202 1 Four "wars" in the field of express delivery, no one can escape.

Recently, with the release of business briefings of SF Express, Dayun, Tong Yuan and Shentong in February 2020, the business data of the four major express delivery companies in 2020 have all been released. A few days ago, ZTO Express also revealed that the annual business volume in 2020 was 654.38+07 billion pieces, a year-on-year increase of 40.3%. For a time, the business transcripts of the five major express delivery companies have all been seen, and only the transcripts of Debon and Baishi have not yet been announced.

Under the influence of the epidemic, online consumption has accelerated. As an important transportation link in online consumption, express delivery accelerates the release of demand. As can be seen from the above data, these five enterprises completed more than 60.7 billion votes in business in 2020. In 2020, the business volume of national express service enterprises totaled 83.36 billion votes, with five businesses accounting for nearly 73%, and the market concentration was further improved. At the same time, we can also find that Zhongtong's market share exceeds 20%; SF has maintained rapid growth, with annual business volume reaching 865,438+37 million votes, an increase of 68.47% compared with 4.83 billion votes in 20 19; Dayun, Tong Yuan and Shentong realized express delivery business volume of1465438+82 million tickets,126.48 million tickets and 88180,000 tickets respectively.

During this period, express delivery companies not only showed their achievements in 2020, but also gradually began to set the strategic deployment of 202 1. Recently, the 2020 year-end summary meeting and the 20021planning meeting of express delivery enterprises such as Dayun, Tong Yuan and Zhongtong have also been held one after another, which basically determined the development direction and market play of the enterprises in the coming year. Combined with the recent actions of enterprises, it is not difficult to see that no one can escape the next four "wars".

Endless "price war"

Price war has always been a hurdle in the competition of express delivery companies, and the price competition has surpassed it for many years. During the epidemic in 2020, a round of news that "0.8 yuan is the lowest in Yiwu" blew up the whole industry. Today, the performance of several major express delivery companies has been released. As can be seen from the chart, the price is falling continuously, and this price war will undoubtedly continue to 202 1. After all, all kinds of preferential products, technologies and other inputs have reduced costs and improved efficiency to a certain extent, leaving some room for price reduction for enterprises. Moreover, Wang Feng, Jitu and Zhong You, which have just entered the market, will continue to stir up market prices, and the price war in the next year will be even more cruel.

However, it should be noted that the price war may be unsustainable in the future. According to Liu Jiang, director of the Index Research Office of the Development Research Center of the State Post Bureau and deputy director of the Big Data Laboratory, there are three main reasons. The first is the development stage. China's economy has shifted from a high-speed growth stage to a high-quality development stage, and China's express delivery industry has also accelerated its transformation from a high-speed growth stage to a high-quality development stage. After the previous price war, the market structure has changed, and the second-and third-tier express delivery enterprises have gradually withdrawn or transformed into specialization, and the market structure of e-commerce express delivery will change from monopoly competition to oligopoly competition. Followed by quality drive. Comparing the development experience of Europe and America, Liu Jiang believes that the express delivery industry in China will usher in the stage of rapid improvement of service quality after the price has continuously bottomed out. After the listing, the express delivery company continuously strengthened its transportation capacity, processing capacity and information input, and began to shift to heavy assets. Joining companies have accelerated the independent management of sorting centers and vehicles, and paid more attention to the improvement of service quality. Third, it is the driving force for growth. The development idea of "two in and one out" put forward by the State Post Bureau points out the direction for the development of enterprises, and the development of enterprises faces a broader space.

It can be seen that this price war is still an unavoidable competitive category for express delivery companies, but it will no longer be their main means of competition. After all, this kind of "killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred" is not obvious, nor is it a long-term solution, so they may shift their competition points next.

"Digital War" to Accelerate Transformation

At the Dayun Holdings 2 1 network conference held recently, Dayun Chairman and President made clear the main tasks of Dayun 202 1, one of which was to continuously strengthen capacity building and scientific and technological construction, accelerate the transformation of Dayun from relying on traditional elements to activating all elements, and expand from labor-intensive to capital technology data-intensive, and continuously improve Dayun's service guarantee capabilities in data management, digital express delivery and intelligent services.

At the 20021tuning meeting, Pan, president of Express Line, stressed that in China, it is necessary to continuously improve service quality, promote basic capacity building, reduce costs and increase efficiency of the whole network, deepen digital transformation, upgrade products, expand markets, enhance customer experience, and continuously reduce costs through refined management.

When the two companies set the tone for next year, they both mentioned accelerating digital transformation. In fact, in recent years, major express delivery industries have spared no effort to invest in digital layout, such as the distribution of digital equipment and systems in distribution centers, transit stations, trunk lines and terminal distribution, in order to achieve the purpose of reducing costs and increasing efficiency. Because enterprises know that in this process, cost control and service quality have become the two most important indicators. To win in the competition, digital transformation is the only methodology for express delivery enterprises. As an expert said, express delivery companies found that it is difficult to achieve rapid growth in scale simply by relying on price war when the price of express single ticket approaches marginal cost, so express delivery companies chose a new digital road.

As reported by the media, the digital transformation of Shentong is divided into three parts: First, the whole station business moved to Alibaba Cloud; Second, apply Minas engine; Third, realize the digital scale application of smart factories and improve the network intelligence; In line with the digital development trend, Tong Yuan has continuously increased its investment in R&D, strengthened the application of advanced information management tools, and strived to realize the digitalization, informationization and intelligence of business operation management, and helped the scientific and meticulous control of service quality, cost control, customer service and market expansion. In mid-2020, the digital warehousing network plan announced by Best Group will build a warehouse-based omni-channel integrated supply chain solution of To B and To C by integrating warehousing, transportation and distribution resources. China Post realizes digital upgrade through 5G empowerment. ...

