China's first digitalized less-than-container load model combining cross-border e-commerce lists and customs declarations — with a "pre-inspection before loading" workflow — was implemented in Yiwu on Oct 11.

Under the new model, mixed e-commerce and general-trade cargo was declared and inspected at the Yiwu cross-border parcel supervision center, then transferred by road to Ningbo for container loading before shipment to the Americas.

Traditionally, LCL cargo must be consolidated outside the supervision site and delivered as a full container. If any single shipment requires inspection, the entire container must be unpacked, all other consignments must wait, and the cargo must be reloaded after checks — a time-consuming process that reduces clearance efficiency and raises logistics costs.

Yiwu, a major hub for cross-border e-commerce and home to a national pilot zone for the sector, sees strong demand for LCL exports due to the small-order, cost-sensitive nature of online trade.

To support this, Hangzhou Customs introduced 10 measures to advance trade reform in Yiwu, including extending the "pre-inspection before loading" model to cross-border e-commerce list-based exports.

According to preliminary estimates from Yiwu Customs, the new model can increase export efficiency by about 30 percent and reduce costs by roughly 15 percent.