Spatial Structure of China’s E-commerce Express Logistics Network Based on Space of Flows

The intermediate link compression characteristics of e-commerce express logistics networks influence the traditional mode of circulation of goods and economic organization, and alter the city spatial pattern. Based on the theory of space of flows, this study adopts China Smart Logistics Network relational data to build China's e-commerce express logistics network and explore its spatial structure characteristics through social network analysis (SNA), the PageRank technique, and geospatial methods. The results are as follows: the network density is 0.9270, which is close to 1; hence, indicating that e-commerce express logistics lines between Chinese cities are nearly complete and they form a typical network structure, thereby eliminating fragmented spaces. Moreover, the average minimum number of edges is 1.1375, which indicates that the network has a small world effect and thus has a high flow efficiency of logistics elements. A significant hierarchical diffusion effect was observed in dominant flows with the highest edge weights. A diamond-structured network was formed with Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chongqing, and Beijing as the four core nodes. Other node cities with a large logistics scale and importance in the network are mainly located in the 19 city agglomerations of China, revealing the fact that the development of city agglomerations is essential for promoting the separation of experience space and changing the urban spatial pattern. This study enriches the theory of urban networks, reveals the flow laws of modern logistics elements, and encourages coordinated development of urban logistics.