Ningbo Customs Ensures Smooth Clearance for "Double 11" Cross-Border Orders

As the 2025 "Double 11" Global Shopping Festival gets underway, reports from the Ningbo Cross-border E-commerce Service Platform indicate that, from 8:00 PM on October 20 to midnight on November 3, local Customs authorities received and registered 6.663 million declarations for cross-border e-commerce retail imports, representing a total declared value of 2.55 billion yuan. Among these, the top three categories by sales were health supplements, cosmetics, and video game controllers with integrated displays.

Within Cainiao's No. 1 Warehouse at Beilun Port Comprehensive Bonded Zone, hundreds of workers are busy organizing, selecting, shelving, and packing goods in a well-coordinated workflow. "We began preparing for the sales event as early as October 15, when pre-sales launched, and have since pre-packaged around 200,000 cross-border parcels," explained Yu Xiang, Customs Affairs Director at Cainiao International Express. "As soon as customers make their final payments, these orders are immediately released for shipment, with some departed within two hours, ensuring same-day or next-day delivery for most destinations across the Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai region."

The high order-processing efficiency is underpinned by thorough preparatory work. Facing extended promotional cycle and multiple sales peaks of the 2025 "Double 11"Global Shopping Festival, companies began stocking up well in advance. A Customs affairs manager at Sinotrans Logistics Ningbo Ltd. noted that the Company’s warehouse inventory had reached 7 million items, with a total value of approximately 380 million yuan, dominated by everyday consumer goods such as health supplements and skincare products. At Fuli Logistics’ Xingyun Warehouse, a smart storage system operates at full tilt, where four four-way shuttle cars and 72 AGV robots work in coordination across 2,000 square meters of high-level storage racking. This automated setup has increased packing efficiency by 30 percent compared with conventional floor-stack storage, serving as an accelerator for the rapid dispatch of promotional parcels.

To ensure efficient Customs clearance for cross-border goods during the peak sales period, Ningbo Customs has centered its efforts on "smart supervision and enhanced services". This involved early planning and a series of targeted measures, including multiple enterprise surveys and warehouse inspections conducted both online and in-person, as well as assigning dedicated officers to help companies resolve declaration and stockpiling issues. Furthermore, through its innovative Qinqing Direct Service Mechanism that offers Business Needs-Customs Response Platform for Enterprise Development, the authority provided businesses with tailored clearance solutions and promoted streamlined procedures such as "Advanced Declaration" and "Two-Step Declaration", ensuring that inventory smoothly enters the bonded zones for sorting.

Ningbo Customs has pioneered an “embedded supervision model for outbound parcels”, where Customs oversight is built directly into the company's logistics workflow. This enables intelligent sorting lines to scan shipping labels and activate control instructions within 0.2 seconds, allowing parcels not subject to inspection to exit the zone unimpeded, and thus significantly improving overall clearance efficiency.

In addition, Ningbo Customs continues to facilitate the growth of innovative business models such as "bonded warehouse livestreaming" and "cross-border e-commerce curated kits". From January to September this year, companies within the Customs jurisdiction conducted 12 bonded livestreaming sessions, achieving sales of 13.26 million yuan.

According to Ningbo Customs, it is estimated that total orders in Ningbo during the year's "Double 11" period (from October 20 to November 14) are expected to exceed 12 million, with two order peaks anticipated on October 31 and November 11. The Customs authority has implemented 24/7 dedicated shifts, fully optimized operational systems, and ensured seamless coordination across the entire chain, from order submission and review to packing and dispatch, guaranteeing unimpeded processing throughout the promotional period.

(By Zhu Wei, Cheng Jingquan, and Zou Qili)

Economic Information Daily, November 5, 2025(as provided by the Free Trade Department of Ningbo Customs in coordination with the Bonded Zone Customs and Hangzhou Bay New Zone Customs)