A whole container of goods was stolen in the United States, causing the seller to suffer a direct loss of 1.6 million yuan!

Logistics is a very important part of cross-border e-commerce business, which directly determines whether the seller's goods can reach overseas consumers safely and on time. If there are problems in the logistics link, such as delays, lost goods, etc., the losses caused to the seller are also very large. Especially since the epidemic, logistics has been under constant pressure, and the frequency of problems has increased. At the same time, new problems have also continued to emerge.

Recently, a seller contacted Een.com and said that his entire container of goods disappeared in the United States. Lost goods are not uncommon in cross-border logistics, especially in a chaotic logistics environment, but the loss of an entire container is very rare.

As we all know, logistics prices have been pushed to a high level, and port congestion is still continuing. Under such circumstances, the theft of such a large number of goods is undoubtedly a double blow to sellers. The Spring Festival is approaching, and sellers have shipped all the goods they should ship, but they are worried about the logistics situation next year and the uncertainty of their business next year.

A whole container of goods disappeared in the United States, and there is still no explanation after more than 4 months

"Our goods were stolen, and the entire 40HQ was stolen!" A seller recently contacted En.com and said that it had been five months since their goods were confirmed to be stolen in the United States, but the issue of compensation had not been resolved. "This is a huge disaster for small and medium-sized sellers. Now we are also struggling on the brink of bankruptcy."

The seller said that on April 30, 2021, he commissioned Amazon Global Logistics (AGL) to ship a 40HQ full container of goods to Amazon's ONT8 warehouse in the United States. It arrived at the Port of Los Angeles on May 19, and the estimated delivery time was May 26, but there has been no news updates since then . During this period, he urged the customer service several times every week, but the response he received was a new delayed delivery time, and he was told that the scheduled delivery time would be delayed because the warehouse was busy.

Until September 14, they received a new message via email, "AGL informed us that our entire container of goods was stolen in the transit warehouse in the United States!!!"

The sellers did not expect that after waiting for more than three months, they would receive such "bad news". It is reported that the entire cabinet is worth 900,000 yuan and the freight is more than 36,000 yuan. While shocked, they quickly applied for compensation, but this road was also extremely difficult.

Firstly, when the goods were shipped, the seller had commissioned AGL to help purchase insurance, and AGL also said that the demand had been recorded. However, in August, the seller was informed that the insurance for this ticket had missed the purchase time, so it was obviously not feasible to claim compensation from the insurance company.

Secondly, as of press time, AGL has not offered any compensation or solution. "We provided all kinds of information as they requested, wrote no less than 40 emails, and communicated by phone no less than 20 times. Each time, we were told that different departments were communicating, the leaders were discussing, and the results would be given next week. Then, they pushed it back to the next week, and the next week to the next week, with no progress at all."

The sellers said that they initially transported the goods through AGL out of trust in Amazon , and their goods have always been transported through this channel. However, they did not expect the goods to be stolen now, and they have no way to claim compensation.

Sellers all know that the loss of goods will cause a chain reaction. In addition to the loss of goods, it will also lead to problems such as out-of-stock, reduced inventory capacity score, and lost shopping carts. The impact of the loss of an entire container is even more serious.

This seller has experienced all of the above. At the same time, he also found something infuriating and ridiculous among the sellers who followed him. Starting in September, he found that American sellers were following his listings on Amazon. Since the products were private models, one of them even obtained a US appearance patent. In order to make the complaint more successful, the seller directly bought several of the products that were followed, and found that they were the stolen products. " They didn't even tear off our product barcodes, they just simply covered them! "

The seller said: "The maximum number of copycats was as high as 15, and all of them were FBA goods." This means that the goods stolen from Amazon logistics are being sold on the Amazon platform, and the stolen goods are in Amazon warehouses.

Despite the overwhelming evidence, the seller was disappointed with Amazon's handling of the matter: "We started asking different departments of Amazon to handle this matter in September, and it was not until December that we removed the products that were copied from Amazon with the help of AGL."

In addition, during the period, the seller followed the low-price seller to grab the shopping cart. After replenishing the goods later, in order to win back the shopping cart, the seller had to sell 12,000 products at a loss and reduce the price , which resulted in a loss of more than 600,000 yuan.

All in all, the seller lost nearly 1.6 million yuan because of this incident . And because of the shortage of goods, the peak season sales were affected, leaving a lot of inventory. "The stolen products are our main link products. Cross-border e-commerce has a lot of backlogs. As a small and medium-sized seller, after this toss, we are already struggling on the brink of bankruptcy."

Cross-border goods are frequently looted during the epidemic, and sellers are suffering

In fact, lost goods are very common. Sellers often complain in various forums and industry groups:

“——XXX advises everyone not to use it, as it will cause crazy loss of items;

——My head hurts. The freight forwarder lost the goods and refused to compensate me. How should I deal with this?

