The ＂Measures for the Administration of Express Delivery Market＂ implements one-month express delivery limitation and service upgrade.
The "Measures for the Administration of Express Delivery Market" was officially implemented for one month.
"At present, every single 1 yuan is still sent, and there are a lot of express delivery every day." Wang Shi, a member of ZTO Express in Chaoyang District, Beijing, hasn’t been fined yet, and the customer will take the initiative to come to the door by indicating the express delivery.
This new regulation not only draws a red line for unauthorized use of smart express boxes and express service stations, but also regulates market order, express service, safe development and green development. As far as the industry is concerned, the new regulations have obvious significance-the express delivery industry is accelerating to bid farewell to the era of extensive development.
Recently, four A-share express delivery companies have successively released February express delivery business data. February this year included the Spring Festival holiday. After experiencing the high growth boosted by the New Year Festival, the express delivery business volume and business income of the four express delivery companies fell back to normal, with a year-on-year decline. As for the single ticket revenue, except SF, the single ticket revenue of Shentong, Yuantong and Yunda decreased in February, which were 2.25 yuan, 2.53 yuan and 2.29 yuan respectively. Among them, the decline of Yunda reached 11.92%.
Competing for the cake in the express delivery market, low-price competition continues. At the same time, express delivery companies are also upgrading in timeliness and service, and will burn the war to the sea.
Express delivery price
Express single ticket revenue declined, and Yunda fell to 2.29 yuan per ticket.
Wang Shi mentioned that he usually needs to deliver 400 pieces of express every day. Some customers will cooperate when they ask for home delivery, and other express delivery will be delivered by express cabinet.
However, Wang Jun, a courier of Yuantong in Chaoyang District, told reporters that he will continue to use the courier cabinet for delivery, and he can vote for more than 1,000 orders a day at most. He thinks that the distribution fee in 1 yuan is too low, and if you call one by one to inquire about the willingness to deliver, it will greatly reduce the daily delivery volume and reduce work efficiency.
Behind the contradiction of door-to-door delivery is the long-lasting price-for-quantity exchange in the express delivery industry. Among them, the franchise express delivery fee of Tongda Department is about 1 yuan per order, and that of SF Express is about 2 yuan.
The reporter combed the operating data of SF Express, Yunda Express, Shentong Express and Yuantong in February and saw that the completed business volume decreased by 11.49%, 22.88%, 15.36% and 20.43% respectively. From the perspective of single ticket revenue, except SF Express’s year-on-year growth of 5.99%, the single ticket revenue of Shentong, Yuantong and Yunda all declined in February, among which Yunda’s 11.92% declined the most, falling to 2.29 yuan per order, and the price competition continued.
The "price war" in the express delivery industry has continued to this day, and the situation of exchanging price for quantity is obvious. According to the data of the State Post Bureau, the average price of the express delivery industry in 2023 was about 9.15 yuan, down 4.1% year-on-year, hitting a new low.
According to ZTO Express’s financial report, in 2023, Zhongtong’s core single-ticket revenue dropped by 11.3%, or 16 cents, five of which were incremental subsidies. The financial report of Extreme Rabbit Express also shows that in 2023, the revenue of single ticket in China market was 0.34 USD, and the cost of single ticket was 0.34 USD, which was just the same.
According to the data of the State Post Bureau, in 2023, the express delivery business in China totaled 132.07 billion pieces, up 19.4% year-on-year. The business volume of the industry is constantly refreshing. Among them, the volume of express delivery business in the same city totaled 13.64 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%; The volume of express delivery business in different places totaled 115.36 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 20.5%; International/Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan express delivery business totaled 3.07 billion pieces, up 52.0% year-on-year.
According to the latest data disclosed by the express delivery industry, the single-ticket revenue of each express delivery company is declining, and the low-price competition continues. But at the same time, various new regulations are also promoting timeliness and further upgrading of services.
express delivery service
JD.COM speedup Taobao Xinjiang postage
Recently, the China Express Development Index Report released by the State Post Bureau (hereinafter referred to as the report) shows that the express delivery business increased by about 23.7% in January and February, and the revenue increased by about 13.5% year-on-year.
