In recent years, as the global supply chain continues to deepen and integrate, my country’s cross-border logistics industry has bid farewell to the barbaric growth stage of “scale expansion” and entered a period of high-quality development with “quality competition and value competition” as its core.
The competition model that once relied on attracting customers at low prices and extensive operations was gradually eliminated by the market, and was replaced by a competition of comprehensive strength.
Data show that my country’s cross-border e-commerce import and export volume will exceed 2.5 trillion yuan in 2025, maintaining double-digit growth for many consecutive years, and the scale of the supporting cross-border logistics market will simultaneously rise to 1.8 trillion yuan.
Behind the development of the industry, the uncertainty of the global trade environment, increasingly stringent international regulations, and intensified homogeneous competition among domestic enterprises have forced cross-border logistics companies to accelerate their transformation.
Say goodbye to barbaric growth and high-quality competition is inevitable
The evolution of the competitive landscape of cross-border logistics has always resonated with the global trade environment and the development of cross-border e-commerce.
In the past ten years, my country’s cross-border e-commerce has experienced explosive growth, and cross-border logistics has entered a golden period of “scale expansion.” The competitive logic at that time was to win at low prices, which ultimately led to the industry falling into vicious involution, with uneven service quality and prominent compliance risks.
“In the past few years, when we were doing cross-border logistics, as long as we could get transportation resources and quote low prices, we could receive orders.” A practitioner who has been engaged in the cross-border logistics industry for many years said frankly that at that time, the core competitiveness of the industry was “price.” Many companies ignored compliance operations and even
Gray customs clearance methods such as too low declared values and false HS codes are used to reduce costs. “Everyone is competing for the lowest price, and no one pays attention to service quality and compliance risks. This extensive development model may survive during the period of rapid industry expansion, but it will not last long after all.”
In recent years, the global economic recovery has been sluggish, geopolitical conflicts have intensified, and trade protectionism has risen. Countries have continued to increase their supervision of cross-border logistics.
The United States has officially canceled the T86 tax exemption policy, resulting in a significant increase in logistics costs for cross-border small and medium-sized sellers; the European Union has introduced a new cross-border e-commerce tax policy, which will increase taxes on low-value e-commerce packages from July 2026, directly impacting the traditional small package dedicated line model; Amazon’s European station has strengthened compliance control, and the French station has clearly refused to accept goods with inconsistent shipment information. Many non-compliant logistics companies and overseas warehouses have been cleared, and related sellers have suffered heavy losses.
At the same time, the needs of domestic cross-border e-commerce companies have also undergone fundamental changes.
As my country’s cross-border e-commerce transforms from “distribution model” to “brand overseas”, sellers’ demand for cross-border logistics is no longer limited to “delivering goods”, but pays more attention to timeliness stability and professional service.
Especially small and medium-sized sellers, after experiencing painful lessons such as explosions in overseas warehouses, goods being detained, and fines, have put forward higher requirements for the compliance, safety, and service quality of overseas warehouses, and are willing to pay a premium for high-quality overseas warehouse services and professional compliance guidance.
The person in charge of the China Cross-Border E-Commerce Association said that the current high-quality competition in the cross-border logistics industry is essentially a comprehensive competition of “infrastructure + service capabilities”.
“Overseas warehouses, as the core infrastructure of cross-border logistics, determine the company’s service radius and timeliness level; compliance services determine the company’s risk resistance and long-term development potential. Both are indispensable. Only by mastering these two core capabilities at the same time can we gain a firm foothold in the industry reshuffle and achieve sustainable development.”
Lay out overseas warehouses and build a new development pattern
As a hub linking domestic production and overseas consumption, overseas warehouses have become the “key starting point” for companies to seize the global market.
In the era of high-quality competition in cross-border logistics, overseas warehouses have long surpassed the basic functions of “warehousing + shipping” and upgraded to a comprehensive service hub integrating warehousing, sorting, distribution, returns and exchanges, localized operations, and compliance consulting, becoming the key for enterprises to build their core competitiveness.
The era of “you can make money just by having a warehouse” is gone forever. Today’s overseas warehouse competition focuses on dimensions such as rational layout, intelligent operations, diversified services, and standardization of compliance.
As the industry reshuffle accelerates, leading companies have stepped up their efforts to further promote the transformation of competition to high quality.
Data shows that as of the end of 2025, the number of overseas warehouses in my country has exceeded 2,500, covering more than 100 countries and regions around the world. However, the industry has shown a “pyramid” pattern, with a large number of small, medium and micro enterprises forming the main body of the industry, and leading companies integrate resources through self-construction, mergers and acquisitions, etc., and the head effect is prominent.
