The overseas warehouses in the United States have grown rapidly in the past two years. Due to the abnormal congestion of the first leg of China West Coast sea transportation in the past two years, in order to ensure smooth warehousing, a large number of service providers have switched to the US East route and started to layout overseas warehouses in the US East region.
Compared to the total warehouse area in different countries and regions around the world, the United States ranks first, with a total warehouse area of 10.0747 million square meters in 2021, and an average single warehouse area of over 10000 square meters in the past three years (data source: data released by the Ministry of Commerce). This indicates that in the past three years, the average area of newly built/leased warehouses in the United States has been over 10000 square meters, requiring a large amount of capital and fierce market competition. But at the same time, it also indirectly indicates that the United States, as the main market for Chinese sellers, has strong demand for overseas warehouses.
(1) Will US overseas warehouses still be a choice for cross-border sellers in 2023?
The answer is yes,
a. Choosing a US overseas warehouse can enhance the buyer's shopping experience and increase customer reviews. For most American consumers today, they are more willing to choose products from the United States and ship them from overseas warehouses, which is equivalent to domestic delivery, with faster speed and higher safety, providing sellers with a better cross-border trade shopping experience and saving more time.
b. Local delivery time is more guaranteed. The overseas warehouse in the United States can directly ship one item from the local area, and it can be delivered to customers across the country in 1-3 days, providing more guaranteed delivery time.
c. Save manpower and logistics costs. Sellers can transport their goods to overseas warehouses in the United States during the low logistics prices during the off-season, so they don't have to worry about rising shipping costs and logistics delays during the peak season. Instead, they can focus more on product promotion and new product development.
d. In addition, there are policy factors. Recently, Amazon has introduced new regulations requiring sellers with new product sales (within the past 24 months) reaching or exceeding 200 units and transaction amounts exceeding $5000 for 12 consecutive months to undergo information verification once a year. This is undoubtedly a challenge for many cross-border sellers, as many of their stores are registered by third parties, making it impossible for sellers to continue selling their products, At this time, the best choice for sellers is to find a third-party US overseas warehouse to return and exchange the label, remove the product to the US overseas warehouse, and then exchange the label and transport it back to the normal operating Amazon store for sale.
(2) So how should we choose a US overseas warehouse?
a. Do you have a mature operating system? When selecting a third-party US overseas warehouse, consideration should be given to whether the order management system provided by the US overseas warehouse information system meets the needs of seller order integration. A mature system can not only meet basic operational requirements and apply big data technology to generate inventory, sales orders, and other data reports, but also more efficiently and smoothly complete various processes, ensuring unobstructed communication and accurate and timely information transmission between sellers, buyers, and logistics companies.
b. Is the service comprehensive? In addition to providing overseas warehousing services, do US overseas warehouses also have other additional services, such as return and label exchange, FBA transfer, one piece shipping of products, export, customs clearance, tax refund, legal support for warehousing facilities, and so on. A more comprehensive business can meet the various needs of customers, so that sellers do not need to separate their goods into different overseas warehouses to handle different services, which increases costs out of thin air.
c. Is the price transparent? When choosing a US overseas warehouse, don't just focus on seeking low prices, but also consider whether the fees are reasonable and transparent, with the composition of fees being particularly crucial. What fees and operation details are all listed in the US overseas warehouse to prevent sellers from falling into traps.
d. Is the cooperative logistics provider reliable? Finding reliable overseas warehouses and freight forwarding companies in the industry for cooperation, with a good brand reputation, can avoid many problems.
