2024-10-01
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on an ordinary afternoon on september 27, at cainiao’s station in causeway bay, hong kong, china, staff were busy picking up packages for users. on the screen behind him, the slogan "taobao plus comes with free shipping and refunds, and cross-store purchases of ¥99 and free shipping to hong kong" indicate the latest changes in cross-border services.
in an interview with media reporters including reporters from the "daily economic news", chen zijian, head of taobao and tmall's hong kong and macau business department, said that community management in hong kong is relatively strict, and many times (express delivery) cannot be delivered to your home, "so in most users in hong kong choose to pick up their items themselves."
at the taobao hong kong business conference on september 26, alibaba announced that taobao would invest 1 billion yuan to turn hong kong into a free shipping area. the reporter learned that in order to facilitate consumers to pick up goods, the number of official taobao self-pickup points and self-pickup cabinets in hong kong will also be increased to 800.
taobao is trying to strengthen its competitiveness in more regions, and hong kong is just one of the regions where taobao has increased its offer of free shipping.
in july this year, taobao and alibaba international launched the "global free shipping plan for large clothing". on september 23, reporters learned from taotian that taobao's overseas strategy will be fully upgraded to the "taobao tmall overseas growth plan", which was originally only open to "apparel" merchants, there are opportunities for expansion to merchants in all industries.
it is worth mentioning that this project is promoted by taobao and tmall, and alibaba international is responsible for overseas logistics and user operations. the platform provides overseas postage subsidies and free shipping directly to overseas consumers.
while taobao is increasing its cross-border business, alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platform is also increasing its investment. on september 26, it was reported that in key national markets, aliexpress will double its user growth and marketing investment for double 11 this year.
currently, alibaba is attacking on multiple fronts in cross-border business. will this bring new variables to the cross-border e-commerce situation?
picture source of local rookie station in hong kong: photo by reporter chen ting
taobao has become a player that cannot be ignored in alibaba’s cross-border business.
everything is moving very quickly. in july this year, taobao and alibaba international launched the "global free shipping plan for large clothing", which was officially launched in august. the first phase of the project covers singapore, malaysia, south korea, hong kong, china, macau, taiwan, china and other regions. it will expand from asia to australia by the end of the year, and will gradually achieve global free shipping.
on september 23, the reporter learned that taotian has internally upgraded the project to the "taobao tmall overseas growth plan" and will start investment promotion for all industries and categories from that date.
according to the reporter's understanding, merchants participating in taobao's project have independent pricing and cargo rights, and merchants do not need to increase additional operating costs, nor do they need to consider cross-border logistics and customs clearance. after receiving orders from overseas consumers, merchants only need to send the goods to domestic consolidation warehouses.
on the consumer side, the direct manifestation of this project is that the platform provides overseas postage subsidies and provides free shipping directly to overseas consumers. however, the implementation of the free shipping service of this project is slightly different in different regions.
take hong kong, china as an example. in august this year, taobao launched a pilot program for free shipping on clothing in hong kong. the reporter learned that the free shipping this time has been expanded from the apparel industry to the entire industry, covering products including 3c digital, home storage, sports and entertainment, makeup and skin care and other hot-selling categories.
according to ye jianqiu, general manager of taobao and tmall’s overseas business department, taobao has provided direct mail services for more than 92% of its products. “the average timeliness is now much faster than before. the average timeliness from the mainland to hong kong may have been 3 times faster.” to 4 days." he said, for example, consumers who place an order on taobao on thursday may receive it over the weekend.
the reporter’s experience on the taobao app found that when the delivery address is hong kong, a variety of logistics methods are available. if you choose official direct shipping and choose self-pickup, you can enjoy free shipping to hong kong for orders over 99 yuan, and the pick-up point is hong kong join the station. if you choose door-to-door delivery, you need to pay a certain shipping fee, and it is expected to be delivered within 3 working days after shipment. in addition, consumers in hong kong can also choose official consolidation.
image source: platform screenshot
according to zhao yiliang, general manager of the hong kong station of cainiao group’s overseas shopping export logistics department, hong kong is expected to have more than 1,000 self-pickup counters by the end of the year to serve consumers.
in addition to local returns, taobao will also add cross-border return services. hong kong consumers only need to return to local logistics outlets.
