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According to the latest news from the Ministry of Commerce, China has established 165 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, covering 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities across the country. There are now more than 100,000 cross-border e-commerce entities in China, and the scale of cross-border e-commerce goods imports and exports has increased significantly. The scale of cross-border e-commerce goods imports and exports in China has also increased from less than 1% of foreign trade five years ago to about 5% at present.
The data directly shows that the domestic cross-border e-commerce industry is developing at a rapid pace, giving birth to a large number of overseas investors seeking to make money. However, everything has two sides. As the scale of the cross-border industry continues to expand, while it contains huge development opportunities, it also hides many gray areas. Among them, the cross-border logistics circle is particularly hard hit, and freight forwarding incidents have emerged one after another in the past two years. A large freight forwarder in Shenzhen was reported to have gone bankrupt and run away? A large number of sellers’ goods were seized! According to reports from many sellers, a well-known cross-border logistics company in Shenzhen has suddenly collapsed, and a large number of orders in transit cannot be processed. People familiar with the matter revealed that the logistics company may have encountered major problems in its operations due to a broken capital chain. Since a large number of goods are still in transit and their fate is uncertain, sellers may have to pay a sky-high ransom fee.
▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group
"Ten tons of cargo are on the way, and I'll probably have to redeem it myself." "We recently visited their house and won three tickets, and lost two of them." "Some customers have found us and went to the logistics company's warehouse to pick up the goods, but they were charged 2,000 yuan per cubic meter."
According to multiple sources, sellers need to pay the logistics company 2,000 yuan per cubic meter before they can pick up the goods, but this is only the most ideal solution. There are still a large number of goods on the way to the port or have just arrived at the port. If they cannot clear customs in time, they will face high detention fees later.
Relevant personnel revealed that the logistics company’s employees contacted some sellers and said that the company’s capital chain was broken and operations had problems. The boss was negotiating solutions with suppliers. It is reported that a large number of customers and suppliers have come to the door to “demand goods”.
It is learned that in addition to the large number of orders in transit that could not be processed, the logistics company also owed a large amount of debt. One of the freight forwarding companies that had cooperated with it issued an ultimatum, claiming that since May, the logistics company involved had no repayment plan for the expected amount. As of June 1, the total amount owed was US$253,107.06, so the company had to temporarily store the containers in the warehouse.
▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group
In addition, some sellers revealed that cracks had long appeared in the internal operations of the logistics company. Not only did it owe more than 40 million yuan in debt, but the commission wages of business personnel were not paid on time. One employee had received a total of 400,000 yuan in commissions from last year to now, including five months' salary this year, but has not yet received it.
▲ The picture comes from the seller communication group
In fact, there seemed to be early signs of the company's collapse. Many sellers admitted that its overseas warehouses had frequent problems and goods were detained for no reason many times.
"After the New Year, two batches of goods were labeled in their overseas warehouse. I paid for it but it took a long time before it was processed, the business was out of touch, and the customer service answered in a robotic manner. Later, I searched for contacts on the company's official website and shipping group, and finally added a supervisor who could speak. Although it took two months and the processing fee was more expensive than sending directly from China, I finally got the goods into the warehouse. I will never dare to send to them again." A seller said with lingering fear.
For this reason, many sellers speculated that the capital chain was broken due to receiving goods at a loss at a low price. Just last year, the logistics company also announced an ultra-low shipping price of 1/kg. In the current environment of increasingly stringent customs inspections, this type of low-price cargo collection operation has also invisibly incurred higher risks.
Sellers have different opinions about this thunderbolt incident. In order to further investigate, we tried to contact the other party for verification but received no response. It is worth mentioning that the other party’s official account is still in normal update status, so the truth is still unknown. Warehouses are overflowing, appointments are hard to come by, and a large number of sellers may be out of stock. Recently, Amazon first issued new logistics regulations to strengthen supervision of logistics companies, and then UPS, the US Postal Service and other major foreign logistics companies strictly investigated the accounts of money laundering. Under the pressure of both, the freight forwarding industry has been shaken continuously, and many companies that have been operating in the gray area for many years have revealed their true colors. While further cleaning up the cross-border logistics environment, it also puts higher requirements on the sellers' choice of logistics providers.
On the other hand, the logistics industry is in a critical stage of preparation for the peak season. The chaotic situation with numerous review checkpoints and endless bankruptcies has also affected the delivery plans of many sellers to a certain extent.
A seller reported that it was very difficult to make an appointment with UPS in the United States recently, which disrupted his delivery rhythm. The seller currently has only 7 items left in stock for one of his core products. However, the freight forwarder said that UPS is strictly checking the accounts for water leakage and the release time is uncertain. This means that these 7 items will have to hold on for another week. If this continues, it is likely to cause large-scale out-of-stock, and all the keywords and rankings previously established will be invalidated, and even affect the normal sales on Member Day.
"The new rules for reservation accounts introduced by Amazon on May 1 have made reservations more difficult at this stage. In addition, many warehouses in the United States are now closed, and there are serious warehouse overflows. UPS is strictly investigating the accounts that have leaked goods. With this rectification, I don’t know whether the goods can be released normally. It seems that now we have to dismantle the containers and inspect the goods, so the time limit is particularly long. " The seller is extremely anxious about this.
It is learned that due to the major overhaul of UPS, many goods are now being delivered by trucks to avoid the pitfalls of water leakage. However, the efficiency of truck delivery is relatively slow. In addition, the new logistics regulations issued by Amazon strictly control appointments, and many popular warehouses are overwhelmed and appointments are frequently cancelled, so that it is now "difficult to get an appointment", which seriously affects the logistics timeliness of sellers. "I placed a ticket on March 31st, but Kapai kept canceling and rescheduling my appointment. It's been a month and I still haven't received a reservation number." "The freight forwarder said it would take a week to release the goods. It is very likely that the warehouse's account is being reviewed by UPS. Another reason is that the shipping number used for shipment is changing the waybill, which takes time. The FBI is now working with some supply chain alliances and the postal UPS to investigate the overseas warehouse involved." "The supplier had already delayed delivery by more than ten days, and then there was a problem with UPS. The freight forwarder said they were waiting in line for scanning. They raised the price significantly half a month ago, and now there are only two units left in stock."
According to sellers’ feedback, nowadays, after sea freight arrives at the port, it takes at least ten days to make an appointment to register for warehousing. Many freight forwarders have cancelled direct delivery channels due to the inability to make appointments.
On the other hand, after the change to manual reservation, the West Coast warehouse of Capai America was seriously congested, and reservations were often unable to be made or cancelled. Among them, the popular warehouses such as GYR3, SMF3, GYR2, and LAX9 were particularly overcrowded, and the back-end delivery time was extended. Previously, it took about 25 days for ordinary ships to deliver to the warehouse, but now it basically takes about a month.
At the same time, due to Amazon's layoffs, the labor force has been reduced, and even after entering the warehouse, the efficiency of putting the products on the shelves is very slow. Some sellers are worried that this situation may be more serious during the peak season, and they need to consider extending the replenishment cycle to avoid out-of-stock situations.
The peak season is approaching, but a series of shocks in the cross-border logistics circle in recent times have closely affected the rhythm of sellers' stocking. What do you want to say about this? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area~
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