Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, the shipments subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding, has launched an express cross-border courier service for next-day delivery in China of foreign parcels.
The service allows the goods, stored at a Cainiao warehouse near the Hong Kong International Airport, to be moved across the Pearl River Estuary to Zhuhai, in Guangdong province. They will then be flown to Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province before being delivered to customers, according to a company statement on Wednesday.
The new service is currently only available to residents of Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu who made e-commerce purchases of overseas items, as cross-region parcel delivery is the fastest in these areas.
Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao celebrates the launch of its express cross-border courier service in collaboration with Hong Kong International Airport and Zhuhai Airport. Photo: Handout
The Zhuhai route disrupts the current model that transports goods primarily by train or lorry, a relatively slow option, or by air from Hong Kong to Shanghai, which is costly. The new service – called Gangzhufei, roughly meaning “Hong Kong-Zhuhai by air” – can reduce transport time by at least one day, and customers in certain areas can receive the parcel as soon as the day after placing an order, Cainiao said.
In collaboration with the airports in Hong Kong and Zhuhai, Cainiao is “actively optimising” the service so that it can be applied to exports from mainland China in the future, according to the company.
Alibaba, which also owns the South China Morning Post, has been advancing the cross-border capabilities of its logistics firm amid increased competition in overseas markets from newer rivals that also operate out of China to leverage the cheap domestic supply chain. These include fast-fashion retailer Shein, PDD Holdings’ budget e-commerce app Temu, and ByteDance-owned TikTok.
Earlier this month, Cainiao announced a new warehouse partnership with American online vitamins retailer iHerb that will be able to process up to 15,000 orders per day. In January, Cainiao opened a parcel-forwarding service for consumers in the US that will bundle multiple purchases from Chinese e-commerce sites before sending the combined package overseas by sea or by air, cutting costs or delivery times.
Alibaba has instead planned to “double down on its investment in Cainiao” given the unit’s “strategic importance”, company chairman and co-founder Joe Tsai said at the time, adding that it is crucial for Alibaba to achieve deep integration between Cainiao’s operations and its e-commerce businesses to provide “the most competitive consumer experience”.
