The demand of the new era endows the express industry with a new era mission. With the continuous innovation of the market subject, business model and distribution mode of the express industry, consumption upgrading and industrial upgrading also put forward new requirements for express services.

Throughout the development of China's express industry for more than ten years, its development speed and scale have amazed the whole world. According to the first national express industry statistical survey in 2006, the express industry completed 1.06 billion pieces of business and realized a business income of 29.97 billion yuan. After a lapse of 10 years, in 2017, the cumulative business volume of national express service enterprises reached 40.06 billion pieces, and the cumulative business revenue reached 495.71 billion yuan. 40 times of business volume blowout and 17 times of business income growth have written the myth of "dark horse" in the express industry. It can be expected that the express industry will continue to break through the business increment of 10 billion pieces per year and the growth space of express revenue of 100 billion yuan per year.

"Speed" and "efficiency" of express development

From the perspective of express business structure, the proportion of domestic intra city, domestic non local, international, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan business volume increased from 28.5%, 61.5% and 10% in 2006 to 23.1%, 74.8% and 2.1% in 2017 respectively, and the proportion of three types of business revenue increased from 9.0%, 49.2% and 39.7% in 2006 to 14.8%, 50.7% and 10.7% in 2017 respectively. On the whole, more than 90% of the business volume in the domestic market contributes more than 60% of the business income. The "28" rule of market cake division is more prominent in the differentiation of the express industry, which to some extent reflects that the composition of the express business has the internal driving force to develop in the direction of value-added spillover, and also indicates that there is potential market exploration space in the express industry.

In addition, based on international coordinates, the volume of express business has ranked first in the world for four consecutive years. The volume of parcel express exceeds developed economies such as the United States, Japan and Europe, contributing more than 50% to world growth. Looking forward to the capital market, private express enterprises have been listed one after another, and actively cooperate with diversified business needs through the "express +" strategy, making the capital market dynamics of the express industry more exciting; Focusing on scientific and technological innovation, with the arrival of the era of 100 million packages per day, whether it is the rookie front warehouse, JD's "Asia No. 1", or the warehouse allocation for the "double 11" pre-sale, all use technology to resolve the distribution service demand of blowout in the short term. At the same time, black technologies such as automatic sorting equipment and intelligent robots at the business operation level competed to appear first. In the "Beijing 8 minutes" display film at the closing ceremony of the Pingchang Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, the amazing unmanned sorting center showed the charm of science and technology.

Cold thinking behind the express

The concerned express industry interprets the national mission and social responsibility carried by the development of the industry. On the one hand, from the responsibilities entrusted to the express industry by the No. 1 document of the State Council, to the introduction of Guiding Opinions on promoting supply chain innovation and the coordinated development of the express industry and e-commerce, to the focus on the development of sub sectors of the express industry such as green packaging and new energy logistics vehicles, and even the issuance and implementation of the highly eye-catching Interim Regulations on express, All reflect the high hopes for the increasingly standardized development of the express industry; On the other hand, in the field of express business, from online shopping consumption and distribution relying on e-commerce platform channels, to the real-time distribution service of catering takeout, and then to various "express" services detonated by o2o mode under the new retail trend, all reflect the upgrading of express services in terms of "timeliness". Express has been inseparable from people's work and life, and has been referred to as "the seventh thing for people to open the door".

However, when sharing the achievements brought by the development of the express industry, we still need to calmly and carefully recognize the shortcomings of the express industry. For example, where should the "express waste" brought by the blowout business go? How to balance the retreat of demographic dividend and the delivery of "the last 100 meters"? How to ease the competition between express enterprises deeply involved in the price war

Such problems are the reality that the express industry needs to face up to, meet difficulties, develop strengths and avoid weaknesses, so as to finally realize the development of the express industry from "fighting for quantity" to "improving quality", and the management mode from extensive type to fine type, so as to better deal with the test of domestic and foreign markets and user experience.

New era, new mission, new journey

Looking forward to the future, the express industry also needs to make great efforts and take the initiative to help the development and upgrading of the industry.

First, integrate into the national strategy and improve the service level. Under the guidance of the National Rural Revitalization and targeted poverty alleviation strategy, many express companies have made great efforts to give full play to the platform advantages of "express + e-commerce" and built a "one-stop" service guarantee system for the packaging, sales and transportation of agricultural products. The resulting hundreds of thousands of express packages have effectively connected the resource allocation between urban and rural areas and realized the cultivation of incremental market of express business, At the same time, a "win-win" situation of modern channels for the circulation of agricultural products is formed, which is also a true portrayal of the express industry's performance of social responsibility and industry mission.

Secondly, carry out model innovation and intensively improve efficiency. The driving force of market demand is the source power to promote model innovation. The resolution of many difficulties faced by the development of express industry needs to find a breakthrough in the transformation of business ideas and the innovation of development model. For example, in view of the high cost of site, labor and transportation capacity in the central urban area of big cities, the operation leading mode currently being tried, that is, the layout of "secondary warehouse + store", can not only give play to the large-scale effect, reduce the operation cost, resolve the site pressure of terminal operation, but also help to sink the business site and meet the needs of users. In the third and fourth tier cities, counties, townships and towns, the emerging "joint distribution" mode also represents the necessity of distribution resource integration in the scenario of scattered users and broad areas.

Third, connect with consumption upgrading and expand the service chain. The express industry needs to extend the distribution service capacity to warehouse management, inventory optimization, supply chain management and so on. At the level of industrial integration, it has the courage to break through the interface of retail service docking and extend to the fields of modern manufacturing and modern agriculture, reflecting the pattern of "big logistics". At the level of consumption upgrading, we need to respond to the requirements of supply side reform, accelerate the construction of personalized, professional and differentiated distribution service system, develop cold chain fresh food distribution business, and provide accurate, professional and quality distribution services guided by customers' final demand.

Finally, strengthen capacity-building and participate in international competition. Standing at the key node of 40 years of reform and opening up, with the help of the "east wind" of the construction of Hainan pilot free trade zone and free trade port, the development of express industry must have a corresponding international vision and tap the needs of international business cooperation. For the needs of cross-border e-commerce and international delivery, focus on the diversified characteristics of commodity types, consumption scenes, service objects and other elements, form richer product segmentation, provide high-quality service experience, so as to enhance the added value of the industry and cultivate the competitiveness to participate in the international market.

At present, the express industry is experiencing competition in market, price, science and technology, innovation and other elements, and these elements are input as variables of a new round of competition, which will eventually become a useful help for improving quality and efficiency and version upgrading of the express industry. Therefore, the new development journey has just begun.