The report mentioned that in January and February, affected by the Spring Festival holiday, the industry showed a V-shaped operation trend, and the characteristics of the holiday economy in the off-peak season were very prominent. In January, the consumption of new year’s goods was active, and the industry maintained rapid growth, with 14.7 billion pieces of business completed and the average daily business volume exceeding 470 million pieces. After the Spring Festival, the market scale expanded rapidly, and the industry gradually returned to normal operation, with an average daily business volume of about 400 million pieces.
With the business volume and price competition entering a relatively stable stage, in order to compete for more market share, express delivery continues to compete in terms of timeliness and service this year.
On March 29th, Jingdong Express officially announced the renaming and upgrading of two major products: "Express Delivery" was upgraded to "JD.COM Express" and "Special Delivery" was upgraded to "JD.COM Biao Express".
"Ms. Wang’s children in Beijing went to Chengdu to attend the postgraduate re-examination. They left in a hurry and didn’t bring all the information. They received the information early the next morning through the express service." The relevant person in charge of Jingdong Express told reporters that since the beginning of this year, Jingdong Express has invested in all cargo planes, and combined with the high-density and multi-frequency ground cargo distribution capacity, it has continuously expanded the scope of aviation morning arrival, spreading it from Beishangguangrong to the national core cities. In the future, it will be in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, the Bohai Rim and the national core cities to achieve the time-limited coverage of morning arrival.
In terms of land transportation, since the announcement of speeding up the prescription in December last year, the coverage of the second morning express in JD.COM Standard Express Province has been expanded from 9 provinces including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong to nearly 20 provinces. In addition, the time for the Jingdong courier to pick up the piece is also extended to 23: 00 at the latest, and it can be delivered to the recipient at 8: 00 the next morning at the earliest.
According to the above-mentioned person in charge, the speed of the express delivery industry can be improved mainly by investing in empty rail, land transportation, hubs and other resources, and optimizing the connection process, so as to continuously improve the express delivery network capacity.
In March, Fengyi Technology, a subsidiary of SF Group, also launched UAV logistics products "instant delivery in the same city" and "cross-city express delivery", with an average delivery time of 2 hours and 4 hours respectively. At present, Fengyi has achieved large-scale normal operation in Greater Bay Area, with the daily average transportation volume exceeding 10,000 pieces.
In addition to speed, the scope of express delivery services is constantly changing. Since mid-March, Taobao has officially launched the Xinjiang Posting Plan. At present, the first batch of products has provided tens of millions of postal products to Xinjiang users, and they have been collected in the "Xinjiang Posting" channel on Taobao’s homepage.
Taobao said that the "Xinjiang Post" channel will operate for a long time, and the products in the channel cover various categories such as clothing, fast-moving consumer goods, food and Jiaqing department store. In addition, on the Taobao search and product details page, you can also see the exclusive label of "Xinjiang postage", which is convenient for Xinjiang users to screen and buy.
After Taobao bought the parcel post, Kobayashi, who went to college in Xinjiang, "no need to envy friends from Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai". Previously, Kobayashi had been worried that the postage of online shopping in Xinjiang was too expensive, and she even tried to find her own express transfer plan.
In recent years, the logistics infrastructure in Xinjiang has been developing continuously. However, due to its vast territory and sparse population, its logistics facilities are still insufficient in terms of intensification, scale and networking, and the overall logistics cost is high. According to the data, about 80% of Taobao’s orders sent to Xinjiang have enjoyed postage, but the average postage of orders without postage still reaches 25 yuan.
Taobao revealed that it has set up Xinjiang container warehouses in Hangzhou and Xi ‘an in cooperation with express delivery partners, reducing logistics costs through transit container transportation, and promoting the average postage of non-package orders in Xinjiang to drop by 80%.
Express speed
E-commerce expands territory, express delivery "rolls" out of China speed
Not only in Xinjiang, but also in China, the prescription of express delivery has swept the world.
"Now express delivery is getting faster and faster, and the cost is getting cheaper and cheaper." A native of Laos said when riding a motorcycle to the Zhongtong outlet to pick up the piece. He bought a box of snail powder and a mobile phone cooling bracket on the e-commerce platform in China, and the courier fee was 19.8 yuan.
