For the person in charge of running a fresh fruit enterprise, it is normal to think twice when choosing the shipping area for products - berry products are not convenient to ship in remote areas; High priced and hard fruit categories can be shipped nationwide, which is a habit formed by store managers over the years of operation. But this habit is gradually being broken now.
On September 9, Pinduoduo launched a discount on logistics transfer fees for transfer orders in remote areas, that is, for all transfer orders in remote areas generated in Pinduoduo platform, merchants only need to send the orders to the transfer warehouse, and the logistics transfer fees for the second shipment of the transfer warehouse to Xinjiang, Xizang, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and other remote areas will be borne by the platform. At present, the new exemption measure has covered all merchants on the Pinduoduo platform.
Starting from September 9th, Pinduoduo will exempt merchants from logistics transfer fees for orders placed in remote areas, which will be fully borne by the platform.
It can be expected that Pinduoduo's new reduction measures launched before Double 11 will have an incentive effect on the consumption data of this year's big promotion. However, as the person in charge of Pinduoduo's related business said, "Express delivery is a bridge connecting production and consumption, and a 'barometer' reflecting economic vitality." As an important component of economic development, e-commerce logistics should not only focus on immediate consumption data, but also on the long-term boost of regional consumption vitality and market development. Pinduoduo has set its sights on the construction of logistics infrastructure in remote western markets, laying out the chessboard of inclusive e-commerce in two years, and has now received initial feedback.
Let democratic movements lower costs
Driven by digitalization, the market in remote areas of the western region is in a good development opportunity. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2023, the proportion of consumer goods retail sales in the central and western regions to the total social consumer goods retail sales will reach 24.4% and 20.8%, respectively, an increase of 4.0 and 2.7 percentage points from 2012.
However, despite the strong consumption development in the remote areas of western China, "parcel post of goods, except for remote areas such as Xinjiang and Xizang" has long been an unspoken recognition of people, and it is also a practical problem for the development of logistics industry in remote areas.
The regular press conference held by the State Post Bureau revealed that due to the differentiated economic development levels in the eastern, central, and western regions of China, there are significant differences in the difficulty and objective economic conditions for developing rural postal logistics in different regions. At present, the development level of rural delivery logistics in the central and western regions lags behind that in the eastern regions. In addition, due to the objective reality of vast land, sparse population, and high costs in rural areas, the level of express delivery services in rural areas is difficult to fully match with that in urban areas.
It is gratifying that the logistics difficulties in remote markets in the western region are gradually improving, for example, JD.com is leveraging its logistics advantages to establish commodity trading centers in the central and western regions. For example, Pinduoduo pioneered the Western Transit consolidation and free shipping model in 2022, and launched free free shipping to villages ahead of Xinjiang in 2023, further reducing the distance between end delivery points and consumers to 2 kilometers. Pinduoduo also provides express delivery services such as "3-day delivery" and "7-day no reason return". Recently, Pinduoduo has also implemented new measures to reduce transit fees for remote areas.
Many village entrances in Xinjiang can see notices of delivery entering the village
In the view of Sun Qiming, a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and vice president of the China Western Research and Development Promotion Association, the high logistics costs in remote markets in the west have limited the expansion of merchant markets and consumer choices. Pinduoduo's new measures to reduce transit fees have significantly reduced logistics transportation costs and improved the consumer experience.
Thanks to Pinduoduo's proactive efforts to reduce logistics costs, the leaders of fresh fruit enterprises can consider including Xinjiang in the daily sales scope of fruits with long shelf lives. From his perspective, without Pinduoduo's new reduction measures, the shipping cost of fruit products not only far exceeds that of other regions, but is even more expensive than the price of the fruit itself. The platform bears the transportation cost for secondary shipments, which is equivalent to directly giving a discount to the merchant. The merchant's express delivery fee per order can be reduced by 60% to 80%.
The continuously lowering logistics costs have also made the vast western market more attractive. According to a report by CITIC Securities, from January to June 2024, the proportion of express delivery business in western China was 8.5%. Compared with the same period last year, the proportion of express delivery business in western China increased by 0.9%. More businesses are willing to sell their products to the western market, and more express delivery services are flowing into remote areas, further reducing logistics costs and establishing a positive cycle in the logistics industry.
Logistics and industry mutually promote and advance together
In the opinion of Professor Wang Xiaoping from the School of Logistics at Beijing Institute of Materials Science and Technology, local industries and e-commerce logistics should promote and influence each other. After the establishment of a positive cycle in the logistics industry, the logistics infrastructure will gradually improve in the cycle, and the industries in remote western areas will have room for growth.
