China Post: The largest logistics and distribution company?
China Post is working hard to enter the field of logistics and distribution with its strong brand advantage and unrivaled "three major network" resource advantages, trying to clear the logistics bottleneck of e-commerce as a starting point, and gradually establish Start your own e-commerce kingdom, thereby realizing the "rebirth" of the traditional postal industry in the Internet era. Can China Post realize this dream?
----At the end of July, China Post held a logistics and distribution negotiation meeting with more than 40 companies that have great influence and popularity at home and abroad. During the negotiation, Dell, IBM, Qingdao Haier, China HP, Xerox, Xi'an Janssen, Shenzhen Runxun, etc. signed letters of intent for logistics cooperation with China Post on the spot. The media also exclaimed: China Post wants to be the leader in the logistics and distribution industry. The fact behind all this noise is that China Post, the "big brother", has one foot in the water and is ready to try China Post's e-commerce road bit by bit.
Logistics: a big market
----At a time when domestic e-commerce is facing development bottlenecks and Internet stocks are also facing major adjustments, we hold high the banner of "China's logistics and distribution industry" The flag-based China Post is naturally a bit out of the blue. The golden combination of resources and timing seems to have given China Post a chance to embrace its second spring. After all, logistics and distribution, as a key link in the realization of e-commerce, itself is a huge market opportunity.
----The results of the "China's First Online Shopping Test" that ended in June show that online shopping in China today is not as convenient and fast as people imagined in the Internet economy era. Although the number of online stores is growing exponentially, the "services" that users are most concerned about do not perform well here.
----According to statistics, so far, there are more than 600 online stores in my country, selling a wide variety of products, ranging from home appliances, computers, cars to oil, salt, sauce and vinegar. Bag. But if we ask how attractive the online shopping provided by these websites is, or how much convenience it can bring to ordinary people, no one could tell before. This online shopping test finally allowed people to partially see the "true face of Mount Lu" from three aspects.
----First, the website image is less attractive. The transaction process is not clear enough, which is very restrictive for first-time shopping netizens; the products are dazzling, but the varieties are too few, and netizens have less choice; the product introduction is not comprehensive, and it is impossible for netizens to truly understand the features they are interested in; The slow connection speed of the website is also an issue that needs to be improved.
----Second, distribution is still the bottleneck. At present, my country's online stores are highly regional. Judging from the number of online stores, Beijing is far ahead, accounting for 30%, followed by Shanghai and Guangzhou. However, my country's logistics system is not very sound, and Internet users often cannot receive goods ordered online in time. In addition, the response speed of websites to orders varies. The fastest website takes 5 minutes, the slower one takes 4 days, and the slowest one has not responded at all.
----Third, the means of payment are primitive. Since the current domestic credit card system is not perfect enough and network security is poor, netizens are worried that online payments will cause a lot of unnecessary trouble. According to statistics, 85% of online stores currently adopt the "door-to-door, cash on delivery" method. Although this is also favored by netizens, some problems will arise when using this method: For example, if the website delivers goods by itself, the shipping fee will be waived, but the website cost is high. If it is through other methods such as express delivery companies, users will be charged shipping fees ranging from 5 to 8 yuan, which makes users feel that the cost of online shopping is too high. According to statistics, there are 35 online stores that do not give consumers invoices or the invoices are insufficient after "delivery to door, cash on delivery", or simply use other receipts that cannot replace invoices.
----Good logistics management can greatly reduce the cost of an enterprise.
As early as the 1960s, Peter Drucker predicted that the logistics field would be the "dark continent" of economic growth, the "final frontier of cost reduction," and the "third source of profit" after reducing resource consumption and improving labor productivity.
----It is estimated that logistics costs can account for 30 to 50% of the total value of goods, and the logistics industry can greatly reduce the costs from this part. For example, in Japan, in the past 20 years, every time the logistics industry grew by 2.6 percentage points, the total economic volume increased by 1. In the United States, the scale of the logistics industry has reached 900 billion US dollars, almost twice that of the high-tech industry. Last year, the net income of the top 20 third-party logistics service providers in the United States reached US$9.34 billion.