——I really stepped into a big trap. The freight forwarder I changed recently not only delayed and refused to accept the goods, but now also said that the goods were lost, with all kinds of excuses. "

Recently, many sellers have even reported that their goods have arrived at Amazon warehouses, but they still disappeared inexplicably. One seller said that he recently found that Amazon has repeatedly missed the shelves. The waybill number shows that it has been signed for and the invoice has been provided, but Amazon refuses to acknowledge it and does not compensate. In total, the value of the goods has lost more than 20,000 yuan.

In addition to such sporadic loss of goods and items, it is not uncommon for whole containers of goods to be stolen, as the sellers mentioned above did. In April 2021, a 40-foot container sent by four sellers to Toronto, Canada was blatantly stolen along with the goods and the truck. When the local police found the stolen container, the goods had been basically emptied. In addition to such thefts of whole containers of goods, some lost goods and items happen from time to time.

A recent survey by Safewise found that more than 200 million packages are stolen across the United States each year, of which 53.9% of Amazon's express deliveries are stolen, FedEx ranks second with 15.5% of packages, and UPS ranks third with 11%.

In international trade, the risks of goods theft and loss are already higher than in domestic trade. Due to the epidemic, the cross-border logistics environment is chaotic, and these risks have soared.

According to US media reports on January 13, freight containers on the Los Angeles railroad tracks have been looted recently, with thousands of broken packages scattered all over the ground. These packages are either empty or damaged. The word "prime" can still be clearly seen on some of the packaging bags left at the scene . It is reported that most of these packages are goods shipped from companies such as Amazon and UPS to residents on the West Coast.

Even trains in motion can be stolen, and cargo piled up at ports is even more dangerous. Because the port's loading and unloading and transportation capacity for containers has declined, a large number of containers have piled up, which provides opportunities for some lawless elements.

There are more and more cargo thefts in the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. According to foreign media reports, in the first nine months of 2021, the amount of goods stolen from ports in the western United States reached 45 million US dollars, and the amount of goods stolen in the third quarter was 5 million US dollars, which is 42% higher than in 2020. Most of the stolen goods are electronic products and refrigerated foods. In addition, similar incidents have also increased in ports in Texas and Florida.

Generally speaking, it is difficult for sellers to control goods after they are shipped, especially in cross-border trade. As long as the goods do not reach the hands of consumers within one day, various accidents may occur in the middle. In this process, in addition to choosing a high-quality and responsible logistics company, it is also important to establish "insurance awareness". In international trade, buying insurance for your goods can not only compensate for some losses for sellers when accidents occur, but also save sellers from having to argue with logistics companies .

Fang Zhenming, a logistics person who has been in the logistics industry for 16 years and the founder and CEO of Yun Wujie, said that when goods are lost or stolen, sellers hope to transfer the risk to logistics companies. In the early stage, logistics companies also promised sellers that they would compensate, but in the end they often get into a state of wrangling, especially for high-value products. "Many sellers require logistics companies to compensate for the whole thing, but logistics companies usually only make 10% of the profit, so it is unrealistic to compensate in full. If the compensation is only tens of thousands of yuan, they can earn it back in a few months, and they may or can afford to compensate, but if it is to compensate hundreds of thousands of yuan, no one will be willing to do so."

He said that the healthy development of the cross-border e-commerce industry should involve the implantation of insurance to handle claims, rather than asking a logistics company that has no ability to bear the responsibility to promise that insurance will be used to pay claims in the event of lost goods. This is a good way for both logistics companies and sellers to avoid risks and prevent disputes later.

However, there is one issue that needs attention in this process , that is, the seller has to handle the insurance purchase related matters by himself. Doing so, on the one hand, prevent the logistics company from missing out on purchasing insurance as the seller in the previous article did . On the other hand, the logistics company purchases insurance, transports the goods by themselves, and then the goods are lost in their hands. In the insurance company's claims process, all of the losses are caused by their own behavior. The insurance company will make many difficulties in the claims and it will be difficult to compensate them.

However, although many sellers understand the importance of insurance, they still choose not to buy insurance. On the one hand, they are hoping for the best and think they will not be so unlucky; on the other hand, buying insurance is too troublesome, the premiums are expensive, and few insurance companies are willing to take on the sellers' scattered insurance.

Obviously, in this case, it is very necessary to open up the channels of logistics and insurance institutions. Sellers can choose their favorite airlines on a platform just like buying air tickets. If they need to buy insurance, they can also buy it with one click. The same is true in the cross-border e-commerce industry. Only by opening up the logistics system can convenient insurance purchase be formed. And when the same platform and the volume are large, the premium is likely to decrease.

Freight rates will remain high in 2022, and congestion will still exist

In addition to the fact that goods are more vulnerable to theft and loss, sellers are also overwhelmed by rising logistics prices and congested global logistics during the epidemic. As the Spring Festival approaches, sellers have already shipped out their goods before the New Year, but are worried about the logistics situation next year.

In the United States, a key market for sellers, while there has been speculation that the worst of supply chain disruptions may be over, port officials say the surge in imports shows no sign of stopping at the start of 2022. While some ports say they have been able to successfully handle the backlog of container ships, the number of ships heading to Southern California ports shows no sign of abating.