In fact, the convenience of logistics is not only reflected in "entering the village", but also in "leaving the mountain". For shop owners in Xinjiang, sending express delivery was expensive in the past and they could only do offline business. With the continuous deepening of logistics measures by Pinduoduo, the cost of online sales is gradually decreasing. Publishing hundreds of dried fruits and nuts from the store on the Pinduoduo platform for sale has become a viable option, providing a channel for local high-quality, small-scale specialty products to enter the national market.
The improvement of logistics infrastructure not only affects agriculture. One of the challenges in the development of remote markets in the western region is the relatively backward industry caused by remote location, vast land, and sparse population. Therefore, talent outflow is relatively serious, which continues to affect industrial development and form a closed loop. "Wang Xiaoping said," Pinduoduo's new measures to reduce transit fees provide an opportunity to break the closed loop. For e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, the new measures to reduce transit fees are not just subsidies, but to establish a sound logistics system and logistics ecology from a long-term perspective, providing convenience for e-commerce and consumers, while providing services for more industries and enterprises, ultimately stimulating the development of the local economy and promoting the integration of the western region into the domestic consumption cycle
In Sun Qiming's view, Pinduoduo's new measures to reduce transit fees are more like a universal innovation in logistics - continuously reducing logistics costs allows high-quality products from remote areas in the west to enter the national market smoothly, and even go global, enabling the economy of remote areas to achieve self circulation, reducing the economic gap between remote areas and the central and eastern regions with endogenous power, promoting regional development balance and coordination. With the planning and deployment of promoting the development of the western region in the new era, the idea of "the whole country playing a game" has truly been put into practice.
Western market strengthens infrastructure first
It is worth mentioning that since the development of e-commerce platforms, the work of breaking through logistics "bottlenecks" and building a major channel for e-commerce westward has been continuously carried out. Whether promoting free free shipping to villages in Xinjiang or reducing logistics transfer fees in remote areas, Pinduoduo is at the forefront of the e-commerce industry. This raises the question: why Pinduoduo? Why did the reduction of logistics transfer fees occur this year?
In Wang Xiaoping's view, Pinduoduo's proactive reduction of logistics costs is closely related to the development of the consumer market. In recent years, the central and eastern markets have gone through a stage of rapid growth, and the market pattern has tended to stabilize, while the western market is booming at this time, and there are still vast sinking markets waiting to be developed.
Pinduoduo's forward thinking development strategy in logistics can be seen as benefiting both merchants and consumers, "said Wang Xiaoping." As a rising star, Pinduoduo is expanding its market share in remote western consumer areas. It has both product and price advantages as well as commercial value, which is a win-win situation for the platform, merchants, and consumers
In Sun Qiming's view, Pinduoduo's logistics measures highlight the cumulative effect of China's western development over the past 20 years. Both e-commerce and logistics development cannot be achieved overnight, and today's thriving development relies on the infrastructure construction that China has invested in remote areas in the west for many years. Pinduoduo's new logistics measures may seem to have only reduced the cost of transit, but in fact, they demonstrate the fruitful achievements of the Western Development: the network is getting faster, roads are becoming smoother, residents' living standards are getting higher, and the living environment is getting better - this has become an important reason for Pinduoduo's new logistics measures to be implemented today, and also one of the driving forces for the Western Development in the new era.
How can e-commerce and logistics promote the participation of the western region in the dividends of high-quality economic development after the cake of remote markets in the western region expands?
Continuously improving the infrastructure of the logistics industry remains crucial. The State Post Bureau recently held a routine press conference proposing to accelerate the construction of nodes and ensure the guarantee of county-level express delivery parks, county-level processing sites, and township service facilities. On the other hand, we must adhere to local conditions and accelerate the realization of a new situation in the construction of village level stations.
The construction of a modern logistics distribution system is equally important, and efforts should be made to accelerate the digitalization, aviation, warehousing grid, and intensive distribution of the logistics industry in the western region, "said Sun Qiming.
Empowering technology is also an inevitable step. The regular press conference of the State Post Bureau proposed to promote the application of advanced technology in rural delivery networks, facilities, services, and other aspects, thereby promoting the iterative upgrading of rural production organization methods and driving the reduction of logistics costs. By sharing data and interconnecting information, we aim to enhance the information service capabilities of rural delivery logistics systems and achieve effective connectivity of delivery enterprise data throughout the entire chain.
Talent cultivation is the foundation. For example, the cultivation of local e-commerce talents. E-commerce platforms can provide training for technical talents in remote areas of the western region, allowing local people to participate in industrial development and achieve coordinated regional development as a whole, "said Wang Xiaoping. （CIS）