----Also in the United States, due to rising service fees, the manufacturing cost of products is less than 10% of the total cost. Compared with the time spent on storage, handling, transportation, sales, packaging and other activities, , the processing time of the product is only 1/20 of the time consumed by these activities, which is almost negligible. In my country, Shenzhen City has identified the logistics industry as the third pillar industry after high-tech industries and finance.
----And more importantly, logistics is a service. For e-commerce companies, the delivery of goods may be the only opportunity for customers to face-to-face with the merchant during the shopping process; for logistics companies, meeting with customers is a good opportunity to showcase their own business. The quality of logistics services will directly affect the company's image in the minds of customers, and will also determine to a large extent whether there is a possibility of the next transaction. After all, in the era of e-commerce, the role of retaining an old customer has been valued by everyone. Otherwise, software such as customer relationship management (CRM) would not be so popular. But when purchasing expensive software, you cannot ignore every detail of contact with customers. At the China Regional International Logistics Summit held in Shanghai, a Chinese student from Japan talked about his experience and feelings working at Sagawa Kyuben. During a delivery, he encountered a traffic jam 1 kilometer away from the destination, so the courier took him and ran 1,000 meters carrying 50 kilograms of goods to deliver the goods on time. The customer saw the two people sweating profusely in the middle of winter. After learning the whole story, he decided to hand over the one-year express delivery contract to Sagawa Express.
Logistics and distribution: the first step for the postal service to develop e-commerce
----Xu Zuzhe from the Data Communications Institute of the State Post Bureau said in an interview with reporters that from the perspective of the development situation of logistics and distribution and Judging from the advantages that the postal service has, it must do a good job in logistics and distribution.
----On the one hand, the development of the situation urgently requires the postal service to do a good job in logistics and distribution. It is precisely because the role of logistics and distribution in e-commerce is so important that many wholesale and retail companies operating physical chain stores have established their own distribution centers to provide logistics and distribution services to chain outlets within the company, and are moving toward socialized logistics and distribution. Service expansion. At the same time, the state encourages foreign investment to enter the field of logistics and distribution, resulting in the emergence of more than 10 Sino-foreign joint venture logistics companies in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and other places to provide logistics and distribution services to multinational companies investing in China, becoming a strong competition for multinational companies to compete in the Chinese market. arms. It is foreseeable that the logistics market in the future will be a diversified situation where many players are vying for the top position, each showing its own capabilities. Especially after China joins the WTO, this situation will become more prominent. If the postal service fails to seize this market in time, it will be equivalent to giving up its strengths and will be at a disadvantage in future e-commerce competition.
----On the other hand, in terms of logistics and distribution, the postal service has obvious advantages. The Postal Service has a large delivery team and a delivery network that extends across urban and rural areas, which is not available to any domestic enterprise. First, China Post has implemented an advanced postal network operation system and has built 236 large-scale distribution centers in large and medium-sized cities across the country, which can undertake logistics processing, storage, distribution and other services, covering more than 2,300 cities at or above the county level across the country. . Second, China Post has a huge trunk transportation network consisting of airplanes, trains, cars and other means of transportation. It not only has its own airlines, but also has 510 self-owned train carriages and 33,000 postal vehicles of various types.
Through the postal trunk transportation network, China Post can transport mail and items to their destinations quickly, accurately, safely and conveniently. Third, China Post has a large-scale, unified-brand marketing and delivery network covering both urban and rural areas across the country. China Post currently has 67,000 business offices with complete service functions, more than 40,000 delivery offices, 124,000 delivery personnel, and 15,400 motor vehicles for delivery. This marketing and delivery network is definitely the first in the domestic logistics and distribution industry in terms of business scale and service scope.
