What issues should we pay attention to when operating overseas warehouses?
Overseas warehouses are a solution to the pain points of cross-border e-commerce logistics and are a key development target now and even in the future. Especially for cross-border sellers, having overseas warehouses will greatly reduce the seller's logistics timeliness. So what issues should we pay attention to when operating overseas warehouses? What are the flaws?
1. Is it required that the first leg must be operated in an integrated manner?
Some people may say that this is just to make more money? I would like to say that the control of the first leg is the key to the safety of the entire cross-border logistics chain. A logistics company that understands how to grasp risks from the source is a trustworthy company.
2. Is there a professional team in China to provide services?
Some overseas warehouses are only responsible for the parts after overseas warehouse entry. Once there is a problem, the goods are already overseas, which is often difficult to deal with. An overseas warehouse service with a domestic professional team will grasp the specifications before the goods are sent to the overseas warehouse to minimize problems overseas and avoid additional costs overseas.
3. Whether to provide a mature management system?
Overseas warehouses are, to some extent, a service provider. Information docking between customers, products, overseas warehouses, and logistics companies is crucial. For the overseas warehouse itself, whether the system is mature, smooth, efficient, and reliable is also the key to whether an overseas warehouse can efficiently complete the entire process.
4. Is the overseas warehouse team a local team?
In particular, whether the person in charge has many years of overseas living experience and many years of operating experience in the logistics industry. Each country and region will have different rules or even unspoken rules. Only by understanding the rules can you grasp the costs and risks.
5. Will you choose customers?
What I’m talking about here is more about the management philosophy of overseas warehouses. Since third-party overseas warehouses are a shared platform, each warehouse must have a large number of products of different customers and categories. An overseas warehouse that accepts all customers will be very risky, because any one of the customer's products may have legal, tax or Security issues may affect other customers. Only one who knows how to choose a customer's overseas warehouse can know how to protect customer safety. It can even be said that an overseas warehouse that knows how to reject customers can make people feel more at ease.
1. Warehousing costs are high.
Although logistics costs are reduced through off-peak shipments, warehousing costs are generally charged on a daily basis since the goods arrive at the overseas warehouse.
2. Inventory pressure is high.
Once there is a slight mistake in selection or market grasp, the goods will be unsalable, sales will be poor, and a large number of goods will be squeezed into the warehouse. Not only will it be impossible to realize cash, but it will also increase warehousing costs, making it difficult to sell the goods, creating a dilemma.
3. Inconvenient capital turnover.
A large amount of capital investment, such as batch preparation of goods to overseas warehouses, stocking funds, logistics funds, warehousing funds, etc., has a long capital return cycle, causing inconvenience to the seller's capital turnover and easily leading to a break in the capital chain.
4. Poor overseas controllability.
Overseas warehouses are greatly affected by uncontrollable factors such as local policies, social factors, local customs, and natural factors. For example, goods are detained when imported, goods are detained in local warehouses, confiscated, etc., which will have a great impact on the seller.
5. It is greatly affected by the operational capabilities of overseas warehouse service providers.
A certain aspect of the overseas warehouse service provider may lead to delays in delivery of goods, warehouse inspections, confiscation of goods, etc. No matter what happens, the losses caused by the seller are irreparable.
6. There are stricter requirements for sellers’ product selection.
The use of products delivered from overseas warehouses is, on the one hand, to ensure quality, and on the other hand, to meet the needs of local buyers. For companies with a wide range of goods, how many SKUs to store in overseas warehouses has become a problem. Improper selection and improper market grasp will cause irreparable losses.
7. The monitoring requirements for sellers’ warehouse management data are relatively high.
Sellers need to monitor detailed data of goods entering and exiting the warehouse in real time, otherwise it will easily lead to loss of goods or mismatch of goods data. Some Amazon sellers responded that the FBA inventory quantity did not match the actual sales quantity on the shelf, and the goods were lost. In warehouse management, Amazon has a complete distribution system, and third-party overseas warehouses are imaginable.