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Smart Logistics: From Information Technology Catch-Up to Intelligent Leadership
With the accelerated global digital transformation, the smart logistics industry is facing unprecedented development opportunities. According to relevant data, the global smart logistics market is expected to grow from $143 billion in 2024 to $330 billion by 2030. As a key link connecting production, circulation, and consumption, smart logistics has become a foundational, strategic, and leading industry supporting national economic development.
What is Smart Logistics?
The national standard “Logistics Terminology” (GB/T 18354-2021) defines smart logistics as: a logistics service system based on IoT technology, comprehensively utilizing big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and related information technologies to achieve real-time response and intelligent optimization decision-making through comprehensive perception, identification, and tracking of logistics operation status.
What is the scale of smart logistics development in China?
In recent years, under the overall strategic layout of Digital China, supported by strong digital technologies such as IoT and artificial intelligence, China’s smart logistics has embarked on a development path from “information technology catch-up” to “intelligent leadership.” It is predicted that by 2025, the market size of China’s smart logistics industry will reach 1.2 trillion yuan, and by 2030, it will exceed 3 trillion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of about 15%. Among them, the application of technologies such as intelligent warehousing, automated sorting, and unmanned delivery will become the main growth points, with the proportion of intelligent warehousing expected to increase from 30% in 2025 to 45% in 2030, the market for automated sorting equipment growing from 65 billion yuan to 140 billion yuan, and the unmanned delivery vehicle market increasing from less than 100,000 units to about 700,000 units.
To what extent have leading logistics companies developed smart logistics?
Leading logistics companies in China have entered a deep water zone of smart logistics characterized by “full-link unmanned operations, real-time digital twins, and global standard output,” achieving efficiency, energy consumption, and compliance that are fully ahead of the world. In November 2024, JD Logistics built Asia’s first 5G smart warehouse, with 1,500 AGVs and 300 sorting robots fully interconnected via 5G, improving picking efficiency by 3.8 times and reducing energy consumption by 22%; in March 2025, Caoniao Network launched the Hangzhou eHub digital twin air cargo station, achieving full-link digital twin + AI prediction, directly connected to the customs system for second-level clearance, providing a “Chinese model” for global cross-border delivery within 72 hours; in September 2024, SF Express constructed an unmanned cargo hub at Ezhou Huahu Airport, achieving a full closed loop of “unmanned picking + unmanned towing + unmanned security inspection,” becoming the first unmanned cargo airport in Asia to receive IATA CEIV Pharma certification.
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Why has smart logistics been successfully promoted in China?
—— Coordinated promotion from both demand and supply sides to create deep applications of smart logistics
Demand Side: The explosive growth of e-commerce and the rigid demand for manufacturing transformation and upgrading
Firstly, the trillion-yuan market scale of e-commerce has ignited a large-scale industrial demand for smart logistics in China.China’s e-commerce scale has expanded from less than 5 trillion yuan in 2010 to 60 trillion yuan today, an approximate growth of 11.5 times, with an annual compound growth rate of about 18%, continuing to lead globally. This digital consumption revolution has not only changed people’s shopping habits but has also spawned a large and efficient smart logistics industry. The “minute-level fulfillment” service standard of instant retail has redefined consumer expectations for speed, with online sales in tourism, catering, and entertainment increasing by 24.8%, 16.6%, and 11% respectively from January to July 2025. Smart logistics, with its efficient sorting, delivery, and precise inventory management capabilities, has strongly supported the rapid promotion and application of e-commerce in China.
Secondly, the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry has generated strong momentum for the logistics industry to develop smart logistics.In 2015, the rigid gap for “faster, more accurate, and more transparent” logistics in intelligent manufacturing turned smart logistics from an “optional” choice to a “mandatory” one, with funds, technology, and policies converging in the same time window, completing a rapid leap from concept to industry. The flexible production lines required by intelligent manufacturing demand minute-level responses, reducing the time for production line changes from “days” to “minutes,” and personalized customization has driven the fragmentation rate of orders in pilot industries to increase by over 30% within a year. Logistics must achieve online and transparent operations to complete closed-loop traceability. These application demands have pushed smart logistics from being an “ancillary support” to becoming a “core capability,” making it an indispensable support force for the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.
Supply Side: The rapid decline in digital technology costs and the resonance effect of deep collaboration in the industrial chain
On one hand, new generation information technologies such as IoT and big data have rapidly adapted and the continuous decline in technology costs have laid a solid economic foundation for the popularization of smart logistics.In the hardware equipment field, with the maturity of production processes for core components such as sensors and RFID tags and the expansion of market scale, prices have shown an annual decline trend of 15%-20%. Hardware investment costs have decreased by over 60% compared to 2015, allowing small and medium-sized enterprises to break through hardware cost barriers and gradually introduce basic IoT sensing devices. In the software and technology service field, the iteration of big data and cloud computing technologies and the improvement of the open-source ecosystem have further lowered the technical application threshold for enterprises. According to data from the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, the cost of logistics companies using cloud services in 2024 has decreased by 45% compared to 2020. Combined with pre-set AI path optimization algorithms and inventory prediction models, it is now possible to build a smart logistics management module with real-time order tracking and intelligent warehouse dispatching capabilities at only 1/5 of the cost of traditional self-built systems within 1-2 weeks, greatly enhancing the accessibility of digital technologies in the logistics industry.