Liu Yaowen (Chinese name), the head of Laos Zhongtong Vientiane China City Branch, is also a Lao. In 2021, Liu Yaowen returned to China after studying in China and opened Zhongtong International Branch. At present, the monthly business volume of this outlet is stable at more than 3,000 votes, mainly sending pieces.
"Cross-border parcels sent from China to Laos need to be sent to the nearest warehouse in China before being transported to Laos. I will tell customers to fill in the Kunming warehouse, Guangzhou warehouse, Yiwu warehouse or Huaihua warehouse of Zhongtong International when placing an order on the e-commerce platform. Once a cross-border merchant chooses a courier, it will usually be used all the time and will be recommended to other customers, so the customer base is relatively stable. " Liu Yaowen told reporters.
The development of cross-border e-commerce once again shows the speed of China, which has become one of the competitive commanding heights of the e-commerce industry.
Also in March, the rookie and AliExpress upgraded the "Global 5 Days" in all directions. As the industry’s first large-scale cross-border e-commerce express flagship product, the new service countries of "Global 5 Days" include core markets such as Germany, France, Portugal, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Mexico.
Ding Hongwei, vice president of Cainiao Group and general manager of international express delivery, told reporters that logistics timeliness is an important breakthrough to drive cross-border e-commerce platforms to increase the volume. For consumers, the timeliness of logistics is one of the key factors to consider whether they buy again or not; For the e-commerce platform, efficient logistics helps to shape the platform’s differentiated advantages and break the homogenization problem.
According to customs estimates, in 2023, the total import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce in China was 2.38 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.6%. Among them, exports were 1.83 trillion yuan, an increase of 19.6%; Imports reached 548.3 billion yuan, up by 3.9%.
Following the launch of the "International Express Delivery" service in December last year, on March 15th this year, Jingdong Logistics upgraded its service. At present, it has covered most districts, counties and cities in China, and even consumers far away from Xinjiang and Xizang can still receive and send goods at home and deliver them overseas. In addition, Jingdong Logistics has further expanded its overseas services, which can be covered by most countries in Europe and America, and can also achieve the fastest "three-day arrival" in the world.
The reporter saw that since the beginning of this year, Ali, Pinduoduo, JD.COM, ByteDance and other platforms have continuously increased their cross-border e-commerce business, and express delivery has also stepped up the layout of overseas warehouses and cross-border transportation networks.
Qian Kainan, head of Jingdong Logistics International Logistics Europe, told reporters that Jingdong Logistics’ supply chain business in Europe has doubled every year. Jingdong Logistics has been developing in Europe for less than three years, and has achieved the construction from 0 to 1. At present, most local customers in Europe are medium-sized enterprises, mainly in the new energy industry and electrical appliances industry. The overall layout of Jingdong Logistics overseas is also the layout of express warehouses around these categories.
In the first quarter, the express delivery industry focused on aviation, cold chain, cross-border and other key areas, and unblocked domestic and international delivery channels. According to the State Post Bureau, Hainan Aviation Logistics Hub Base, South China Aviation Hub Center, Jiaxing Global Aviation Logistics Hub and other projects have been accelerated, Huahu Airport has been approved as a smart port pilot, and the air ground transshipment capacity has been further enhanced. The first phase of Huanggang Linkong Smart Logistics Park (Cold Transportation Center) and Ruyang Smart Cold Chain Logistics Industrial Park were accelerated, the North China Cold Chain Center was upgraded, and the industry’s cold chain transshipment and trunk line handling capacity was improved.
At the same time, cross-border transportation networks continue to be encrypted. Enterprise-owned airlines operate international routes such as "Ezhou = Lahore (Pakistan)", "Wenzhou = Hanoi (Vietnam)" and "Shenzhen = Clark (Philippines)" to promote trade between China and Pakistan, Southeast Asia and other regions.
Express companies continue to explore "end-to-end, door-to-door" full-link cross-border logistics services, providing a strong guarantee for "Made in China" to go abroad. At the same time, under the requirements of the new regulations, the express delivery industry is constantly making progress in standardization. Under the increasingly complex domestic and international market competition environment, express delivery enterprises need to continuously improve their service quality and operational efficiency.
(Wang Shi and Wang Jun are pseudonyms in the text)
Beijing News reporter Cheng Zijiao