Along with the rapid development of e-commerce, online shopping has already become a shopping normality in people’s daily life in China, benefiting not only the buyers and sellers, but also express logistics enterprises. According to statistics, in 2010 the national online shopping sales will exceed 500 billion Yuan, accounting for about 3% of the social commodity retail value. For online shopping, 75% of transactions are done by physical delivery. Online shopping brings business growth, at the same time, express delivery enterprises are also facing problems of rising complaints, net sellers demanding low price and increasing competition. Transformation and upgrading of express delivery industry are more urgent.

As 2010 Spring Festival drew near, many e-commerce websites launched every kind of discount promotions. "Spring festival delivery" of online shopping became a big test facing the national express logistics industry. According to statistics, in the last two months, complaints toward express delivery industry increased sharply to 7200 cases, a 40% rise compared to the same period last year, and were still in a rising trend as the Spring Festival online shopping increases. In the 7200 cases, complaints mainly involved time delay, poor service attitude and service phone hard to contact. "Slow speech" is the most dissatisfying problem.

"Since October 2010, the blowout in express business volume has come to Shentong express, daily express reaching above 2100,000, a 35% increase compared to the same period last year." responsible person of Shentong express company said, in response to this situation, they have to "appropriately increase the express delivery fee in some areas ". In addition to Shentong, several express delivery companies interviewed showed that amplification of the business situation was very obvious. Wherein, SF Express and Yuantong Express both indicated that the growth was more than one third. Yuantong Express Beijing company manager said, at present Beijing head office was facing” burst in warehouse ", which was regional. Some merchants reflected that the uneven business ability exists generally, management ability, professional ability and service attitude were uneven; local branches of one head office also had this kind of problem.

"In order to do rapid expansion, many express delivery enterprises are contracted to private companies in the form of franchising, regional differences and uneven employee quality prevails. An industry source said, the percentage of profits shared to franchisees from head office differs, that leads to different numbers and wages of the staff. "The overstock phenomenon reflected that express enterprise's distribution channels are not perfect and the express delivery company distribution infrastructure lags behind." Industry experts pointed out, the unreasonable layout between urban and rural areas, between eastern developed cities and western cities, the bad match among distribution networks construction, the poor relevance with local road network and comprehensive transport system, and the relatively weak express delivery services capacity and efficiency made it hard for express delivery companies to meet the needs of demands.

Different with foreign express delivery companies, most of China’s express company’s orders come from electronic commerce. "At present, laws and regulations concerning electronic commerce express delivery industry by relevant departments are rare." Analysts said, the lag of laws and regulations was one of the reasons for express delivery industry problems. In addition, the information and technology applying to domestic express industry are far from enough. For China's express delivery enterprises, hardware promoting is comparatively easy to achieve, but the improvement of the enterprise software level is very difficult. Express operation’s core competitiveness is the staff, who is also the most difficult to be unified in thought, understanding and behavior.

The Ministry of Commerce issued a directive opinion previously, proposing that by the end of the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period. We should strive to make online shopping transactions to increase to more than 5% of our country’s total retail sales of social consumer goods. In the next stage, the changes in social mode of production, mode of consumption and circulation patterns will bring new opportunities for express services. Express delivery services, in supporting and serving electronic commerce development, have tremendous space and potentials. These are huge business opportunities in the future 5 years, which will promote the transformation and upgrading of the express industry.

Recently, the State Post Bureau announced the express delivery business statistics in 2010. Statistic shows, in 2010, the domestic express delivery business income reached 57.3 billion yuan, the express business volume completed 2.4 billion pieces, 250% and 300% compared respectively by the end of the" Tenth Five-year Plan" period. However, the extensive type of development of express delivery industry at present is still incompatible with the growing market demand. State Post Bureau puts forward, during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, postal industry will build" convenient and efficient, orderly competing, advanced technology, high quality of service" express delivery service system, build new express competitive advantages.

State Post Bureau relevant responsible person said, the State Post Bureau is setting about to formulate relevant regulations, hoping to introduce in the first quarter of this year relevant operation regulations. The person in charge said, the State Post Bureau had collected express company regulations respectively from foreign capital, state-owned and private companies. By contracting and analyzing, a relatively balanced express enterprise service specification will be made. This year, the State Post Bureau will also increase the degree of express delivery industry supervision, invite the third party intermediary to do time testing, put an end to "express not fast".