Introduction: New Year challenges, logistics costs hit a new high
With the end of the New Year's Day, the pace of the Spring Festival is getting closer and closer. However, for cross-border e-commerce sellers, including our POD clothing sellers, the New Year brings not only the joy of the festival, but also a series of new challenges. Logistics, in particular, saw the first wave of shocks at the beginning of the year. — The sharp rise in sea freight, just invisibly, increases our costs, making it appear “ Meager ” Margins are being squeezed again, and it's a bit “ Add insult to injury ” So, how should we POD clothing sellers deal with the rise in sea freight? And what real impact does Shanghai have on us? This article will delve into the reasons behind this phenomenon and provide effective coping strategies for POD clothing sellers.
Soaring logistics costs: Challenges at the start of the New Year
At the beginning of the New Year, a number of well-known shipping companies announced that they would raise the sea freight price from January 1. Mediterranean Shipping (MSC), CoSCO Shipping, Yangming Shipping, Maersk, CMA and other companies have joined the ranks of price increases. Specifically, the price increase of the US-West route is between 20% and 30%, and the US-East route is up about 16% to 18%. This change not only affects the cost structure of sellers, but also brings a small impact on the entire supply chain.
Reasons behind the surge of sea freight in the New Year
Market supply and demand imbalance
- Factory holidays at the end of the year: With the arrival of the end of the year, factory workers take early holidays, and sellers urgently need to ship before the factory holidays, leading to a surge in demand for sea transportation.
- US routes in short supply: On US routes in particular, demand far exceeds supply, further pushing up sea freight rates.
For our POD clothing sellers, scattered single items can also be shipped by air, such as Amazon's FBM, or AliExpress's new logistics, but for the sale of good “ Explosion ” Or “ Small explosion ” In order to reduce costs, it is inevitable to use sea freight, and in the current situation, air freight costs will inevitably increase, even higher than the actual cost of sea freight, because air freight itself is much more expensive, so during the New Year, the rise in sea freight will inevitably affect our profits.
Port strike threat
- International Longshoremen's Association (ILA) threatens strike: The ILA is said to be holding a coastwide strike on January 15. Previous strikes have caused port congestion and delays, with sellers hedging their risks by bringing forward shipments, driving up sea freight rates.
In the face of the strike on January 15, a large number of cross-border e-commerce sellers will inevitably choose to ship in advance to avoid the risk of congestion and delay caused by the strike, especially those who sell goods and have insufficient stock of sellers, even more so, and for our POD clothing sellers, the most terrible thing is mainly the shortage of small explosive goods. Too much preparation, often aggravate the inventory risk, ready in general, you need to often replenish, once there is a problem, it is often easy to out of stock, so that the link weight decline, coupled with seasonal changes, resulting in hot products cooling, but you can not judge when it will cool down, so for these small explosive products and explosive products, we POD clothing sellers are usually to ship on time, Dynamic adjustment, can not be too much, can not be too little, adjust changes at any time, the most afraid is such a temporary threat.
Tariff policy uncertainty
- Trump's inauguration is approaching: In the face of the upcoming tariff policy adjustment, many companies began to stock up and ship goods in advance, increasing the demand for shipping.
From the beginning of Trump's campaign, he proposed to increase tariffs on Chinese goods, and claimed to cancel the $800 duty-free quota, this series of actions, are clear that in January 20, after the other party officially came to power, there will be a tariff rise policy, in order to avoid this situation brings unpredictable risks, many enterprises, including large enterprises, It is inevitable that goods will be prepared and shipped in advance at this time, which has led to a greater imbalance in logistics supply and demand during this period of time, which has led to a rise in sea freight, and even an increase in air freight, which has brought pressure on our POD clothing sellers to increase costs, and at the same time, it is also worried about the profit caused by subsequent tariff increases being compressed again.
Coping strategies: How sellers can stay competitive amid logistics challenges
Reasonable planning of inventory
- Fast clearance of unsalable products: Timely processing of unsalable products to reduce inventory overstock.
- First quarter cargo preparation: Plan ahead for the first quarter cargo demand to ensure supply chain stability.
According to their own products, as far as possible to arrange and plan their own product inventory, is one of the most critical factors to maintain competitiveness in logistics challenges, at the same time, we should also adjust the operation strategy according to the inventory of goods, product profits, in order to cope with unknown and unpredictable risks.
Optimize operational processes
- Improve delivery efficiency: Improve delivery speed and reduce logistics costs by optimizing internal processes.
- Multi-channel distribution: Consider using a variety of distribution methods to spread the risk.
In the face of unpredictable risks in the American market, optimizing operation strategy is one of the important contents, and multi-platform and multi-channel distribution is also what we must do now. With the increasingly fierce competition, it has begun to become more and more difficult to obtain certain profits in this market, we must carefully carry out stock and operation strategy. Try to take small steps, and not because of the temporary “ Impulsivity ” And putting all your eggs in one basket leads to greater risk.