----Xu Zuzhe said that at present, China Post will focus on providing services and cooperation with four types of enterprises and units: the first type is institutions of higher learning. College students are the fastest group to accept new things, and they are most likely to become the purchasing and promoting groups in the B2B e-commerce model; the second category is Sino-foreign joint ventures, which is the user group that China Post must strive to win over; the third category The first category is large state-owned enterprises such as electronics, medicine, and building materials. These enterprises have sufficient ability to develop domestic markets and even foreign markets, but often lack their own delivery capabilities and urgently need partners in this area; the fourth category is some domestic small and medium-sized enterprises. Enterprises, this is a user group with great potential.
----It is reported that China Post currently follows the principle of "pilot first, then promotion" to promote logistics and distribution business, that is, in the process of implementing e-commerce logistics and distribution, first choose the economy, transportation, and geographical environment and other areas with relatively good conditions as pilot projects. On the basis of successful experience, we will gradually promote it. At present, this kind of pilot business has been carried out in Guangzhou, Beijing, Chengdu and other places.
----China Post is uniquely endowed with its comprehensive postal network (information resources), powerful logistics network and postal green card network based on postal savings. Xu Zuzhe said that the postal service should give full play to the functional advantages of the "three streams in one" of physical logistics, information flow and capital flow and the network advantages of multiple points, wide coverage and long lines. Starting from logistics and distribution, while accelerating the transformation of the existing network, We will further accelerate the construction of the postal comprehensive computer network and the postal green card network, and gradually advance in-depth into various online transactions, including online shopping and online securities, online payment, and security certification, and ultimately achieve the goal of all-round involvement in e-commerce.
----Lv Tingjie, deputy dean of the School of Management and Humanities of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, also believes that China Post is the most likely to develop e-commerce. He said: "Some people predicted that among the three positions that will be eliminated in the next century, postmen will be ranked first. From this perspective, the postal service has shrunk. But at the same time, we know that information can neither be eaten nor worn. For example, the postal service has shrunk. , what appeared in China's online survival test event not long ago - ordering food online without a logistics department to deliver it to you is still a game. People can never get the goods directly from the most modern information network. E-commerce, where physical objects move at the speed of light, can only be accomplished when the three networks of information flow, capital flow, and logistics are sound. Without a delivery system and a credit card electronic data exchange system, the network alone will not work. ”
----China Post, which aims to develop the logistics and distribution industry, has set three-stage goals for itself——
----Short-term goal: through the establishment of a preliminary electronic postal service Access platform, business platform, electronic payment, security certification system, etc., to realize the preliminary postal e-commerce system and promote the expansion of new postal business. The main construction tasks include building an electronic postal website, interconnecting with the Internet, building an outlet payment system, a security certification system, 185 service center and 183ISP and business software development and related supporting systems. After the pilot project is completed, online postal markets, online post offices, information services, online shopping malls and other online services will be available to users.
----Medium-term goals: On the basis of "three networks in one", realize online payment and security certification, establish and develop a more standardized network including the national center and 31 provincial centers across the country. , a postal e-commerce system with postal service characteristics, and explore new types of electronic postal services.
----Long-term goals: Gradually realize high efficiency, low cost, online services, and globally interoperable electronic postal systems for postal services and production management, and form a complete e-commerce environment as a basis for foundation, expand businesses outside the postal industry, cooperate with manufacturers and merchants, and continuously expand new economic growth points in the postal industry.
Huge advantages, but shortcomings still exist
----When it comes to postal services, people often say: the entire process and the entire network, multiple points, multiple lines, a long range and a wide range of services. But behind these advantages, Xu Zuzhe from the Data Communications Department of the State Post Bureau also admitted that China Post also has many weaknesses in facing this brand-new business. The main manifestations are:
- In the 20 years of reform and opening up, the development of the postal service has lagged behind, and it has not occupied a large market share in the commercial logistics field in a timely manner, and the traditional express delivery and mail order markets have also been lost. ;
——Although huge sums of money have been invested in building a comprehensive postal network, apart from building scale in the postal savings business, the business volume has not been expanded by using the network in physical delivery;
——The processes and management of basic postal services are still based on manual work, and computers and networks have not fully played their role.
