According to information from Shanghai Customs, in the first eight months of 2026, cross-border e-commerce exports through Shanghai Port reached 106.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 28.7%, maintaining growth for eight consecutive months. Relying on institutional innovation and technological empowerment, Shanghai Customs continues to help Chinese goods "sell globally."
Overcoming the "LCL challenge": Low-cost sea freight becomes the "preferred choice" for small and medium-sized enterprises going abroad
On September 22, at the Shanghai Maritime Cross-Border E-Commerce Operations Center at the Zhendong Terminal of Shanghai Waigaoqiao, a batch of thermal socks, thermal gloves and other cold-weather products worth approximately 150,000 yuan was shipped overseas under the customs supervision and guarantee of Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port Area Customs, reflecting the regulatory reform at Shanghai Port targeting the pain point of "fragmented" orders in cross-border e-commerce. Customs officers from Waigaoqiao Port Customs inspect a batch of cross-border e-commerce thermal vests for export. (Photo by Xu Weizhong)
Traditional sea freight uses "an entire container" as the smallest unit and lacks an LCL (less-than-container-load) model suited to the "multiple batches, small volumes" characteristics of cross-border e-commerce. Small and medium-sized enterprises find themselves in a dilemma: "waiting to fill a full container takes too long, while shipping separately costs too much," making the "LCL challenge" a bottleneck for going abroad. Shanghai Waigaoqiao Port Area Customs innovatively launched a "master bill plus LCL" supervision model. "We deeply integrate master bill operations with the LCL model, allowing cross-border e-commerce goods with a bill of lading as the supervisory unit to hitch a ride with general trade export goods for mixed consolidation, and after customs supervision and release, they are loaded directly onto ships for shipment," introduced Yang Qisheng, chief of the second inspection section of the customs office. This move has been widely welcomed by enterprises. Yang Chengwu, general manager of Youlianda Trading (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said: "Now even goods of just a few cubic meters can be arranged for sea freight at any time, and logistics costs have been directly cut by 30 percent!" Liu Hongfeng, chairman of Shanghai Limeng International Logistics Co., Ltd., said: "The new model has shortened cargo consolidation time by 50%, saving an average logistics cost of about 4,000 yuan per standard container." It is reported that in the first eight months of this year, Shanghai Customs supervised more than 10 million packages of export goods under the sea freight cross-border e-commerce list model, with a value exceeding 10 billion yuan, doubling the total for the whole of last year and attracting goods from top international platforms such as Amazon to gather at Shanghai Port.
"Incredible speed": Pudong Airport cross-border e-commerce imports and exports hit a new high
The number of cross-border e-commerce manifests at Pudong Airport has ranked first nationally in air cargo for three consecutive years. In the first eight months of this year, the overall declared volume of cross-border e-commerce manifests for imports and exports at Shanghai Pudong Airport Port reached 578 million manifests, with a value of 57.526 billion yuan, up 41.37% and 6.62% year-on-year respectively, both setting new historical records. Ms. Zhao, customs affairs head of Shanghai Zhihui Robotics Co., Ltd., said: "Under the guidance of customs, we display our latest products in real time through cross-border e-commerce platforms and learn about consumer demand at the earliest opportunity. In the first eight months of this year, the company exported more than 3,000 shipments of robot parts, a year-on-year increase of 20%." On the export side, higher-priced items such as mechanical keyboards, astronomical telescopes and wigs are gradually gaining a place, reflecting the upgrade from "Made in China" to "Branded in China." On the import side, personal care and color cosmetics, fashion apparel and light luxury goods are highly favored, while imports of leisure and entertainment products such as game consoles and outdoor camping gear have risen steadily, mapping the trajectory of domestic consumption upgrading. Customs officers from Shanghai Pudong International Airport Customs conduct an inspection of a cross-border e-commerce warehouse. (Photo by Tian Peng)
To handle massive amounts of data, Shanghai Pudong International Airport Customs is exploring the application of BI (business intelligence) technology to build a data ecosystem foundation featuring a "single-screen overview" and "drill-down linkage." "Empowering the growth of the industry with digital and intelligent supervision, letting platform data run ahead of time and sparing enterprises from making extra trips afterward," said Wang Huihong, deputy director of the customs office.
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