It can be seen that enterprises have already taken action in terms of digital layout. They know that the essence of the express delivery industry is service, and the digital transformation is to make the service quality higher.

Cross-border business segment "grabbing people"

The cross-border layout of express delivery companies is nothing new. From the end of 20 16 to the beginning of 20 17, the cross-border layout of private express delivery enterprises has always been the main development strategy. From cross-border to LTL express, cold chain, city distribution, supply chain, etc. , to today's instant delivery, online freight, cold chain, air transport, etc. , the business field is more and more extensive. In short, the enterprise will immediately extend its service tentacles to which field has the richest and most potential.

For example, in terms of community group buying, SF recently launched a low-key community group buying platform "Fenghuotai"; JD.COM launched the community group buying platform "Jingxi Pinpin" and changed its name to Volkswagen Post to create an ecological closed loop of community group buying; Zhongtong announced its cooperation with Iraq to explore new retail business in the community, and also applied for the trademark of "Zhongtongcheng" to lay the foundation for the development of community group buying; Debon is also actively exploring cooperation points in the field of community group buying. ...

In terms of cold chain layout, Zhongtong began to press the acceleration button. In September, 2020, Zhongtong Cold Chain built a national storage network with high-standard self-operated warehouses and production and sales places. Dayun officially opened the Qinghai beef and mutton cold chain line, and it was speculated that it was about to vigorously enter the cold chain market; SF Express and Hui, a joint venture company, directly engage in cold chain logistics; JD.COM cold chain takes science and technology as the core, and through the construction of socialized cold chain collaborative network, a one-stop F2B2C cold chain service platform with full process and full scene is built. ...

In the field of instant delivery, in September 2020, a new version of Dayun Tongcheng was launched, which opened the flash service, supported the errands business of 200+ cities nationwide, and launched the same city business; SF Express's B-end city business covers more than 500 cities across the country; JD.COM is Dada's landing in the capital market. ...

In terms of network freight, SF subsidiary successfully won the network freight business license along the land; After obtaining the "network freight" license, knowledgeable person became the first batch of 4A-level network freight platform enterprises in China through quality service. ...

In the field of air freight, JD.COM, which has been particularly outstanding in the field of air freight recently, has started to set up airlines to recruit and apply for JD.COM aviation trademarks; Zhongtong launched the high-end aging product of air freight last year, namely "Xinglian Aviation Aging Parts"; At the groundbreaking ceremony of Debon Express Southwest Headquarters Base Project in September 2020, the relevant person in charge of Debon revealed that Debon is planning to set up Debon Airlines in the next step, and will also plan to land in Shuangliu, taking advantage of the location advantage of Shuangliu International Airport to accelerate the strategic layout of "ground network+skynet" nationwide. ...

It is worth mentioning that in the face of air freight, with the acceleration of the mixed reform of the three major airlines, the competition in this field is becoming increasingly fierce, and express delivery companies are also actively deploying. For example, SF not only unites all parties to speed up the construction process of Ezhou Airport, but also spares no effort in the investment of all cargo planes and the opening of routes. During the operation of a large number of international routes, Tong Yuan invested heavily in the global aviation logistics hub project invested by Jiaxing, Zhejiang. Of course, China Post, as the "national team", has opened a large number of domestic and international routes, and also carried out the "customer-to-goods" transportation mode.

……

Aside from other fields for the time being, online freight, cold chain, air transport, instant delivery, community group buying and so on are undoubtedly the hottest and most potential fields at present, and major express delivery companies have not taken it lightly at all, and they have extended their services step by step in these fields, which is more obvious in 20021.

The Forces nouvelles are struggling to "pursue war"

At the moment of fierce competition in the express delivery industry, with the second-line express delivery enterprises basically cleaned up, new entrants quickly entered the market with huge funds and strong backing, and completed the daily average breakthrough again and again with lightning speed.

In addition to the fierce competition of the above-mentioned leading enterprises, new entrants in 2020 will also be particularly eye-catching. Recently, it was reported that the daily order volume of Extreme Rabbit Express has exceeded 20 million. Among them, more than 80% of the orders came from Pinduoduo. This single quantity is not a threat to express delivery companies that have developed for decades. Although it is not enough to shake the position of listed express delivery enterprises, after nearly a year's development, this new force can not be ignored, especially its directly competitive access enterprises.

In addition, the renamed Zhong You Express has gradually established its own position in the development process, becoming the entrance at the end of the JD.COM community group buying express, helping JD.COM to build a closed-loop ecology of community group buying.

At the same time, after the launch of Wang Feng, relying on the brand strength of SF Express, the comprehensive cost of the whole network has a certain gap compared with Tongda's e-commerce express delivery. There is no doubt that once Wang Feng is rolled out on a large scale, if we want to maintain the stability of the outlets at both ends of the collection and distribution, the headquarters will definitely need large-scale investment subsidies.

These three new entrants in 2020 have had a certain impact on the existing pattern. Next, regardless of the logistics giants or new forces who have been deeply involved for several years, the opportunities are equal. If they can get large-scale orders quickly, it is possible to break through.

Of course, in these wars, who will be better, who will be one step ahead and who will derail, everything is unknown. But one thing is certain, whoever can abandon the "dross" of the past in management, innovate in management and service, and break the homogenization dilemma will laugh best.

Text | Zhu Aihua