----A more serious problem is that the postal service has a low degree of automation in the information interaction between network data and manual work, and both the input and output of information have become bottlenecks. Therefore, manual work cannot be replaced by sufficiently intelligent machine processing.
----In this case, it is difficult for the postal service to gain a cost advantage in the face of traditional commercial logistics, and it lacks a speed advantage in the face of emerging network operators. It is still difficult to avoid "giving up the city's coastal trunk lines" , operating in a passive situation at the end of rural mountainous areas. Therefore, how to give full play to the advantages of the entire network, organically integrate the network and artificial intelligence, gain advantages in competition, and expand market share is the first problem that China Post must solve.
----Liu Jun, sales manager of the e-commerce department of China Book Import and Export Company, told reporters that the concept of e-commerce logistics and distribution is qualitatively different from traditional logistics and distribution, and the operation of monopoly industries The approach is in some aspects inconsistent with future development needs. He said that in many large and medium-sized cities, postal services have greatly improved in terms of technology, equipment and other hardware conditions, but the enhancement of service awareness cannot be solved by how much money is invested. In addition to the internal demand of the postal service to develop large-scale logistics and distribution enterprises, this also requires pressure from external competition.
----In addition, the current postal delivery costs are also high for e-commerce developers and users. Liu Jun said that if the postal service wants to gain a firm foothold in the field of e-commerce logistics and distribution, it must find ways to reduce distribution costs to a level that people can accept. When a website chooses a delivery provider, in addition to its service level, the most important factor is price.
----When the postal boss realized the huge value of its network resources, logistics has actually become a hot field. It is not easy for the postal service to make a major contribution to logistics. Among them, large companies that have established huge sales networks across the country, although like the postal service, are latecomers to the logistics industry, the latter will undoubtedly become strong competitors in the logistics field. The main reason is that the latter emerged from the market economy environment. They have flexible mechanisms and already have their own long-distance transportation and warehousing networks, unlike postal long-distance transportation which still relies on other transportation systems.
----Konka, which already has 60 branches, 210 business departments, and more than 8,000 sales teams across the country, is very proud of its huge sales network, although the annual cost of maintaining this network is Two hundred million. Mr. Xu Chuncheng, who is in charge of e-commerce at Konka, said directly: "We will not consider letting the postal service deliver goods. How does the postal service deliver it? How does it transport a TV from Shenzhen to Beijing? How high is the cost? Some do not have a national marketing network, and Companies with products that are hard, small, and light can consider the postal network," Xu said, "We don't consider others to be our third-party logistics. Konka even intends to use its huge sales network to become others' third-party logistics. Logistics." According to his introduction, Konka has begun to contact large foreign companies for this business.
----In addition to large companies, some small delivery companies active in various places will also be the most powerful competitors of the postal service. Industry insiders believe that the most valuable part of the postal physical delivery network is that with its well-developed nerve endings, it can not only go directly to your door, but also reach the most remote places. Therefore, local delivery should be the post's strength. But can this strength be fully utilized? Can the temper of "Postal Boss" be changed?
----When the reporter first mentioned that China Post wanted to engage in logistics distribution, Xu Chuncheng was somewhat disapproving. He believes that it will be difficult for China Post to change its state-owned thinking within a few years. "Although the nerve endings of the postal network are very powerful, they may not be able to fully function. At least, can it be available on call?" Xu Chuncheng asked.
----It seems that there are still some doubts, both internally and externally, about the dream of becoming the largest logistics distributor or even e-commerce company that China Post is actively promoting. Will China Post make full use of its resource advantages to achieve new market changes and regain its glory? We'll see.