Many businesses even invest hundreds of billions of dong to build warehouses and sorting centers right in Vietnam to shorten delivery speed. Thanks to the well-invested warehouse system and sorting centers, many Chinese orders placed in just 1-2 days can reach customers in Hanoi , and 3-5 days to Ho Chi Minh City.

Build warehouses and store goods at the border

Walking around many roads around the Bang Tuong border gate area (China), bordering Lang Son province, we witnessed a series of container trucks moving busily, many of them parked right at large warehouses, ready to transport goods to the nearby border gate. Some other vehicles, heading from Vietnam back to the Chinese warehouse in the border area, had empty containers, completing the shipment. Just about to set foot in the "Ping Tuong International E-commerce Livestream Zone", we witnessed a red container truck parked in front of a large warehouse and loaded with sacks of goods, with the words "specialized in transporting China - Vietnam" written on the side of the truck. Before that, when we just arrived at the gate of the "China - ASEAN Cross-Border E-Commerce Logistics Industrial Park (Hekou)", invested about 13,100 billion VND, with an area of ​​128 acres bordering Lao Cai province, we were overwhelmed by the large, modern buildings used to store goods exported to Vietnam. In this industrial park, there are functional subdivisions including: logistics warehouse center, goods clearance center... only about 295km from Hanoi. Mr. Hoang (Chinese, working in this area) shared that thanks to the warehouse near the border, after Vietnamese customers order via livestream on the e-commerce platform, the goods will be quickly picked up and shipped. To verify, the reporter went on TikTok and ordered a set of titanium jewelry from the store where Mr. Hoang works, the online sales broadcast was conducted right in Ha Khau. Only five days later, the goods were shipped to an address in Ho Chi Minh City, free shipping, without damage. According to our research, in three border localities of China, Ha Khau (bordering Lao Cai), Bang Tuong (bordering Lang Son) and Dong Hung (bordering Quang Ninh), a series of giant warehouses have been and are being built, 3-4km from the Vietnamese border. Warehouses help sellers and platforms shorten shipping time and ordering time. The closer the warehouse, the lower the cost. According to some logistics companies, many warehouses near the border are built by businesses themselves to serve sales activities. Even though they do not border Vietnam, businesses in Guangzhou have sought to build and rent warehouses in the Dongxing border area, creating convenience for transporting and trading goods through Vietnam.

Investing in warehouses and sorting centers in Vietnam

Not only building warehouses to store goods right next to the Vietnamese border, a series of Chinese companies in the logistics and e-commerce sectors have poured money into investing in warehouses in Vietnam. Typically, Best Inc. Group, although only entering the Vietnamese market for 5 years, this Chinese transportation "giant" has invested a total of 50 million USD (nearly 1,300 billion VND) in warehouses in Vietnam. In addition to the well-invested automatic goods sorting center in Cu Chi (HCMC), at the end of 2021, this group put into operation its largest sorting center in Southeast Asia, located in the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park ( Bac Ninh ). By mid-2024, this enterprise had covered 36 goods sorting centers, more than 700 post offices, 7,500 delivery staff, and a warehouse area of ​​100,000m2. Mr. Vuong Hao - General Director of Small and Medium Enterprises and Foreign Supply Chain of a Chinese logistics group - said that he has researched the Vietnamese market and predicted that the logistics industry will be very vibrant in the next 10 years. "We have signed a contract to rent a warehouse and open a smart warehouse. From now until the end of this year, we will launch in the North and South of Vietnam," he said. According to Mr. Vuong Hao, the group will decide to invest in warehouses based on the level of market development. In Vietnam, this enterprise will open dozens of smart warehouses, including opening or organizing warehouse franchises. In addition, the group also cooperates with Vietnamese enterprises that own warehouses to provide technology, strategies, and sources of goods to jointly operate warehouses, optimizing costs and efficiency. Responding to Tuoi Tre, a representative of Shopee also said that it has built an optimal logistics network with a well-invested warehouse system, concentrated in modern sorting centers such as Cu Chi (HCMC) and Bac Ninh. These warehouses allow shipping partners to meet 24/7 delivery volumes, while helping Shopee expand its reach and serve users in many regions. "With the goal of accelerating delivery, we also choose to cooperate with large shipping units in the industry that have invested in professional sorting centers, possessing a regional delivery model (HUB) with the closest delivery address to users to minimize delivery time," he said.

Race to shorten time, reduce costs

During the journey of more than 10,000km following the source of Chinese goods to Vietnam, many businessmen in the logistics industry told us that in addition to modern logistics systems, businesses have invested in a series of large-scale warehouses near the Vietnam border, even in Vietnam, to store goods with the goal of shortening delivery times and reducing costs. According to these businesses, in the race for low prices and delivery times, warehouses (containing all kinds of goods from electronics, household appliances, cosmetics, etc.) play a very important role. And in reality, many Vietnamese consumers "love" to buy goods on Chinese platforms because of the very cheap prices and delivery in just a few days. Talking to Tuoi Tre, Mr. Cuc Uy Giang - Cross-border director (in charge of cross-border shipping) of a Chinese logistics company, serving Shopee, Lazada and Tikok platforms - said that sellers or e-commerce platforms all rent border warehouses or warehouses to store goods in Vietnam. According to Mr. Giang, in the past, orders took a long time to collect and ship from mainland China to Vietnam. In addition, a series of related procedures caused orders to be slow to reach customers, not to mention the increased costs. However, things are different now. Many Chinese-invested e-commerce platforms operating in Vietnam have built warehouses at the border or rented from third parties, such as Best, to store goods in advance. "There are even platforms that have prepared goods in Vietnam. When there is an order, the goods from the warehouse will go directly through the last-mile shipping units to be delivered to customers," said Mr. Giang. As a person who specializes in selling on TikTok and Shopee in Vietnam, Ms. L. - a KOC (consumer with great influence) with 1 million online followers - revealed that preparing a large-scale livestream session usually takes about 1-2 months. After signing a contract with the KOC, the factory in China quickly transported the goods to the available warehouse in Vietnam. "With the current way of doing things, Chinese goods will have reduced shipping costs and delivery times, adding advantages to penetrate deeper into the Vietnamese market through e-commerce platforms Shopee, Lazada, TikTok Shop...", a business specializing in trading Chinese goods on e-commerce platforms said and expressed concern about the slowness of Vietnamese businesses in this race.