Small commodities in Yiwu, a county-level city in Jinhua, Zhejiang province, are gaining in popularity overseas thanks to platforms like Temu and TikTok. To expedite the export process for small cross-border e-commerce orders at a lower cost, businessmen in Yiwu have honed in on the pivotal role of "consolidation agents".
In the consolidation warehouse of Baina International Logistics Company in Yiwu, packages from across China were loaded into 15 containers on Sept 9, with goods bound for the same destination consolidated in a single shipment.
The traditional "Less than Container Load" export model requires specific documents corresponding to individual goods. Different entities had to complete various processes for each shipment, resulting in high costs and low efficiency.
The "consolidation agent" method involves a single document for all goods in a container and the agent is responsible for all export processes, significantly enhancing efficiency, explained Chen Yongjun, chairman of Baina and a prominent consolidation agent.
"Over 20 percent of Yiwu's e-commerce exports now utilize this efficient approach," added Chen.
Wu Tingxuan, marketing director of Zhejiang RockBros Sports Equipment Group, highlighted the cost-effectiveness of this method. "By consolidating goods in Yiwu, shipping costs to the United States can be as low as 3 yuan ($0.42) per kilogram, just one-tenth of air freight costs," said Wu.
Yiwu's global trade growth is fueled by the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of this innovative model. In the first seven months, the total value of Yiwu's imports and exports reached 379.10 billion yuan, with cross-border e-commerce transactions totaling 86.71 billion yuan, a 17.9 percent increase year-on-year.
