, including IATA certification, sea freight forwarding qualifications, CBSA customs supervised warehouses, CBSA customs brokers, and transportation

(4) Customs Supervised Warehouse:

After a year and a half of effort, we successfully obtained approval for a customs supervised warehouse in Toronto. Our professional warehouse management system and standardized operations have been highly recognized by customs authorities. This enables us to provide efficient and cost-effective supervision, transit, transshipment, and cargo inspection for import and export goods. Additionally, in response to the demand from businesses expanding into North America, we are upgrading the supervised warehouse to a bonded warehouse and a logistics bonded zone.

(5) International Freight Transport:

To meet the comprehensive service needs of our clients, we also offer additional Shipping Line and AirLine resources. This includes securing cargo space on Southern Airline's full freighter flights in partnership with JIAYOU International, as well as collaborating with Hainan Airlines to contract air cargo space from Vancouver to Shenzhen, providing air transportation services for our Canadian clients.

So, how does Maple Supply Chain provide complete supply chain services to its clients?

Specifically, in the case of imports into Canada, the overseas clients will enter Canada through international transportation channels. Before arrival, they will transmit EDI data to the customs department for pre-clearance. Essentially, pre-clearance can be completed before the goods arrive.

Image Source: MAPLE

If the goods are not cleared for release, they will enter the bonded warehouse. If cleared for release, the goods will have three destinations: first, directly delivered to commercial end customers; second, stored in warehouses for storage, drop-shipping, etc., for 2C fulfillment; third, transferred from warehouses to FBA and retail business addresses such as Costco, Walmart, etc., for 2B distribution and transshipment business.

When customers have return shipping needs, the entire reverse logistics process can also be realized.

Before 2020, we focused on pulling carts; from 2020 to 2022, we focused on pulling carts while looking ahead; starting from 2022, we have been down-to-earth and ambitious. Nowadays, many manufacturing companies are expanding into Mexico. Maple Supply Chain's next goal is to penetrate the North American market and become a fourth-party logistics supply chain company. In another five years, we hope to become the DSV of North America, providing more services for outstanding Chinese outbound enterprises and global enterprises!

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Cross-border E-commerce Logistics Bai Xiaosheng