Market Trends of China International Courier, Express, And Parcel (CEP) Industry
Rising E-commerce Sector to Boost the International CEP Market in China
China's retail e-commerce market has been the largest in the world since 2013. In 2022, e-commerce platforms witnessed significant growth in China. In addition, e-commerce platforms and couriers multiplied their supply and express channels to deliver food and other essentials to Shanghai residents during the lockdown. Shanghai authorities promised to ensure daily supplies for all 25 million residents and solve delivery problems in the city to mitigate the pandemic's impact.
As per JD.com, daily necessities transported to Shanghai included more than 80,000 packs of maternity and infant products such as infant formula powders and diapers, nearly 100,000 medicines and virus prevention supplies, 10 tons of mutton, etc. Along with JD.com, nearly 4,000 stores are providing online food delivery platforms in the country. These online platforms drive the courier express market in the country.
Meanwhile, in October 2022, China's e-commerce drove express logistics by more than 4.9% annually. This surge was due to increased online sales during China's biggest annual online shopping festival. In addition, in 2022, as per the State Bureau of China, total shipments during the 2021 Double 11 shopping festival reached 696 million at a growth rate of 18%. The fastest recovery of China's air freight also supported this sales growth. In Q3 2022, Chinese B2C e-commerce platforms witnessed significant growth, and Tmall is one of the major platforms that made more than 63% of online retail transactions on B2C platforms, followed by JD.com, Vipshop, etc.
In addition, China has the most online buyers and sellers, as it is the world's most populous nation. Its largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba's Taobao, has 4.5 million active sellers in the country. Over 90% of e-commerce sales in China are done through mobile devices.
E-commerce growth in China is driven by tier 3 and 4 cities. Rural China saw significant growth as emerging middle-income group consumers with limited access to physical retail outlets turned to e-commerce. Although the COVID-19 crisis has led to a slump in overall consumer spending, it has increased e-commerce purchases.
Moreover, total retail sales of consumer goods are driven by e-commerce. In 2021, the e-commerce share in retail sales accounted for more than 24.5%, driven by strong growth in online purchases of physical goods.
Increasing Volume of Parcel Shipments in China
Along with the ever-increasing use and distribution of mobile devices, shopping on smartphones or tablets has become a new norm for Chinese internet users. Apart from technology upgrades, the rise of small-town and rural residents' purchasing power has also reshuffled the online retail landscape in China. Due to the increase in e-commerce, there is an increase in the number of parcels in China.
According to State Post Bureau figures, China's courier industry delivered more than 100 billion items in December. This arduous accomplishment demonstrated both the tenacity of the Chinese courier sector and the results of China's synchronisation of COVID-19 policy with economic and social development.
Over 4.3 billion parcels were collected nationally in the first 12 days of December, increasing 5.6 per cent from the same period last year. China has a sizable express delivery network with 410,000 service stations and a total mileage of 43 million kilometres. It provides daily service to close to 700 million people.
Since this year, the courier sector has been under extreme pressure due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Relevant departments adopted a number of measures to ensure uninterrupted logistics, including the removal of all temporary checks at motorway entrances and exits, the establishment of a whitelist mechanism, and the start of real-time monitoring.
Additionally, businesses in the courier sector actively worked to guarantee the express delivery network operated without hiccups by rerouting delivery routes and setting up emergency response systems.
