On April 1, 2026, China’s cross-border e-commerce industry ushered in a landmark policy adjustment.
According to an announcement from the General Administration of Customs, starting from April, the cross-customs area return model for cross-border e-commerce retail export goods has been officially promoted by customs across the country.
This means that cross-border e-commerce companies are no longer subject to the restriction of “returning to the original route” when processing overseas returns, that is, they do not need to return to the original export customs. Instead, they can flexibly choose any customs port across the country to handle return entry procedures based on logistics convenience.
For sellers, this not only means a reduction in logistics costs, but also a profound change in capital turnover, operational efficiency and even product selection strategies.
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Policy Interpretation: Say goodbye to “returning back the same way” and open up “national return”
Under the past regulatory model, cross-border e-commerce retail export goods must follow the strict “return the same way” principle if overseas returns occur.
For example, if goods exported from Shenzhen are returned overseas, they must be shipped back to Shenzhen Customs by air or sea to go through entry procedures.
This rigid requirement faces two major pain points in actual operation: First, logistics costs are high, and sellers often need to bear high cross-border reverse logistics costs; second, timeliness is difficult to guarantee, especially for multi-platform sellers with overseas warehouses, the goods are scattered at different ports, and forced collection undoubtedly increases the difficulty of management.
The core breakthrough of the new regulations lies in the “cross-customs area” and “flexibility” model promoted by the General Administration of Customs, which allows returned goods to use the complete domestic logistics network and choose the nearest import port. Behind this is the maturity of the internal data interconnection and mutual recognition mechanism of supervision within the customs system. The signal released by the policy is very clear: the focus of supervision has shifted from “strict control path” to “efficient supervision”, reducing compliance costs and encouraging companies to boldly go overseas.
2. Attention of sellers: bonuses and red lines coexist
Although the new policy has brought great convenience, sellers need to clarify the following key points in actual operations to avoid regulatory risks caused by improper operations:
1.
Clarify the scope of application: This cross-customs return policy only applies to cross-border e-commerce retail export goods under the 9610 model, that is, direct mail export business in which goods are shipped directly from the country to overseas individual consumers. Most of the retail orders on platforms such as Amazon, AliExpress, and Shein fall into this category.
However, models such as 9710 (cross-border e-commerce B2B direct export), 9810 (cross-border e-commerce B2B overseas warehouse export), and 1210 (cross-border e-commerce retail import) are not applicable to this policy and must still be processed according to the original “original exit and original exit” regulations. Sellers must first check their own customs supervision codes to confirm that the business model meets the requirements to avoid wasted trips or illegal declarations.
2. Standardize the selection of return ports: The new policy allows “national returns”, but not all customs ports can handle it – returned goods are only allowed to be returned to customs supervision operations or sites that carry out cross-border e-commerce retail export business, such as bonded warehouses in various places, supervision sites in cross-border e-commerce industrial parks, etc., and cannot be returned directly to the seller’s ordinary warehouse.
3. The subject of the return must correspond to the account book management: Although the new policy allows returns across customs areas, the subject of the return must still be the original exporting e-commerce company or its agent.
Sellers should note that the account number and original export list number when reporting returns must be consistent with those at the time of export.
Crossing customs zones does not mean “headless” returns. Enterprises need to establish a complete traceability mechanism for returned goods to ensure that the accounts and facts of “where they come from, where they go back to” are consistent.
4. Definition of return status and quality: Customs supervision has a strict definition of “return”, which usually requires returns due to quality, specifications, transportation damage, etc. For unreasonable returns but the goods do not affect secondary sales, sellers must truthfully declare the reasons for returns when declaring. If you use the new policy to engage in gray operations of “fake returns, real imports”, you will face extremely high regulatory risks.
3. Upgrade and Adjustment of Product Selection Strategy
The implementation of the cross-customs return policy not only optimizes the return process, but also changes the seller’s product selection logic – categories that were avoided in the past due to “high return costs and long return cycles” can now be re-included in the product selection range. At the same time, sellers also need to adjust product selection ideas based on policy characteristics to reduce return risks and increase profit margins.
Sellers can reconstruct product selection strategies from the following three dimensions:
1. Restart “easy-to-return” categories and explore potential profits: In the past, due to the high cost of returns, many sellers were deterred from categories with high return rates such as clothing, shoes and hats, bags, and home decoration, or they only dared to operate through “low-price dumping”.
Under the new policy, reverse logistics costs have been significantly reduced. Sellers can reduce the overall cost of single-item returns through centralized returns and entry at the nearest port; sellers can re-enter these categories with high customer unit prices, high repurchase rates but high return rates.
The focus of product selection should shift from “avoiding returns” to “reducing the mis-purchase rate by optimizing size charts and strengthening video displays.” At the same time, the store radar product selection tool can be used to select powerful sellers, super factories, and reliable suppliers with integrity, in-depth certification reports, and qualification certificates to control quality from the source, reduce returns due to quality problems, and further reduce operating costs.
2. Lay out the “bulky and heavy goods” category: In the past, large items such as furniture, fitness equipment, and large home appliances were large in size and heavy in weight. Once a return occurred, the international return shipping fee even exceeded the profit of the product itself. As a result, many sellers did not dare to try such high-profit products.
Under the new policy, the advantages of consolidating goods in multiple places are highlighted. If sellers encounter returns in overseas warehouses in the United States, Europe, etc., they can choose to return the goods to the import port closest to the domestic factory (such as Ningbo, Tianjin, etc.) instead of the original export port (such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen). This greatly shortens the domestic transportation distance for returned goods.
For large-scale products, it is now possible to design a supply chain solution of “if returns are returned, enter the country at the nearest location + send directly to the factory for repair”, which can provide stronger overseas after-sales service competitiveness in traditional advantageous industries such as furniture, outdoor gardening, and hardware tools.
3. Combine regional advantages to develop special categories that are “suitable for returns”: Sellers can combine the regional advantages of their own warehouse layout and target return ports to develop special categories to further reduce return costs and operating costs.
For example, sellers whose warehouses are located in Yiwu can rely on Yiwu’s advantages in the small commodity industry to develop categories such as home furnishings and accessories, and choose customs supervision sites near Yiwu when returning goods to achieve “direct returns”; sellers whose warehouses are located in Shenzhen can deploy 3C digital, beauty and other categories, relying on the customs clearance efficiency advantage of Shenzhen ports to shorten the return processing cycle.
At the same time, the store radar cross-border product selection library can be used to screen the main sales areas, combined with overseas market demand, to layout categories that adapt to local consumption habits, such as outdoor products for the European and American markets, household daily necessities for the Southeast Asian market, etc., to reduce returns due to demand mismatch and improve the order conversion rate.
From “returning back the same way” to “nationwide refunds”, this policy leap is not only a “burden reduction” on the logistics chain, but also an important step for China’s cross-border e-commerce to move towards high-quality development. When returns are no longer a problem, sellers can more calmly embrace the global market and find new growth points in the game of cost and efficiency.
