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Editor | Yu Bin
Produced | Chaoqi.com ‘Yu see column’
The express delivery industry has survived the most difficult time and gradually regained its vitality. The signs of recovery and even full recovery are obvious. Although the business volume of express delivery companies has declined, the industry revenue has generally increased, mainly due to the single ticket income of express delivery. On the increase, since the 618 promotion, the consumption potential has been gradually released, consumers’ enthusiasm for purchasing has accelerated the recovery of the industry, and the business volume has rebounded rapidly.
In the past year, the express delivery industry has stepped out of a wave of V-shaped rebound.
In recent years, the competition in the domestic express delivery industry has been extremely fierce. Major express delivery companies have adopted the strategy of changing orders at low prices to compete for market share. Especially since 2020, Jitu Express from Southeast Asia has entered domestic express delivery. The market quickly set off a new round of price wars.
In order to maintain market share, domestic companies were forced to cut prices to meet the challenge, and companies such as SF Express and Shentong also suffered losses. The exchange of price for volume is indeed effective in the short term, but from the perspective of the long-term development of the industry, the entire logistics industry will be caught in a cash burn. In the competition of involution, it affects the quality of service and is not conducive to the healthy development of the industry and enterprises.
Data from the State Post Bureau shows that in the first three quarters of last year, domestic express delivery service companies completed 76.77 billion pieces of business, a year-on-year increase of 36.7%. However, the single-piece express delivery revenue was 9.68 yuan, down 11% year-on-year, which shows the fierce price war.
After the price war was stopped in the second half of last year, the major express delivery companies successively raised the delivery fee, which not only greatly relieved the pressure on the company itself, but also helped the company’s annual performance to rebound rapidly. A track of healthy competition.
Last year, the domestic express delivery industry completed a total of 108.3 billion pieces of business, a significant increase of 29.9% year-on-year. ZTO Express accounted for 20.59% of the market share with a business volume of 22.3 billion pieces, ranking first. The six listed express companies achieved revenue of 381.091 billion Yuan, the total net profit attributable to shareholders of the company reached 11.838 billion yuan.
This year, these six companies have continued to demonstrate strong profitability. Currently, increasing single-ticket revenue is becoming the top priority of each company. Since March this year, the single-ticket revenue of major express delivery companies has been on the rise year-on-year.
For example, YTO’s single-ticket revenue from March to June increased by 10.11%, 16.41%, 23.24% and 24.58% year-on-year respectively, and Yunda also increased by 18.26%, 24.02%, 23.27% and 27.23% respectively.
From the revenue and net profit data, it can be seen that several major logistics companies, including three links and one delivery, SF Express, etc., have seen a substantial increase in net profit since the fourth quarter of last year. It can be said that the fourth quarter of last year was the express delivery industry. A watershed in the overall performance of the industry.
In the first half of this year, the trend of recovery continued. For example, Yuantong’s revenue last year was 45.155 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 29.36%, this year’s revenue was 25.066 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.58%, and the net profit attributable to the parent was 1.774 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 174.72%.
Yunda’s revenue last year was 47.129 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 24.56%. This year’s revenue was 22.826 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.35%. The net profit attributable to the parent was 546 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.4%. The net profit also increased substantially.
It is particularly noteworthy that the market concentration of the express delivery industry continues to increase. Last year, the market share of the top five companies in the express delivery industry was about 78%, an increase of about 5 percentage points year-on-year.
Low-price competition and small profits but quick turnover are not conducive to the healthy growth of the industry
The birth of Jitu broke the traditional pattern of express delivery. Yiwu even had an ultra-low price of 8 cents to send to the whole country. The price war in the industry made the express delivery giants complain, and the industry did not increase its income. Last year, the domestic The total revenue of express delivery business was 1,032.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%, which was lower than the 29.9% growth rate of business volume.
Low-price competition and the business model of small profits but quick turnover have lowered the overall single ticket price and profit of the industry. Among them, SF Express has been the most affected. In order to make up for the gap in the e-commerce platform business, SF Express has launched special discounted products to vigorously promote economic products. The growth of the business has caused the company’s gross profit margin to gradually decline, and the result is that the increment does not increase the profit.
In addition, in terms of investment in logistics infrastructure, SF Express spent a lot of money to build a logistics turnover chain with efficient operation. Such high investment has brought high costs. With the growth of business volume and the increase of logistics links, the cost pressure that enterprises need to bear also increases. The bigger the value, the more obvious the above factors were during the price war. SF Express’s long-held profit title was also given to ZTO Express, which came out on top in the two key indicators of business volume and profitability.
After bidding farewell to the price war model, major express delivery companies are actively exploring how to find new opportunities between price and efficiency and regain new differentiated competitive advantages. Since last year, SF Express has begun to adjust product structure and pricing strategies, such as reducing The single volume of low-margin business will gradually increase the single ticket revenue.
