Rural e-commerce logistics bottleneck awaits breakthrough, e-commerce platforms and China Post join forces
At the beginning of this year, Guangdong Province issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Rural E-commerce Development," proposing to build 50 county-level e-commerce industrial parks and 100 township e-commerce operation centers across the province, achieving full coverage of rural e-commerce service stations in administrative villages; by 2020, the overall development level of rural e-commerce in the province should rank among the top in the country.
In the vast rural areas of Guangdong Province, especially in remote regions, e-commerce development has only just begun.
Over the past several months, Southern Daily reporters conducting grassroots research across Guangdong Province have found that rural e-commerce has encountered many difficulties in its development, with numerous bottlenecks still to be overcome. Following 10 "Sample Survey" articles, we are launching "Hotspot Survey" starting today, focusing on hot and difficult issues in rural e-commerce development. Stay tuned.
High logistics costs, slow express delivery, difficulty reaching remote areas... Logistics and distribution have always been a major bottleneck for "e-commerce going rural," directly affecting the efficiency of industrial goods going to the countryside and agricultural products entering the cities. Over the past months, Southern Daily reporters have conducted interviews in Lianjiang, Nanxiong, Renhua, Yingde and other places, where e-commerce enterprises and rural consumers talked most about the issue of logistics and distribution.
In the process of competing for the rural market, platform enterprises such as Alibaba, JD.com and Suning have continuously explored logistics solutions with distinctive characteristics, while traditional circulation enterprises such as supply and marketing cooperatives and China Post are also attempting to transform and develop by riding the wave of rural e-commerce. For a time, models such as logistics relay, opening direct-sale stores, allying with rural grocery stores, and platforms joining forces with circulation enterprises have emerged one after another, opening up smart possibilities for solving the "last mile" problem of e-commerce going rural.
E-commerce service stations reach deep into villages and towns
Online shopping has become part of daily life for urban residents, but in many rural areas it has only just begun. It is not that farmers dislike affordable and quality online shopping, but rather that some agricultural machinery, agricultural supplies and large home appliances often require villagers to pick up their goods in town or even at the county seat themselves. Logistics issues have greatly affected the promotion of e-commerce in rural markets. In recent years, major e-commerce platforms have been building e-commerce service outlets in grassroots villages and towns, extending the reach of logistics and express delivery into every corner of the rural market.
In March of this year, Shixing County began introducing the Rural Taobao partner system, establishing 33 rural Taobao service stations locally through government subsidies and support, with Alibaba providing training and rewards. Rural Taobao service stations mainly serve as "buyers" for rural consumers who are not convenient with online shopping, and also serve as logistics distribution transit stations for online purchases. At the Taiping Township service station in Shixing County, Zou Tingting, who has a disability, told reporters that her service store can receive about ten orders a day, mainly home appliances, clothing and some daily necessities. These goods are first delivered to the service station, and then delivered directly to villagers' homes by electric tricycle. By taking a certain percentage of commission from Taobao sellers, she earns two to three thousand yuan in commission income each month.
Another e-commerce giant, JD Group, has built a rural e-commerce service system through the "JD Service Center + JD Bang" model, using these "strongholds" to penetrate the rural market. It is understood that JD Service Centers are generally located in county seats and are operated independently by JD, while "JD Bang" service stores reach deep into grassroots villages and towns and have a franchise partnership with JD. Together they undertake functions such as rural promotion, ordering on behalf of customers, and logistics distribution. Lin Jianghua, a delivery person at the JD Service Center in Lianjiang, told reporters that he travels over 150 km every day to deliver goods to various villages and towns, and his monthly order count has risen from about 70 when he first started to over 500 now. The person in charge of the service center said that the construction of rural e-commerce service outlets has greatly alleviated distribution difficulties. In the days after "Double 11," the service center was able to complete about 5,000 deliveries per day.
Zhou Weiyuan, president of Lecuntao Guangdong Company, believes that grocery stores and small supermarkets scattered throughout villages can absolutely be renovated and upgraded into rural e-commerce service stations. At present, Lecuntao's reach has extended into Shaoguan, Zhaoqing, Shanwei and other places, and its experience stores have become "transit stations" for local villagers' online shopping, readily solving the hassle of express delivery. In Daling Village, Renhua County, reporters saw at Aunt Cheng's convenience store at the village entrance that after joining Lecuntao's rural experience store, the store had installed an electronic touch screen that could place online shopping orders on behalf of customers. "In two months, I placed over 20 orders on behalf of customers, including shoes, clothes, steamers and some appliances," said Aunt Cheng. Generally, goods can be delivered within a week after placing an order, and then she notifies the villagers to come to the store to pick them up.
