The growth potential of global e-commerce is far from exhausted, says the head of Hong Kong-headquartered international logistics provider the U-Freight Group (UFL).
There is major potential growth even in established regions such as the USA, Europe or Japan, but it will need new approaches to logistics to ensure a problem-free supply chain, says U-Freight Group CEO Simon Wong.
He comments: “The Group recently attended an Amazon Global Selling Expo in Hangzhou, China in December, in which the organiser invites sellers with of US$10 million (£8,100,000) or more per annum to highlight their needs. We came away convinced that there is much, much more to come from the global e-commerce market and we are in fact only just scratching the surface.”
U-Freight attended the gathering together with CAE, the member unit of Air China. They highlighted in particular the potential of the Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) programme.
Simon Wong adds: “We are focusing on the FBA market by offering a service all the way from origin through to delivery, customs-cleared, to the Amazon Fulfilment Centre.
“As we at U-Freight have commented in the past, online retailers need to find new models and innovative platforms to deal with the logistics challenges they face. That includes ensuring that they engage with their freight forwarder at an early stage of the process to ensure that they truly understand the complex logistical demands of e-commerce.”
U-Freight and CAE are offering a range of services, including both standard and express customs clearance at origin in China and at destination in the USA and Europe, air and ocean line haul and direct drop shipments to the FBA warehouse by courier or nominated truck.
U-Freight also operates its own e-commerce fulfillment centre in Shanghai for pick and pack services and a similar delivery centre in Los Angeles that can carry out inventory storage, return services or product rework, along with all necessary customs formalities and record-keeping.
Simon Wong concluded: “The Expo was attended by over 3,000 participants and there was a strong interest in our service offering, particularly in our line haul services and overseas fulfilment centres. We have now communicated with over 100 Amazon sellers direct as a result of the gathering.”
