Shenzhen sees major efficiency boost in e-commerce export clearance

Cross-border e-commerce export clearance efficiency in south China's tech hub Shenzhen has received a major boost, with the city's first cross-border e-commerce supervised site operating under the "inspect first, load later" model put into operation on Thursday.

On the same day, the first shipment of goods using this model cleared customs smoothly and was dispatched overseas.

According to Shenzhen's commerce bureau, the new model cut the customs clearance time for cross-border e-commerce exports by more than 50 percent and comprehensive business costs by over 30 percent on its first day.

Shenzhen handles a large volume of cross-border e-commerce, with numerous operators and strong export demand. Under the new model, individual items enter the supervised site first, go through all customs inspection and clearance procedures, and are then packed into containers. This replaces the traditional process where a single flagged shipment could hold up the entire container.

The new site integrates three cutting-edge technologies, namely digital twin, smart gate and code-based traceability, to assign a unique, tamper-proof "digital ID" to each supervised cross-border e-commerce shipment, enabling full visual traceability. Equipped with hardware such as smart shelves, fully automated sorting lines, and inspection robots, it achieves smart supervision and efficient customs clearance.

Data from the commerce bureau shows that Shenzhen has ranked first among major cities nationwide in cross-border e-commerce volume for four consecutive years. It hosts 16 of the world's top 20 e-commerce platforms and one-third of China's publicly listed cross-border e-commerce companies. ■