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our reporter li li reports from hangzhou

faced with fierce competition in cross-border e-commerce and overseas markets still to be developed, cainiao group is determined to further expand into the world.

on september 10, at the "2024 global smart logistics summit" held in hangzhou, cainiao made clear its determination to accelerate its global expansion. "alibaba encourages and promotes cainiao to build a logistics network for the open market, to serve the diversified customer needs while serving alibaba's e-commerce, and to become a common infrastructure for global business partners." said joseph tsai, co-founder and chairman of the board of directors of alibaba group and chairman of cainiao group.

in response to the market's concerns about cainiao's development priorities, cainiao group ceo wan lin also said at the summit: "cainiao will continue to expand its global logistics backbone network to serve both alibaba e-commerce and the open market."

china business news reporter noted that this is a confident turn for cainiao. starting from the infrastructure of alibaba's e-commerce business. in 2023, wanlin made it clear at the 2023 global smart logistics summit that cainiao will devote all its efforts to building a world-leading smart logistics network in the next decade. in 2024, this smart logistics network began to accelerate its global expansion, serving alibaba and facing the open market at the same time.

flying around the world

why is it further clarifying its overseas expansion at this time? the industry believes that it is related to alibaba's aggressive expansion of its e-commerce business overseas. in addition, cainiao is also looking for new opportunities in overseas markets as it goes global.

"in the e-commerce consumer experience, supply chain and logistics are one of the most important competitive advantages." regarding the opportunities that cainiao may seize next, tsai chongxin gave three directions.

the first is to seize the opportunities of the new globalization. "globalization is not just about selling chinese products to the world, nor is it just about establishing cross-border e-commerce and logistics channels. the global industrial layout is undergoing profound adjustments, and the emergence of new manufacturing centers will change the layout relationship between production and manufacturing and the consumer market." cai chongxin said that alibaba is fully supporting cainiao's global layout, targeting the new characteristics of the industrial chain, deeply understanding the healthy relationship between the global market and the chinese market, and building a global logistics network that serves the future industrial chain and supply chain.

the second is to seize the opportunity of the explosion of ai technology. e-commerce and logistics are both the best scenarios for ai applications. in the future, logistics will significantly improve the precise matching of commodity supply and consumer demand through the combination of ai technology, and will also further demonstrate the experience and cost advantages of e-commerce logistics.

cai chongxin also specifically mentioned that cainiao must face the open market to gain competitive advantages. he expressed his encouragement and promotion of cainiao to become a common infrastructure for global business partners while serving alibaba's e-commerce.

as a beneficiary of globalization, alibaba obviously wants to take advantage of the expansion of cross-border e-commerce in overseas markets and put cainiao in the global market to find new opportunities.

"cross-border e-commerce is reshaping the global market." walter trezek, chairman of the universal postal union advisory committee, said at the summit that the entire market structure has completely changed in the post-epidemic era. "currently, 90% of the world's e-commerce distribution is operated by 10 major operators, of which 50% of retail goods are operated by emerging and highly concentrated suppliers across continents."

data provided by walter trezek shows that china will account for 37% of the volume of cross-border e-commerce transportation in 2023. "china plays a leading role in this and is accelerating global development in this field."

it seems that, with cross-border e-commerce triggering drastic changes in the global market, it is imperative for cainiao to "go global". this is necessary for alibaba to expand its e-commerce business. from a long-term development perspective, it must also find a new position in the global market amid drastic changes.

deep sea

it is worth noting that cainiao had already taken off before it clearly accelerated its entry into the global market.

in fiscal year 2023, cainiao's revenue structure has changed, with international logistics revenue, mainly cross-border express delivery and international supply chain services, accounting for 47.4%, domestic logistics service revenue accounting for 46.2%, and technology and other service revenue accounting for 6.4%.

on august 15, alibaba group announced its first-quarter results for fiscal year 2025. cainiao's revenue increased by 16% year-on-year to rmb 26.811 billion, mainly from revenue growth and improved operational efficiency brought by cross-border logistics fulfillment services.

regarding the latest developments in overseas markets, wanlin revealed that following the launch of the first batch of ehubs (liege, belgium, hong kong, china, and kuala lumpur, malaysia) in 2018, cainiao will start the construction of the second batch of ehubs worldwide.

in addition, cainiao has begun to build overseas local networks in more than ten countries and regions including spain, france, and mexico; cainiao currently operates more than 800,000 square meters of overseas warehouses worldwide and provides professional services in 18 countries and regions.

"creating a logistics timeliness experience similar to that of local e-commerce will be the key to competition in cross-border e-commerce." ding hongwei, vice president of cainiao group and general manager of international express, further told reporters that in ding hongwei's view, express delivery timeliness is one of the core competitive advantages of cross-border e-commerce in the future, and efficient cross-border logistics fulfillment capabilities are expected to drive an explosive growth in the scale of the industry's overseas expansion.

cainiao's cross-border e-commerce express flagship product "global 5-day delivery" has become the "secret weapon" for many merchants to increase their orders. in september 2023, cainiao launched "global 5-day delivery", which has now expanded to 14 countries, covering europe, america, japan, south korea, the middle east and other regions.

according to cainiao, due to the fast speed and high certainty of timeliness, the satisfaction and repurchase rate of consumers who are sensitive to logistics experience in spain, france, britain, mexico, south korea and other countries have increased significantly. after using cainiao's logistics product, many cross-border merchants in popular industries such as dresses, wigs, and home furnishings have achieved triple-digit growth in orders.

in addition, cainiao is also accelerating its localized operations in overseas markets. "e-commerce has expanded from a single route to a global layout, and the demand for logistics has also extended from cross-border transportation to localized in-depth operations." according to xiong wei, vice president of cainiao group and general manager of the eurasian region and business development department, cainiao currently provides local express products for 2 euros in europe, and 3-day logistics services for 3 to 5 euros in other pan-european countries.

taking spain as an example, cainiao has launched an economical two-day delivery product for e-commerce packages in spain and portugal, as well as bilingual chinese and spanish customer service support. currently, cainiao's self-operated express delivery network in spain has covered more than 40 provinces, including the outer islands, and has achieved "next-day delivery" in 25 key cities.

regarding how to serve the open market well, wanlin responded on the spot that in order to "not only serve customers within the alibaba e-commerce ecosystem, but also better serve external customers", cainiao has made a series of adjustments and changes in its internal organizational structure. the team has made a distinction between serving alibaba's internal customers and serving alibaba's external customers. in addition to a dedicated team to connect with alibaba internally, a dedicated team has also been set up to serve external customers.

"this ensures that there will be no conflicts in resources and priorities. regardless of the type of customer, cainiao can provide better, more extreme and more competitive services based on clear needs," said wan lin.

(editor: wu qing reviewer: li zhenghao proofreader: zhai jun)