China Post and supply and marketing cooperatives make a magnificent transformation
As traditional circulation enterprises, supply and marketing cooperatives and China Post have network coverage in vast rural areas that is almost unmatched by other enterprises. Today, the supply and marketing cooperative and China Post systems are also accelerating their transformation, playing an increasingly large role in building the rural logistics system.
Liao Shenghua, director of the Nanxiong Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology, told reporters that when Nanxiong applied last year to be a comprehensive demonstration county for e-commerce entering rural areas, its partner was China Post Nanxiong Branch, and China Post's postal routes in Nanxiong could cover 400,000 people across 18 towns. "This also laid the foundation for solving the 'last mile' problem of rural e-commerce in the future." According to Liao Shenghua, at present in Nanxiong, China Post has established rural e-commerce service stations in 18 towns, and by the end of this year will complete the construction of 100 village-level e-commerce service stations. By then, this logistics advantage of next-day delivery will be realized in more villages and towns.
Xinhui District of Jiangmen City entrusted the heavy responsibility of integrating and leading rural e-commerce development to the supply and marketing cooperative system. These old stores, which have cultivated the rural market for many years and whose reach extends deep into villages, towns and streets, once connected to the internet, transformed into "online stores" full of modern genes - e-commerce service stations. Huang Ruilou, deputy head of Xinhui District, told reporters that by October, supply and marketing cooperatives in 50 villages and towns across the district had completed upgrades, and next year more than 190 administrative villages across the district are expected to establish e-commerce service stations in full. By then, supply and marketing cooperatives will become important strongholds for developing rural e-commerce, opening up all links for products going upward and downward.
In Yingde, supply and marketing cooperatives are likewise a vital force in developing rural e-commerce. After being listed in 2014 as a pilot for comprehensive reform of supply and marketing cooperatives across the province, they gradually explored an operating model of "Internet + supply and marketing cooperative + farmers' cooperative + farmers." Yingde City is the largest county-level city in Guangdong by area, and the distances between county and town, and between town and village, are long. To achieve delivery from county to town and into villages and households, the logistics problem must be solved. Fu Shangbo, director of the Yingde Supply and Marketing Cooperative, told reporters that Yingde follows an e-commerce development approach of urban-rural coordination and online-offline integration. It is leveraging the advantages and characteristics of supply and marketing cooperatives, adopting a method of "combining virtual and physical, using the large to lead the small," advancing from county seat to township, and from township to village level, deeply promoting the construction of a rural e-commerce physical network. "At present, we have developed 68 supply and marketing cooperative township and village service stations. This year we will also build 24 township-level service centers and 120 village-level service stations, achieving full coverage of all 24 towns (streets) in the city and basically solving the 'last mile' problem of rural circulation."
Big data lends a hand
Rural warehousing and logistics become more efficient
If village and township service stations are the peripheral nerves of the rural e-commerce logistics network, responsible for receiving, sending and transiting express parcels, then the warehousing and logistics center, as the central nervous system, also plays a crucial role in the efficiency and speed of the entire logistics system. In fact, whether JD.com or Suning, in the process of expanding into the rural market, both are sparing no effort in building county-level warehousing and logistics centers to ensure that online purchases are quickly delivered into the hands of rural consumers.
After exploration in recent years, Alibaba's Cainiao Network chose a two-pronged approach - building its own warehouses to push goods downward and revitalizing existing regional transport capacity. On the one hand, through big data forecasting, Cainiao Network moves home appliances, agricultural supplies and tools that better match rural purchasing habits down to Cainiao county warehouses in advance, achieving 50% same-day delivery and 100% next-day delivery; on the other hand, Cainiao Network uses data systems to organize express and logistics companies from various places, building a more densely distributed delivery network in rural areas. In September of this year, Cainiao Network launched the county-level smart logistics product "Chengyun," establishing through big data algorithms a transport capacity service platform for the regional logistics market. Merchants place orders via mobile phone to drivers of franchised logistics companies, and the full logistics details of parcels are traceable throughout the entire process.