In the third quarter of the continuous escalation of the price war, the "leader" of the Tongda series, Zhongtong Express, also failed to escape the "war". The single ticket revenue of its core business express delivery has significantly decreased, and the market share has also decreased month on month.
On November 17th, Zhongtong announced its unaudited financial performance for the third quarter of 2023. According to the financial report, the volume of Zhongtong packages in the third quarter increased by 18.1% year-on-year to 7.5 billion pieces, with a market share of 22.4%. Although Zhongtong's market share in the third quarter slightly increased from 22.1% in the same period last year, its market share in the second quarter of this year has reached 23.5%.
According to the third quarter report of China Unicom, the single ticket revenue of express delivery business decreased by 13.5% year-on-year. However, in the second quarter of this year, the year-on-year decrease in this data was 7.8%, and in the first quarter, the year-on-year decrease was 3.7%.
Compared to peers, the price decline of Zhongtong in the third quarter was higher than that of Yuantong. The single ticket prices of Yunda and Shentong have decreased by more than 10%, which is close to Zhongtong.
Yan Huiping, Chief Financial Officer of Zhongtong, stated that compared to the industry, Zhongtong has made greater efforts to optimize the proportion of direct customer business and has a greater impact on single ticket revenue. In addition, to ensure market share, the incremental subsidies provided by Zhongtong and the decrease in package weight are also the main reasons for the decrease in unit price.
However, the cost reduction of Zhongtong is also significant. Yan Huiping stated that benefiting from standardization and digital management measures, Zhongtong's single ticket sorting and transportation costs were reduced by 9 cents, a decrease of 11%, exceeding expectations.
Affected by this, Zhongtong's revenue in the third quarter was 9.076 billion yuan, a slight increase of 1.5% year-on-year. Compared to peers, Zhongtong has a significant net profit advantage, with a net profit of 2.35 billion yuan in the third quarter, an increase of 24% year-on-year. The net profits of Yuantong, Yunda, and Shentong during the same period were 798 million yuan, 296 million yuan, and 2.7413 million yuan, respectively.
From March to September this year, the price war in the express delivery market became increasingly fierce. A person in charge of a courier network told Interface News that many courier networks experienced losses during this period. However, since September, there have been frequent reports of price increases in the express delivery industry. Taking Zhongtong as an example, the price of Zhongtong increased from 1.3 yuan per ticket before September to 2-2.1 yuan per ticket on September 1st, October 1st, October 20th, and the end of October.
However, even so, compared to last year's Double Eleven express delivery prices, the profit margin is still significantly narrowed. The person in charge of the above-mentioned branch stated that last year's Double Eleven express delivery could reach a single ticket price of around 2.7 yuan, earning 1 yuan per ticket. However, this year's profit margin per ticket is only around 30 cents. The location of this branch is Yiwu, with a large volume of express delivery business, and slightly different price increases and profit margins in other regions.
For express delivery outlets, the Double Eleven e-commerce promotion period is an opportunity for them to make money. However, after the profit margin has significantly narrowed, the goal of branches hoping to use this opportunity to spread out the annual losses is easy to fall through. A person in charge of a Zhongtong express delivery network told Interface News that during the Double Eleven period, the cost price of express delivery provided by Zhongtong to the network decreased by 5 cents per shipment, which also means that the network can earn an additional 5 cents per shipment. Don't underestimate these 5 cents, they are very helpful to us, "said the person in charge.
At the same time, given the overall economic situation this year, the e-commerce promotion on the Double Eleven Day did not meet expectations. Several express delivery network managers predict that the price war will continue after mid November, and even continue next year
In its financial report, Zhongtong pointed out that due to the irrational competition of exchanging price for quantity, which has eroded the overall profitability of the industry, the originally expected goal of increasing market share by 1.5 percentage points for the whole year is no longer reasonable. It is expected that the annual business volume will maintain the guidance of the range of 29.27 billion to 30.24 billion units, with a year-on-year growth of 20% to 24%.
Lai Meisong, Chairman and CEO of Zhongtong, stated that in the future, Zhongtong will not only maintain market share, but also pay more attention to long-term competitive advantages, including diversified products and services, operational efficiency, profit level, network stability, etc. "The top priority is to achieve the highest brand awareness and customer satisfaction.