At the same time, the collaborative cooperation among various links in the logistics industry chain has deepened, establishing a virtuous industrial ecosystem of “technology research and development – scenario verification – large-scale promotion,” providing key support for the landing and iteration of smart logistics technologies.Currently, logistics equipment manufacturers, technology suppliers, logistics companies, e-commerce platforms, and manufacturing enterprises have formed a multi-dimensional collaborative network. In the technology research and development phase, equipment manufacturers and technology suppliers jointly carry out customized research and development; in the application scenario phase, logistics companies deeply connect with e-commerce platforms and manufacturing enterprises to jointly design industry-customized solutions; in the ecological promotion phase, industry chain enterprises share technology standards and application cases through the establishment of industry alliances, promoting the penetration of smart logistics technologies from leading enterprises to small and micro enterprises. By 2024, the market penetration rate of collaborative solutions in China’s logistics industry has reached 38%, an increase of 22 percentage points compared to 2020. This full-chain, multi-level collaborative model not only accelerates the commercialization of smart logistics technologies but also promotes continuous optimization of technologies through scenario feedback, forming a positive cycle of collaboration, innovation, and re-collaboration, helping the smart logistics industry transition from point technology applications to full-link intelligent upgrades.
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Future Outlook: Digital Technology Will Reshape the New Paradigm of Smart Logistics
Electronic warehouse receipts will become the key carrier for goods storage and transactions in smart logistics.Through the deep integration of blockchain, IoT, and big data technologies, electronic warehouse receipts will completely transform the traditional storage and financial models for bulk commodities. Blockchain electronic warehouse receipts, with their immutability and traceability, will convert physical goods into highly trusted digital assets, achieving the “five consistencies” of physical inventory, electronic inventory certificates, electronic inventory accounts, inventory locations, and inventory identifiers, providing a solid foundation for innovations in supply chain finance. It is expected that in the next 3-5 years, the application coverage of electronic warehouse receipts in bulk logistics and e-commerce warehousing will increase from the current 30% to over 70%.
The Physical Internet will reshape the global logistics system architecture, breaking down barriers between various logistics links through standardized packaging, modular design, and open interfaces.The Physical Internet (PI), as a revolutionary logistics concept, aims to build a globally interconnected logistics network through standardized containers, intelligent nodes, and open protocols, similar to the transmission of digital information on the internet. Pilot projects by some logistics companies in Europe and America have shown that integrating logistics resources through the Physical Internet can reduce transportation costs by 15%-20%. In the future, as global unified standards are gradually established, the Physical Internet is expected to create an efficient logistics network connecting the world, promoting the logistics industry to transition from traditional discrete operations to a highly collaborative integrated model.
Artificial intelligence will serve as the core driving force, deeply empowering smart logistics systems to evolve towards fully autonomous decision-making and collaborative intelligence.Through AI technology, the sensing devices, robots, and transport vehicles in the logistics IoT not only achieve real-time collection of environmental data but also possess capabilities for autonomous cognition, dynamic planning, and intelligent execution. Looking ahead to the next five to ten years, as edge intelligence, 5G communication, and AI algorithms further mature, artificial intelligence will be fully embedded in the entire logistics chain from warehousing and delivery to transportation, achieving a truly end-to-end intelligent decision-making closed loop. AI will not only reconstruct the collaborative methods among people, vehicles, warehouses, and goods but also drive smart logistics systems from “connectable, perceivable” to “predictable, autonomous,” ultimately forming a new generation of logistics IoT architecture characterized by global optimization and continuous evolution.
Green and low-carbon will become the core guiding principle for the development of smart logistics. Under the dual carbon goals, the logistics industry will accelerate its green transformation.The proportion of new energy vehicles in logistics delivery continues to rise, with electric trucks rapidly popularizing in urban delivery due to their low cost and zero emissions; warehousing facilities are adopting energy-saving lighting and intelligent temperature control technologies to reduce energy consumption by 20%-30%. At the same time, green packaging materials are widely used, with biodegradable packaging replacing traditional plastic packaging to reduce packaging waste pollution. Furthermore, by optimizing transportation routes and integrating delivery resources through smart logistics systems, vehicle empty running rates will be significantly reduced, greatly decreasing carbon emissions. In the future, green and low-carbon principles will permeate the entire lifecycle of smart logistics, becoming a key support for enterprises’ core competitiveness and the sustainable development of the industry.
Conclusion
As electronic warehouse receipts turn “movable property” into “credit,” as π-box gives packages an “IP address,” and as artificial intelligence crystallizes the experience of dispatchers into algorithms, smart logistics is stepping out of the traditional positioning of “cost center” to become a “digital infrastructure” driving efficiency leaps, green transformation, and financial innovation in the industrial chain, promoting a deep transformation of the logistics industry from “resource-driven” to “technology-driven.” In the next decade, with the further integration of AI and IoT technologies, smart logistics will become the core driving force for enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency, reconstructing the global supply chain pattern and achieving global optimization of logistics resources, ultimately moving towards a new stage of comprehensive intelligence and greening.
Author Information
Xiao Jing Shao, 13810263946
Bin Xie, 13120121874
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