The third party logistics is a kind of logistics with the characteristics of specialization and socialization. Third party logistics is different from professional logistics other than enterprise logistics and sales logistics. It does not provide services for a single enterprise. Its service object involves many enterprises in society, so it has the characteristics of socialization.

The third party logistics is a kind of integrated service. Compared with the traditional logistics, the third party logistics is a contract-oriented serial logistics, which provides nearly 30 kinds of logistics services, and others mainly include logistics scheme design, transportation management, order processing, warehouse management, product recovery, logistics information system and so on.

The relationship between third party logistics and customers is a strategic alliance. The strategic alliance between the third party logistics enterprise and the customer has a remarkable characteristic. The third party logistics enterprise does not pursue the short-term interest. From the strategic point of view, the third party logistics enterprise is an investor, it serves the customer in this capacity, at the same time, the service provided by the third party logistics enterprise to the customer itself is a kind of long-term investment.

The present situation of third party logistics enterprises in China under the environment of electronic commerce.

With the acceleration of economic globalization and information globalization, e-commerce in China has entered a high-speed period of development, at the same time, the importance of modern logistics has gradually become prominent. In the process of development and progress, most domestic enterprises realize that through the cooperation with logistics enterprises, they can obtain higher economic benefits and win better development prospects for themselves.

According to the nature of ownership and management of the present stage of logistics enterprises in our country, it can be divided into two categories: one is traditional logistics enterprises, most of them are state-owned or collective enterprises, and their characteristics generally include regional, industrial and traditional. This kind of logistics enterprise only accepts the order of storage and transportation; the other is a third-party logistics enterprise, most of such enterprises are the new logistics enterprises which are built according to the operation law of the market, and the third-party logistics enterprises are the mainstream of the e-commerce era.