What is the use of overseas warehouses?
In cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses refer to domestic enterprises transporting goods to target market countries through bulk transportation, establishing local warehouses, storing goods, and then sorting and sorting goods directly from the local warehouse in a timely manner according to local sales orders. One-stop inventory management services for packaging and distribution. So what is the use of overseas warehouses? Which overseas warehouse is better to choose?
1. Overseas warehouses can reduce logistics costs and speed up logistics timeliness: cross-border e-commerce exports goods to overseas warehouses in the form of general trade, completes first-leg transportation in the form of batch shipments, and uses international express delivery in scattered forms. More cost savings. Shipping from overseas warehouses can save time spent on customs clearance, and according to the seller's usual delivery method (DHL5-7 days, fedex7-10 days, ups10 days or more), if it is shipped locally, customers can ship it within 1-3 days The goods are received within the same day, which greatly shortens the transportation time and speeds up the timeliness of logistics.
2. Overseas warehouses allow returns and exchanges to improve overseas buyers’ shopping experience: Buyers attach great importance to after-sales service. If overseas warehouses are used, it will be much more convenient for customers to return or exchange goods to overseas warehouses. Overseas warehouses can provide buyers with return and exchange services, improve buyers' shopping experience, and increase buyers' repeat purchase rate. For returned products, some overseas warehouses also provide re-labeling services. Crowdsourcing logistics overseas warehouses provide services such as re-labeling, FBA product testing, and duty payment to make your products worry-free after sale.
3. Overseas warehouses can effectively avoid cross-border logistics peaks: During holidays, sellers will focus on shipping a large number of goods after the holidays, which will inevitably seriously affect the speed of logistics operation and thus affect the buyer's receiving time. When using overseas warehouses, sellers must prepare goods in advance and send them to overseas warehouses in batches. When placing orders, they only need to issue instructions for delivery. There is no need to worry about slow logistics during peak periods.
4. Overseas warehouses can increase product exposure
If a platform or store has its own warehouse overseas, local customers will generally give priority to local delivery when choosing to shop, because this can greatly shorten the time for buyers to receive the goods. The advantages of overseas warehouses are also It allows sellers to have their own unique advantages, thereby increasing product exposure and increasing store sales.
5. Overseas warehouses are conducive to market expansion
Because overseas warehouses are more recognized by foreign buyers, on the other hand, if sellers pay attention to word-of-mouth marketing, their products will not only be recognized by buyers locally, but also help sellers accumulate more resources to expand the market and expand Product sales areas and sales scope.
Overseas warehouses can now be divided into two categories: cross-border e-commerce platforms' own overseas warehouses and independent third-party overseas warehouses.
Mainstream cross-border trade platforms all provide overseas warehouse services. For example, if you do Amazon, it is FBA service. After doing FBA, Amazon will give your products certain discounts, such as more exposure, lower shipping costs, etc. However, there are risks in the platform's policy mechanism. Amazon closely binds your account to the warehoused goods. Once there is a problem with your account or operation and you encounter complaints or even closure, the goods in the warehouse will become a big problem.
When choosing a third overseas warehouse, you should consider whether the order management system provided by the third-party IT system meets the company's order integration needs. The second thing to pay attention to is whether these third-party overseas warehouses provide other additional services in addition to overseas warehousing services, such as: full container export, customs clearance, tax refund, legal support at the storage location, etc. Compared with the era of postal parcels, overseas warehouses are more formalized and require more comprehensive links. For an export company, it takes a lot of energy and time to complete each link in the chain. Even if it is done, it may not be possible. It's not very formal and efficient.