In 2025, it is destined to be difficult for cross-border sellers.
Global trade volume is expected to shrink by 3.5%, setting a record for the most severe contraction since 2009; Orders are becoming increasingly fragmented, with small and short orders becoming mainstream, and the transportation cycle for large goods can take up to 3-5 months. The problems of slow inventory turnover and high risk of unsold goods are becoming more prominent. What's even more troublesome is that Amazon FBA warehousing costs have skyrocketed by 18% year-on-year, with over aged inventory accounting for 12%, and profits are gradually being swallowed up by inventory pressure.
Just as everyone was anxious about inventory and turnover, a group of sellers began to quietly change their tactics: they no longer bet heavily on warehouses, but instead place their goods in local warehouses and use flexible overseas warehouse distribution models to achieve "sell first, replenish later" and "shipping", activating funds and spreading risks. Data shows that by laying out local warehousing and distribution systems in advance, sellers can reduce their overall tariff costs by an average of 60%, becoming a key lever for counter trend growth.
In this context, overseas warehouses are no longer an "option", but a "must-have" for cross-border enterprises to survive and thrive. Yimai Cross border has launched a research report titled "2025 Cross border E-commerce Supply Chain Restructuring and Overseas Warehouse Layout Strategy". Starting from the actual operational pain points of sellers, the core logic of overseas warehouse layout is dismantled to help enterprises of different sizes find suitable low-cost breakthrough solutions.
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Key to breaking through the overseas warehouse: data confirms its core value
The consumer market has increasingly high requirements for timeliness and cost-effectiveness. 66% of American consumers consider "free shipping" as a prerequisite for placing orders, and the overseas warehouse's "advance stocking+local shipping" model precisely solves the pain points of slow cross-border logistics timeliness and high costs. Data shows that over half of the sellers' overseas warehouse shipments have exceeded 20%, with 30% of sellers' shipments accounting for 61% -100%.
As of early 2025, the number of overseas warehouses serving China's cross-border e-commerce has exceeded 5300, forming a complementary ecosystem of platform warehouses, third-party warehouses, self operated warehouses, and overseas warehouse distribution models. Overseas warehouses not only optimize customs clearance processes and reduce transportation costs, but also improve return and exchange efficiency, becoming the core infrastructure for balancing costs and efficiency and enhancing user stickiness.
