Reporter | Chen Qirui
Edit | Lou Shuqin
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On January 16, the Department of Safety Supervision of the State Post Bureau issued a notice calling for further strengthening the epidemic prevention and control measures for international mail express mail to avoid the introduction of overseas epidemics through delivery channels.
In terms of specific measures, the Department of Safety Supervision requires relevant enterprises to do a good job in disinfection and ventilation of international mail processing places, disinfect all international mail entering the production and processing links, and implement a standing period after disinfection. Express delivery personnel must do a good job of personal protection, while nucleic acid testing and health monitoring. For consumers, in the near future, they should reduce postal shopping from high-risk countries and regions of the epidemic, and report express delivery information to the relevant departments in a timely manner as required.
The recent new local confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Beijing have once again raised concerns about the potential risk of virus transmission in international mail. On the evening of January 15, Beijing reported a new case of infection with the Aomi Kerong variant. After analyzing the trajectory of the activity, it was found that it had received international couriers. The results of the express paper inspection show that there is a homology phenomenon with overseas strains.
Interface News has reported many times that in response to the positive detection of express packaging and objects, a number of e-commerce platforms and courier companies have strengthened the disinfection of the warehousing and sorting process, while requiring couriers to be vaccinated, monitor body temperature daily and disinfect tools on a regular basis.
However, unlike the previous variants, TheOmilon spreads faster, bringing new problems to the cross-border e-commerce and logistics industries. Interface Fashion sent a response to Tmall International and British luxury e-commerce company Farfetch on the relevant countermeasures, but did not receive a reply as of press time. At present, Tmall International, Fafaqi and other platforms involved in the "Haitao" business have not made statements on the suspension and postponement of related businesses.
Specifically, at present, most of Tmall International's products are sent from domestic bonded warehouses. This model is that the goods are first transported to the domestic bonded warehouse through international logistics, and then sent out of the warehouse after the consumer pays. The bonded warehouse model improves the operational efficiency of Tmall International, and bulk procurement also enjoys a certain degree of tax benefits, while facilitating consumers to deal with after-sales problems.
However, in order to expand the scope of business, the construction of direct mail overseas warehouses has also become the focus of Tmall International's business in recent years. In September 2020, Tmall International announced that it will upgrade its overseas warehouse business to an overseas direct purchase business, and send foreign goods directly from overseas warehouses to China through official procurement.
It is inevitable that some processes will be exposed to the risk of being exposed to the virus, which requires Tmall to launch stricter disinfection measures for overseas warehouses and logistics processes. Affected by the epidemic on logistics, Tmall International has previously adjusted the delivery time limit to exempt the compensation caused by the relevant delayed delivery. But these factors have not affected consumer enthusiasm, especially in the luxury sector.
According to a report jointly released by Bain & Berry Consulting and Tmall Luxury, the online penetration rate of luxury sales in China has increased from about 13% in 2019 to 23% in 2020, while the online penetration rate of the beauty category has climbed to 38%. Top luxury brands such as Gucci and Prada have settled in during the epidemic, and Farfetch has opened an official flagship store on Tmall International.
Unlike Net-a-Porter, another luxury e-commerce company, Farfetch has yet to build a localized warehousing system in China. Interface Fashion has reported that as part of its strategic adjustments to the Chinese market, Net-a-Porter has built a dedicated warehousing and logistics center in Suzhou. Prior to this, it already had a warehousing centre in Hong Kong.
This difference has to do with the way Farfetch works. Farfetch is not a buyer's luxury e-commerce, it started to provide online solutions for offline buyers and department stores around the world, including well-known stores such as London's Cover Street Market. Thanks to its asset-light model, Farfetch expanded rapidly in the years since its inception and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018.
Due to the closure of a large number of offline stores due to the epidemic, Farfetch's sales performance and stock price have risen during the epidemic. In a statement given on the official website, Farfetch said that although many cooperative buyers cannot make offline sales, the platform still strives to provide them with online channel support.
As a response to the outbreak, Farfetch said it would follow the professional guidance recommendations given by the international health organization and implement contactless delivery. It is worth noting that Farfetch has not suspended shipments from buyers in high-risk countries and regions. However, the official website statement did not mention whether there are clear requirements for killing and epidemic prevention for buyers.
In terms of logistics and transportation, if you place an order from Farfetch's Tmall store or App, DHL will mostly carry out international delivery. Large companies like DHL generally have a standardized killing process. However, it should be mentioned in particular that in order to buy goods at a lower price, many overseas Amoy consumers will choose to take the Hong Kong, Macao or European transshipment route after placing an order on farfetch's overseas official website, and the killing process may not be guaranteed.