The U-Freight Group (UFL), with its considerable involvement in e-commerce logistics, says that the latest statistics showing that global e-commerce sales hit USD25.6 trillion in 2018 are a further vindication of its decision to enter this sector of the international freight market several years ago.

 
The latest available estimates, up 8 percent from 2017, were recently released by the UN’s trade and development body, UNCTAD, which said the estimated 2018 e-commerce sales value, which includes business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales, was equivalent to 30% of global gross domestic product (GDP) that year.

 
UFL CEO Simon Wong said that in the company’s development of e-commerce logistics solutions, it is continually trying to address the key issues stemming from exponential growth in volumes of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce shipments.

 
He said examples of those efforts include investment in several of the company’s warehouse facilities to enable them to act as e-commerce fulfilment centres.

 
Wong notes that UNCTAD reports that China had the largest number of online shoppers at 610 million, and while the bulk of online shoppers mainly bought from domestic suppliers, some 330 million online shoppers made cross-border purchases in 2018 — a little more than one in five of all online shoppers.

 
“UFL has been qualified by China Customs and CIQ (China Inspection and Quarantine) as a licensed Cross-border E-Commerce Enterprise and as a Cross-Border E-Commerce Logistics Service Provider for several years,” says Wong.

 
“The report states that the leading B2C e-commerce companies are based mostly in China and the USA, whilst developing and transition economies accounted for about half of the top 20 economies by B2C e-commerce sales in 2018.

 
“We are a logistics partner of choice for the growing number of online channels and platforms which entrepreneurs are using to sell their own designs and products, including global eCommerce shipping platforms such as Easyship, and are heavily involved in the Fulfilment by Amazon programme in several countries.

 
“Last year, we launched e+Solutions, a new product to assist small businesses with their e-commerce logistics needs.

 
“All of these initiatives are helping us boost efficiency and capture more value, in order to capitalise on the opportunities that e-commerce is presenting.”