Companies such as SF Express, Cainiao, and Kaiqi Cloud Warehouse have increased their overseas warehouse layout and strengthened compliance service capabilities to form differentiated competitive advantages and promote the industry’s transformation toward “supply chain efficiency and compliance value.”
“Overseas warehouse layout cannot be expanded blindly. It must be accurately laid out based on market demand, logistics channels and compliance requirements.” Liu Tao, general manager of Kaiqi Cloud Warehouse, said, “Traditional markets such as North America and Europe focus on compliance and timeliness, while emerging markets focus on cost and localized services. Companies need to create differentiated overseas warehouse service systems based on the characteristics of different markets.”
Currently, more and more overseas warehouse companies are breaking through the limitations of basic services, extending services to the upstream and downstream of the supply chain, and providing “one-stop” comprehensive services, covering warehousing, sorting, shipping, returns and exchanges, repairs, localized marketing, compliance consulting and other fields to meet the diverse overseas needs of sellers.
For cross-border sellers, high-quality comprehensive overseas warehouse services can not only reduce operating costs, but also improve consumer experience and enhance brand competitiveness.
With the widespread application of artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, big data and other technologies, overseas warehouses are transforming from “manual operations” to “smart operations”. Through intelligent sorting, inventory management, order tracking and other systems, efficient collaboration in warehousing, sorting, delivery and other links is achieved, greatly improving operational efficiency and reducing operating costs.
Data shows that the order processing efficiency of intelligent overseas warehouses is more than 50% higher than that of traditional overseas warehouses, and the inventory turnover cycle is shortened by 30%, effectively solving the pain points of “low efficiency, high errors, and high costs” of traditional overseas warehouses.
Compliance services integrate into “localized” development
If overseas warehouses are the “hardware foundation” for high-quality competition in cross-border logistics, then compliance services are the “software core”.
Today, as global compliance regulations become increasingly strict, compliance capabilities are no longer a “plus point” for enterprises, but a “survival item.”
Liu Tao said that at present, my country’s overseas warehouses are facing six major problems: unbalanced layout, single function, extensive operations, high compliance risks, financing difficulties, and lack of standards, which are constraining the high-quality development of the industry.
The overseas warehouse industry is in a critical transition period from “scale expansion” to “quality improvement”.
The core path for improvement lies in optimizing global layout to fill gaps in emerging markets, upgrading service functions to increase added value, accelerating digital transformation to reduce operating costs, building a compliance system to prevent systemic risks, broadening financing channels to ease financial pressure, and improving industry standards to end vicious competition.
In the context of tightening international supervision, the compliance operation of overseas warehouses is directly related to the survival of enterprises.
High-quality overseas warehouses must have resources such as core locations, compliance qualifications, and stable local distribution networks. At the same time, they must strictly abide by the destination country’s warehousing specifications, tax declarations, data security and other requirements, such as EU VAT compliance, US FDA warehousing standards, etc.
The acquisition of these compliance resources requires long-term accumulation and large investment, which has become a constraint for new entrants to copy in the short term.
Against this background, more and more cross-border logistics companies have begun to pay attention to compliance services, incorporate compliance capabilities into the construction of core competitiveness, and meet the compliance needs of sellers by forming professional compliance teams, building compliance service platforms, and providing one-stop compliance solutions.
The content of compliance services has also been continuously enriched, extending from the initial customs declaration and tax consultation to intellectual property protection, overseas legal support, risk warning and other fields, forming a comprehensive and multi-level compliance service system.
In April 2026, the Ministry of Commerce, together with six departments including the Cyberspace Administration of China, jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Better Serving the Real Economy and Promoting the High-Quality Development of E-Commerce”, which clearly proposed measures such as “guiding compliance in going overseas and formulating guidelines for e-commerce companies to go overseas” and “supporting qualified localities to build cross-border e-commerce compliance service platforms based on overseas comprehensive service systems”, providing clear guidance for companies to improve their compliance capabilities.
Industry experts pointed out that the core value of compliance services is to help companies avoid risks, reduce costs, and enhance competitiveness.
“In the era of high-quality competition, companies with strong compliance capabilities can effectively avoid international regulatory risks, reduce losses such as fines and goods deductions, while improving customer trust and gaining more market opportunities; while companies with weak compliance capabilities will eventually be eliminated by the market.” The relevant person in charge of the China Cross-border E-commerce Association said that in the future, compliance services will become the core of differentiated competition among cross-border logistics companies, and companies need to continuously improve the professionalism of compliance services and create a unique compliance service system.