At the same time, SF Express began to enter the international business and acquired foreign logistics companies such as Kerry Logistics. After hard adjustment, on the basis of consolidating the domestic logistics business, the company successfully opened up the global market. In the first quarter of this year, the company’s net profit was 1.022 billion yuan. , successfully turned losses into profits and stabilized its position, sweeping away the adverse impact of a loss of 989 million yuan in the same period last year.
At present, the company’s single-ticket revenue is still rising, and the company’s development this year is also stable and improving. In the first half of this year, SF Express’s revenue was 130.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.2%, and its net profit attributable to the parent was 2.51 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 231%. Net cash flow was 16.71 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 285.83%.
Nowadays, express companies realize that price war is not a long-term solution, and high-quality development has become the consensus of the industry. In the past, the informatization and automation level of the domestic express delivery industry was not high, resulting in low efficiency of logistics operation and management, coupled with the single form and content of services. , companies can only expand market share through price wars.
Now the express delivery industry is changing the traditional thinking mode of exchanging price for quantity and turning to a new stage of improving consumer experience and service quality. With the help of the continuous integration of digital technology and the logistics industry, the goal of reducing costs and increasing efficiency and enhancing competitiveness is achieved.
For example, many companies actively promote customized services and personalized services to meet customer needs. For example, around the distribution of agricultural products, companies have adopted service modes such as direct delivery from the origin, direct delivery of cold and fresh products, dedicated line transportation, and three-dimensional transit to meet the different service needs of different customers. .
There are also many companies focusing on broadening the service boundaries of the express logistics industry and promoting the extension of the logistics service network to small cities and vast rural areas. The express delivery can be uniformly delivered to the door by a fixed courier, which realizes the villagers’ desire to receive and send express delivery at their doorstep, and also solves the last mile distribution problem in rural areas.
Bringing new potential for development with new thinking of high-quality development
Data from the State Post Bureau shows that in the first half of this year, the express delivery business volume is expected to be 50 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of about 3.6%, and the business income is expected to be close to 500 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of about 2.8%. level of the same period last year.
With the steady development of the e-commerce industry, the scale of the express delivery industry continues to expand this year. Promotional activities such as the Shuangpin Online Shopping Festival and the 618 Shopping Festival have led to a rapid recovery in the volume of express delivery business. During the period, the highest daily order volume exceeded 400 million. piece.
‘Yu Jian Column’ believes that in the post-price war era, the rough development model is no longer feasible, and express delivery companies still need to work hard to improve operational efficiency and service quality. Good cost partitioning, management tiering and service classification.
Precision and personalization is to refine the express business and provide personalized services for different needs, so as to improve the consumption experience of users, such as Yuantong’s Yuanzhunda and Zhongtong’s exclusive pieces are all based on this benefit. try.
Digitization is to use information empowerment to gradually promote the high-quality development of logistics services, to use technology empowerment to gradually improve the operational capabilities of terminal outlets, and to use digital upgrades to comprehensively reduce costs and increase efficiency. The proportion of unmanned sorting facilities has further improved efficiency and reduced costs.
For the already saturated express delivery market, digital service is a good starting point. Enterprises can use the digital system as the starting point to gradually improve the precise service capability of the entire logistics system through data sharing and information interconnection.
For example, ZTO comprehensively uses various data algorithms, real-time analysis and calibration technologies to help refined operations. On the basis of improving the sorting speed, it also reduces the rework cost caused by sorting errors. Last year, ZTO’s parcel sorting The number of pickings decreased by 3.5% year-on-year, which means that companies can reduce the number of distribution centers and save more sorting costs and labor costs.
After the upgrade of Yunda high-speed matrix, the sorting efficiency has increased by 37%. During the process of single-layer automatic cross-belt from sorting to transportation, the whole process does not stop and only needs to scan the code once. The sorting efficiency is as high as 20,000 pieces per hour. The rate is less than 1/10,000, and sorting and labor costs can be greatly saved under the same workload.
In terms of logistics and distribution, the unmanned transportation vehicles launched by major logistics companies are also very powerful on the ground and in the sky.
SF’s unmanned logistics aircraft have safely operated nearly one million sorties in many places as of last year. ZTO’s terminal delivery intelligent unmanned vehicle weighs 250 kilograms. The unmanned vehicle can also be linked with intelligent express cabinets to complete express delivery.
Obviously, these digital and intelligent means can help companies break through the bottleneck of human resources and the limitation of labor costs, further reduce costs and increase efficiency, and improve the company’s all-weather service capabilities.
Epilogue
‘Yu see column’ believes that for major express delivery companies, the key is to find the next increment of growth. After bidding farewell to the quagmire of price wars, high-quality development has become the main theme of the express delivery industry. On the basis of quality, the company has also launched digital and intelligent distribution tools such as unmanned vehicles, drones, and smart express cabinets, which fully reflects the company’s in-depth thinking and preparation for future market trends.
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