SHEIN and TEMU’s China direct mail model is reshaping the global air freight market!

Posted by FBASZ
Category:

The cross-border direct mail business model of Chinese cross-border e-commerce platforms TEMU and SHEIN, which ships products directly from Chinese factories to European and American consumers, is occupying air freight capacity at an alarming rate and reshaping the air freight market. This phenomenon has caused concerns about tight capacity and skyrocketing freight rates during this year-end transportation peak season

In 2023, SHEIN and TEMU became popular in the US market, attracting a large number of consumers with extremely low commodity prices.

E-mail and SMS marketing platform Omnisend once conducted a shopping habit survey on 1,000 Americans and found that in 2023, 70% of American consumers had purchased goods on global and Chinese online platforms, of which more than half (57%) shopped on TEMU, 43% on SHEIN, and 33% on TIKTOK; 20% shopped on AliExpress; more than half (51%) of American consumers said they bought adult clothing from SHEIN, and 37% bought household goods from TEMU. In addition, 1/5 of American consumers said they shopped at least once a week on TEMU, SHEIN, AliExpress, Amazon and Etsy.

The performance of e-commerce platforms such as SHEIN and TEMU has accelerated. In order to deliver goods to European and American consumers faster, e-commerce platforms have adopted the practice of directly shipping goods from Chinese factories and shipping them overseas by air. This cross-border direct mail model has led to a surge in shipments in southern my country, triggering increasingly fierce competition for air cargo capacity, which has not only led to increased air freight costs and capacity shortages in major Asian air cargo hubs; it has also eliminated the traditional peak and off-season distinction.

For example, June is usually the off-season before the end-of-year holiday shopping season, but under the influence of platforms such as SHEIN and TEMU, air freight rates have risen by about 40% compared with the same period last year; according to data from Xeneta, a sea and air freight rate benchmark and market intelligence service provider, the average spot price of air freight from southern China to the United States in late June was US$5.27/kg, more than twice that of 2019. Niall van de Wouw, head of Xeneta’s air freight department, said that the rapid rise of Chinese e-commerce has completely reversed the pattern of the air freight market in a very short period of time.

According to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), thanks to trade growth, booming e-commerce and shipping capacity restrictions, air freight demand in all regions has risen sharply. Global total air freight demand in terms of freight ton-kilometers (CTKs*) increased by 14.7% year-on-year in May 2023, achieving double-digit year-on-year growth for six consecutive months. Among them, demand in the Asia-Pacific region was particularly strong, with air freight demand increasing by 17.8% year-on-year in May, the Africa-Asia trade channel increasing by 40.6% year-on-year, and the Europe-Asia, Inland Asia and Middle East-Asia trade channels increasing by 20.4%, 19.2% and 18.6% respectively, and capacity increasing by 8.4% year-on-year.

At the same time, cargo planes flying from Asia to Europe and the United States usually carry small, high-priced items such as smartphones and laptops, as well as perishable items such as fish and flowers, but now SHEIN and TEMU’s low-cost clothing and household goods are occupying air freight space.

en_USEnglish