Use promotional activities to increase sales
- Participate in the Amazon New Year Sale: Seize the opportunity of Amazon's New Year sale to increase sales and compensate for the rise in logistics costs.
Catch all promotional activities, increase sales as much as possible, and ensure certain profits, is one of the important ways to reduce costs and inventory, and with the increase of tariffs, or other unpredictable risks, further reduction of profits, or increasingly fierce competition is inevitable, preparation and response in advance may enable us to reduce risks at the same time, It can also ensure higher competitiveness.
Future trend: The way to long-term profitability of cross-border e-commerce
Supply chain integration capability
- Strengthen supply chain management: Strengthen cooperation with suppliers to ensure supply chain stability and flexibility.
- Product development ability: Continuous improvement of products to meet consumer demand and improve product quality.
Resource mobilization ability
- Flexible deployment of resources: Flexible deployment of human and material resources according to market demand to improve operational efficiency.
- Operation and promotion ability: Increase marketing efforts, enhance brand awareness, and attract more customers.
Conclusion
At the beginning of the New Year, the rise in sea freight has brought new challenges to cross-border POD clothing sellers, and also let us see the future market prospects more and more unpleasant side, however, by reasonable planning inventory, optimizing operational processes, using promotional activities and strengthening supply chain management, We POD clothing sellers are still likely to maintain a certain competitiveness in the fierce market competition. And reminds us that the future success not only depends on the product itself, but also needs to show a strong comprehensive ability in all aspects, I hope that POD clothing sellers in the next days, more attentively, careful, cautious, secure, in order to seek a long-term and stable profit model.
FAQ (FAQs)
1.Q: What are the main reasons for the increase in sea freight?
A: The main reason is the imbalance between supply and demand in the market, the threat of port strikes and the uncertainty of tariff policies, which lead to the recent increase in freight costs. At the same time, the New Year activities of e-commerce platforms such as Amazon have also aggravated this phenomenon. Because of the domestic New Year relationship, cross-border e-commerce sellers in order to prepare enough goods, so as not to run out of goods in the New Year, resulting in irreparable losses. It will inevitably lead to an increase in recent shipments, and the increase in shipments, the number of ships can not keep up, or can keep up, but the logistics side wants to seek greater profits, naturally will increase the freight, in fact, this reality has begun since December 2024, and the increase is larger.
2.Q: How to deal with the cost pressure caused by the rising sea freight?
A: Reasonable planning of inventory, optimization of operation process, the use of promotional activities to increase sales is an effective way, although the sea freight increase is larger, but because the sea freight in all freight, in fact, is the cheapest one, at the same time, the cost of each product is lower, if you can sell more products during the New Year, In terms of the actual transaction profit, the proportion of sea freight is relatively low, even if the increase is significant, the impact on the cost is not too great if it is equated to each product. On the contrary, if there is not enough goods, the sales volume during the New Year will increase greatly, resulting in the situation of out of stock, and the loss will far exceed the increase of sea freight. This is why cross-border e-commerce sellers are willing to “ Accept ” Based on this, in the current situation, find a way to sell more products and increase the overall profit, will be the main way to effectively combat the rising pressure of sea freight.
3.Q: What are the highlights of Amazon's New Year promotion?
A: Amazon New Year promotion activities set up a number of plates, including Top100+, comfort essentials and other popular products, aimed at attracting consumers to place orders, stimulate consumption, because foreign countries and China's Lunar New Year, so many cross-border e-commerce platforms, in order to harvest this period of traffic and profits, have introduced similar to “ Open for Spring Festival ” Activities, such as TEMU, and some other platforms are the same, not only Amazon has New Year activities, it can be seen that during the New Year promotion, it will inevitably cause some consumers' enthusiasm for consumption.
4.Q: Will it be more difficult to register Amazon stores in 2025?
A: Yes, it is expected that the difficulty of Amazon store registration will be increased in 2025, it is recommended that sellers prepare relevant materials in advance and strictly abide by the rules of the platform, with the increase of sellers, traffic and consumer demand has not increased correspondingly, it is bound to enter the trend of stock competition, in this case, in order to maximize the benefits, Whether it is the registration difficulty of Amazon stores or the level of requirements for stores, it will become higher, which is reflected in the increase in the difficulty of new store registration, the non-compliance of the store has become more and more strict, and the costs will continue to increase, in a word, the seller will be more difficult, and the cost of marketing will be higher.
5.Q: What is the long-term profitability of cross-border e-commerce?
A: Long-term profitability requires a strong supply chain integration ability, product development ability, resource mobilization ability and operation and promotion ability, but in essence, it is still necessary to understand the needs of consumers, only to find the demand, start from the demand, do a good job of products, in order to have long-term profitability, and want to go further, obtain long-term rich profits, It is necessary to integrate the supply chain, reduce costs, quickly mobilize a large number of resources, fast replenishment, with scientific and sensitive inventory management capabilities, coupled with excellent operation and promotion capabilities, it is possible to exceed competitors in all aspects and obtain long-term rich profits.