The first report of the new year from the Marine Exchange of South California also confirmed that little progress has been made in reducing the backlog. The report showed 16 vessels at anchor or within a 40-mile radius outside the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Another 89 vessels registered arrivals and were slowly making their way to Southern California. A total of 105 container ships were heading to terminals at the two ports.

In addition, US media reported on January 6 that there were 71,000 empty containers docked at the terminal, and 10,000 standard containers docked at the yard outside the terminal. More than two-thirds of the containers stayed for 9 days or longer.

Terminal congestion at major container ports in the United States and Europe has risen to new highs and shows no sign of improving as demand for goods outside Asia continues to grow, according to Sea-Intelligence data .

The latest data shows that globally, 11.5% of operational capacity was unavailable in November 2021, a drop of less than 1% for the month, the maritime data company said in a statement on January 11. This is higher than the normal standard of 2%.

Congestion levels at European ports are particularly severe and have been increasing since October last year , with few positive signs in sight.

As flight delays and terminal slowdowns increase, freight rates are also climbing. After retreating from all-time highs in the fourth quarter, the Platts Container Rate Index has been on an upward trend since mid-December, rising 7% since December 14. On January 11, the PCRI was assessed at $7,140.17/FEU, up nearly 65% ​​year-on-year.

Therefore, the logistics prices that many sellers expect to drop significantly in 2022, or even return to 2019 levels, are unlikely to be realized. Fang Ke, general manager of Shenzhen Anjun Logistics Co., Ltd., who has more than ten years of experience in the industry, agrees with this.

Fang Ke believes that in the short term, high prices cannot be changed. "Whether it is renting or buying ships, or renting or buying aircraft, the prices have not come down. For example, the price of renting an aircraft in 2021 has risen to 2 to 3 times that of 2019. The cost is here, and the price of crude oil is also high. If you want to recover on a large scale, it is impossible to complete it within one year in 2022."

Especially now that the epidemic in the United States is recurring, the number of infections continued to hit new highs in early January. Under the influence of the epidemic, its domestic low-end production chain is difficult to recover and the supply chain is not sound, so it still needs to rely on China. Therefore, Fang Ke believes that the supply and demand relationship has not changed fundamentally, which is also the reason why logistics prices cannot be reduced in the short term. However, it will have a fluctuation value, that is, the price reduction will not be lower than 25% in 2021, and the price increase will not be higher than 20%.

Fang Zhenming also expressed the same view, "High prices have become normalized and will not change so quickly in 2022. In addition, shipping companies are the biggest beneficiaries of the soaring freight rates, and the high profits in recent years are too tempting for shipping companies, so prices will not return to their previous passive state soon. "

"Before, shipping companies used to hold positions and look for customers everywhere. Now they don't need to do that." In Fang Zhenming's view, since shipping companies have turned from passive to active, they will not give up easily. "It's not that shipping companies don't have the ability to open more ships now, but opening more ships means that prices will fall, and the profit of opening one ship now is higher than opening five ships before. Is this the reason why they don't open more ships?"

Although, with the increasing number of people engaged in cross-border logistics, competition is becoming increasingly fierce. In order to attract customers, there will be price cuts, but from the perspective of the dealer, prices will not fall. Fang Ke predicts that logistics prices will really fall in 2023. "In 2023, there may be such a situation. The epidemic may not be completely controlled, but Europe, the United States, and Latin America will restore their own supply chains. In this case, the dependence on Chinese products will be less, and freight rates will gradually fall."

As for the problem of port congestion, they all said that there will be improvements in 2022, but it will not be fundamentally solved.

Among them, Fang Zhenming said that the current logistics congestion problems are all abroad, such as the United States. In the long run, they will also see problems affecting people's livelihood. "The epidemic will not change, and people can adapt to the epidemic. So after two years of precipitation, under normal circumstances, people will adapt to it and will slowly adapt to the actions in the epidemic, but the effect will not be very good, it is just an improvement."

In conclusion:

Many cross-border people would describe the logistics in 2021 as "difficult": the Suez Canal was blocked, the Los Angeles/Long Beach ports were congested, container rates soared, and some ports in Yantian Port and Ningbo Port were closed due to the epidemic... All of this is a big challenge for both cross-border sellers and logistics companies. Not only did it not improve as expected in 2020, but in the process, due to the shortage of shipping capacity, freight rates continued to rise, and at the same time, many problems were exposed, such as air shipments to sea shipments, and Matsun using ordinary ships.

However, although the epidemic has disrupted the entire flow of goods, what it has brought to cross-border e-commerce sellers is the same. Everyone is at the same starting point. Therefore, in 2022, the most important thing for sellers is to keep a calm mind, not blindly compete with low prices, and plan operations. At the same time, it should be noted that it is necessary to adjust the stocking strategy according to the logistics situation, make a good delivery plan, and adapt to the new delivery environment under the epidemic.

In addition, due to the epidemic, the economies of many European and American countries are in a downturn. In addition, Westerners have no concept of saving money. A bad economic environment will lead to unemployment, and then there is no savings, so strikes, protests and other activities will still occur from time to time. In this case, delays, thefts and robberies are particularly likely to occur, and sellers should pay attention to taking preventive measures.

Entire container stolen