Russia to raise the threshold for overseas online shopping

In late June, the Russian Ministry of Finance issued a new piece of new regulations on the tax exemption policy for overseas online shopping, triggering a collective spate of cross-border e-commerce businesses in China and also hurting the cross-border e-commerce business more than the domestic e-commerce businesses Determine the risk of sensitive nerves.

According to regulations, since late July, cross-border online shopping packages that can be tax-exempt from the price of less than 1000 euros and not more than 31 kilograms per month, adjusted to import tariffs of 30% of the value of packages of more than 150 euros or more than 10 kg .

Insiders believe that because Russia is currently one of the most important markets for cross-border e-commerce businesses in China, the new deal will have a huge impact on the current cross-border e-commerce businesses in China. In the future enterprises in order to obtain development opportunities in the Russian market, we must establish an overseas warehouse or set up branch offices in the local operation. However, some logistics industry people think that from the perspective of the product mix with Russia, overseas positions may not be the best choice. Rather, it is more flexible to establish border bureaus.

Digging out of emerging markets

From the data we can see why such a new regulation in Russia aroused so much repercussions in China's cross-border e-commerce enterprises.

According to the statistics of the Customs, the turnover of cross-border e-commerce in 2013 was 70 billion yuan. Although it was much lower than that of domestic e-commerce, the growth rate was fast. According to the monitoring data of the China Electronic Commerce Research Center, the CAGR of cross-border e-commerce transaction volume was as high as 31% from 2008 to 2013.

According to Zhang Zhifeng, chairman of Shenzhen Jiefang Road Network Technology Co., Ltd., who has been engaged in cross-border e-commerce for many years, the competition has been fierce in the fast-growing cross-border e-commerce market because it is a mature developed market. As a result, many companies engaged in cross-border e-commerce are eyeing emerging markets. With the rapid sales of Alibaba (Rolling Stock), Russia has become a popular emerging market for Chinese enterprises to enter.

According to the customs statistics of the Russian Federation, the number of incoming parcels in Russia reached 7 million in 2013 with a total amount exceeding 2.8 billion euros, of which more than 60% were from China. At present, the total amount of goods sent to Russia through China's e-commerce platform is not less than 4 million U.S. dollars per day, and the number of parcels is nearly 300,000.

But the most exciting for Chinese sellers is the growth potential in the Russian market. Russia's ecommerce retails accounted for 1.9% of total retail sales, compared with 6.3% in China and a global average of 6.5%. Whether it is compared to China or the world, the proportion of retail sales in Russia is very low. As the stores sold in offline physical stores in Russia are more expensive, the locals have been keen on online shopping and the growth rate is very fast. According to the forecast made by the parties concerned, if Russia's share of e-commerce retail sales rises to 4.5%, the 2012 e-commerce scale of Russia will amount to 12 billion U.S. dollars, which means the share of e-commerce operators will increase to 36 billion U.S. dollars. With the popularization of broadband in Russia and changes in the purchasing habits of consumers, more Chinese products will be imported into Russia through the internet.

The rapid development of Russia's electricity supplier market has attracted international electricity supplier giants to enter successively. In 2013, Amazon set up an office in Russia, and in the same year its Russian website came online. At the same time, the British electricity supplier Asos also fancy the Russian market, recently launched the Russian website. Among these, Chinese enterprises with manufacturing advantages are even more unwilling to squeeze into the Russian market through various channels. At present, China's cross-border e-commerce enterprises mainly export 6 kinds of goods to Russia, namely clothing, electronic products, shoes, luggage, auto parts, jewelery and sellers mainly in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shenzhen. The former mainly exports garments and the latter specializes in electronics Products and jewelery.

Border warehouse is standard

Although the growth of cross-border e-commerce business is rapid, more uncertainties are faced than domestic trade. For instance, cross-border logistics, payment and settlement, policy changes in various countries and consumer buying habits all affect cross-border electricity Business stability and continuity. The new regulations promulgated by Russia are aimed at directly and accurately cracking down on exporters to Russia.

According to Wang Bin, a deputy general manager of Heilongjiang Russian Speedway International Logistics Co., Ltd., an online retailer specializing in Russian logistics, the online retailer in Russia believes that the threshold set by its government to foreign retailers is too low, causing unfair competition. On the other hand, domestic retailers have to pay customs duties and other taxes on imports from overseas. Therefore, in May of this year, representatives of these retailers lobbied President Putin for fair treatment. It is said that the next day, Putin asked the relevant departments to adjust the tax exemption conditions for overseas network packages.

Some analysts believe that this adjustment will have a huge impact on China's foreign cross-border e-commerce businesses. Because the AliEx encourages price competition, Russian consumers have developed parity. Zhang Zhi-feng after research found that most of the current cross-border e-commerce buying population is not the mainstream of local e-commerce crowd, but all the planned consumer groups, they will not impulse to buy, the price is very sensitive. However, this adjustment will significantly increase the purchase cost of these price-sensitive people. However, the margins of low-margin cross-border e-commerce operators who have already made a profit margin are not large and the impact on sales volume is obvious. Zhang Zhifeng predicts that in the future, the competition among cross-border e-commerce providers will no longer be competition among peers, but will be based on the regionalization of local online sellers and offline physical stores.

In this regard, some experts suggested that in the future want to get a chance in Russia, the localization of operations will be the main trend, that is, set up overseas warehouses in Russia or directly set up branch offices for localized operations, the bulk of the goods shipped to Russia's warehouses, Then by the local warehouse will be online shopping package handed out. At present, overseas warehouse operations in Europe and the United States market is very mature, and even point out that overseas warehouse will become the standard cross-border electricity supplier in the future, will greatly reduce the delivery time and reduce the fluctuations in logistics and distribution cycle, but also conducive to providing localized After-sales service.

But for this response, Wang Bin does not think it is a good idea. He said that at present, China's cross-border e-commerce exports to Russia are mainly textile products, while overseas ones are mainly suitable for heavy-weight and oversized products. The success and risks of establishing overseas ones are not low. It is hard to return to China. Choosing "White Customs Clearance" (which refers to the formal customs procedures) will increase the cost to weaken the competitiveness, choose "Gray Customs Clearance" (which means not taking the formal customs procedures), and have no legal source products Once seized, will lose everything. On the contrary, Wang Bin suggested that the enterprises that trade with Russia may choose to store the goods in the border warehouses.

From the cost point of view, the three methods, the "white clearance" overseas warehouse costs> border warehouse costs> "gray customs clearance" overseas warehouse costs, the cost of border warehouses in the middle. Border warehouses do not have these problems compared to the large tariffs and cumbersome customs clearance processes involved in bulk cargoes. After the customer receives the order, the goods exit the border and are cleared by post. This ensures the efficiency of customs clearance and also ensures the safety of the goods. However, from the time of view, the border positions overseas warehouse will slow 1 to 2 days.

According to the speed-controlled Harbin border warehouses, the goods will take 5 hours to fly directly from Ekaterinburg to Harbin after the customer bills. As the third largest city in Russia, Yekaterinburg is located between Moscow and Petersburg, picking fast. In this way, the shipment of goods from Harbin to Yekaterinburg to be re-sorted to major cities is only extended by one to two days longer than delivery from overseas warehouse in Russia. Comprehensive cost and timeliness of view, price-oriented, low customer price of the goods is not suitable for the choice of overseas warehouse services, but for large, high value goods overseas warehouse more appropriate.