Cross border e-commerce exports between China and South Korea add momentum

The cross-border e-commerce packages departing from Weihai Port in Shandong Province and arriving at Incheon Port in South Korea are attracting more and more cross-border e-commerce export businesses to land in Weihai due to their unique advantages of "sea freight price and air freight speed".

At the beginning of the new year, Weihai's cross-border e-commerce export channels to South Korea have remained smooth. Since 2026, over 1.05 million cross-border e-commerce packages have been exported from Weihai to South Korea.

Ports: From "Isolation" to "Linkage"

Weihai Port is an important hub for Sino Korean trade, and Weihai Customs, under the jurisdiction of Qingdao Customs, has deeply cultivated its geographical advantages and built an efficient logistics clearance system.

This customs clearance is the first of its kind in China and South Korea to implement the "four port linkage" cross-border transportation model for vehicles, adding a "highway port" function to Weihai Port and linking it with Incheon Port and Incheon Airport to create an integrated cross-border logistics channel. A box truck connects the four ports of Weihai and Incheon, achieving seamless clearance without changing vehicles or equipment.

This mode eliminates 1 customs declaration, 4 loading and unloading, and vehicle replacement processes, speeds up by 5 hours compared to traditional modes, and reduces logistics costs by about 30%. The advantage of the "golden logistics channel" between China and South Korea is obvious, and it can fully utilize the cargo hub function of Incheon Airport, allowing goods to reach the world, "said Hou Zhuqing, Assistant Manager of E-commerce Logistics Department of Sinotrans China Limited.

Since its operation on December 19, 2023, the customs has supervised a total of 150 shipments under the "four port linkage" model between China and South Korea, helping over 300000 cross-border e-commerce packages achieve "global sales".

Return: from 'dare not return' to 'flexible return'

Adhering to the regulatory concept of "inclusiveness, prudence, innovation, and collaboration", Weihai Customs adheres to a problem oriented approach, focuses on the "difficulty of returning goods" in cross-border e-commerce exports, and carries out model innovation.

The customs support Shandong Port Logistics Group Weihai International Logistics Park to establish the first cross-border e-commerce export return center warehouse in the northern region, carry out sorting and classification of returned goods, and take the lead in "sorting before declaration" outside the customs special supervision area in China, realizing the transfer of the sorting process of returned goods from overseas to domestic, saving enterprises' overseas warehousing and labor costs.

Kupeng, South Korea's largest cross-border e-commerce platform, has become one of the first beneficiaries, promising consumers a "30 day no reason return" policy.

Previously, the return products generated by the platform had complicated procedures and lengthy processes, and more products could only be passively processed overseas, "said Liu Peng, the business director of Kupeng China in South Korea. Now, companies can take advantage of the convenient logistics advantage from Weihai to Incheon to flexibly package and send return packages to the return center warehouse, achieving a" one-stop "processing of warehousing, sorting, declaration, inspection, and release, achieving a win-win situation of reduced return costs and improved efficiency.

We will continue to improve our after-sales service system, enhance consumers' cross-border shopping experience, and help achieve the transformation from 'dare not return' to 'flexible return'. ”Liu Peng said.

According to statistics, by 2025, the cross-border e-commerce export return center warehouse will efficiently handle 26000 exported return goods.

Service: From "Passive Response" to "Active Service"

Logistics timeliness is the focus of attention for e-commerce platforms and consumers. Qiao Wei, the manager of Qingdao COSCO Shipping Air Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., which has been acting as an agent for cross-border e-commerce export business for many years, said that recently, the transportation capacity resources of the route from Weihai Airport to Incheon have been tight, and the cross-border e-commerce export goods represented by the company have experienced large-scale dumping, delaying the delivery time of goods and reducing the experience of upstream and downstream customers.

Weihai Customs actively conducts research, strengthens communication and contact with Beijing Daxing Airport Customs, assists enterprises in opening a new logistics channel of "air to air transit" from Weihai to Beijing and Incheon, fully utilizes the belly warehouse resources of the two passenger flights, effectively increases flight capacity, and is in line with high-value and efficient cross-border e-commerce export packages.

With the support of customs and other departments, we have utilized the Weihai Beijing Incheon Air China intermodal route to quickly evacuate the backlog of goods and ensure the timely delivery of e-commerce products throughout the entire process, "said Qiao Wei.

Customs takes institutional innovation and technological empowerment as dual engines, continuously optimizes regulatory services, builds a national centralized return and transit center for cross-border e-commerce exports, constructs a pre supervision warehouse for cross-border e-commerce exports, and based on Weihai's advantageous location in South Korea, continuously empowers and adds momentum to help China South Korea cross-border e-commerce exports accelerate, "said Pan Jihong, Director of the Weihai Customs Postal Office.

Next, Weihai Customs will continue to deepen the implementation of the "Smart Customs Strong Country" action, further release policy dividends, facilitate the full chain of cross-border e-commerce services, promote the export of cross-border e-commerce between China and South Korea to a new level, and contribute customs strength to the economic and trade cooperation between the two countries. (Jiang Zhenjun, Ding Yang, Gu Chuan/Wen)