when malaysian consumers click on the taobao app, they can see promotional slogans such as free air shipping for purchases over rmb 199 and local refunds in malaysia. when placing an order, consumers can choose whether to send direct mail by air or direct mail by sea. if the free shipping threshold is reached, they can enjoy free shipping service. the difference is that air shipping takes 4 to 6 working days to arrive, and sea shipping takes 10 to 14 working days. arrive on the same day. in addition, malaysian consumers can also choose consolidated shipping, and the freight rules for consolidated shipping can be seen on the software.
as for why the free shipping threshold in hong kong is 99 yuan, ye jianqiu told reporters that this is determined based on the size of user packages in each market and the unit price of consumption. “99 yuan is what we see as currently the most suitable for hong kong consumers. a choice that lowers the threshold for consumers."
in addition, in different regions, taobao is also trying to enhance its "sense of presence" in different ways.
the reporter learned that in order to create a new consumption scenario that integrates online and offline, taobao will also cooperate with the local sino group in hong kong to invest in the construction of an online and offline furniture experience center of about 4,000 square meters in china hong kong city, yau tsim mong district, hong kong. it is expected to be opened in opening early next year. in the experience center, hong kong consumers can experience one-stop services including physical shopping guide, home delivery of orders, door-to-door installation, and after-sales returns.
picture source: photo by reporter chen ting
it is worth mentioning that before taobao, alibaba had an in-depth layout in cross-border business. in addition to aliexpress and alibaba international station, lazada (lazada, one of the largest online shopping websites in southeast asia) has a strong presence in the southeast asian market. trendyol, which alibaba invested in in 2018, also maintains a leading position in turkey.
aliexpress recently stated that in the past two years, aliexpress's global average delivery time has been shortened by 50%, and the delivery time in key countries has increased to 5 to 7 days.
in this year's double 11, as a cross-border e-commerce company, aliexpress also launched actions. the reporter learned that on september 26, aliexpress held a double 11 merchant kick-off meeting to officially announce the rhythm and gameplay of the overseas double 11 and black friday promotions in 2024.
it is reported that aliexpress has provided operational directions for merchants of different categories: the status of merchant self-operation (pop) has been greatly improved, focusing on new products and rich categories; full custody focuses on light and small items and standard products; and encourages stocking of major items overseas. , high-value goods are operated under the "overseas custody" model.
as taobao further intensifies its efforts, what kind of relationship will emerge among alibaba’s internal cross-border businesses?
it is understood that whether it is the "global free shipping plan for large clothing" or the "taobao tmall overseas growth plan" after the official expansion to merchants in the entire industry, taobao and tmall are responsible for attracting investment, and alibaba international is responsible for overseas logistics and users. operations.
previously, during an interview about the "big apparel global free shipping plan", the reporter learned that the project is a "pallet connection" between taobao and alibaba international's retail e-commerce platform. in addition to the products being sold to overseas taobao users through taobao's overseas version sales are also sold to multiple markets around the world through aliexpress and lazada.
taobao apparel operations manager kanshan (alibaba hua ming) once told reporters including the daily economic news that consumers can now see some taobao apparel products on lazada. however, there are still some challenges in the process. there are a lot of details that need to be polished. "for example, when both parties have marketing discounts at the same time, how to reduce prices. another example is that taobao offers full discounts. lazada may not have the ability to get through, but the supply is available."
obviously, taobao's attack on cross-border business has increased the supply of alibaba's cross-border e-commerce. in addition, in terms of the positioning of cross-border business, there are certain differences between platforms such as taobao and aliexpress.
hongkongphoto source of local rookie station: photo by reporter chen ting
kanshan once told reporters that taobao’s project does not require merchants to open independent stores, inject capital, or add deposits independently. lazada and ae (aliexpress) need to enter independently.
"taobao's plan does not require independent entry. it is mainly based on store signing. as long as your store decides to accept all your taobao domestic products, it can be sold overseas. there is no need to independently publish each corresponding product." kanshan also mentioned that the fully managed model of other platforms requires merchants to set a supply price and then negotiate the price with the brand. however, the pricing system of taobao's model is consistent with that in china, and the marketing rules are consistent with those in china. "if you set the price at home, and the price will be sent overseas simultaneously."
zhuang shuai, founder of bailian consulting, told a reporter from the "daily economic news" that alibaba's use of multiple models for cross-border overseas expansion can bring about synergistic effects. "the organization is still independent, but complementation and synergy can form differentiation and healthy competition."
as for alibaba’s recent new layout in cross-border business, cui lili, a professor at the department of digital economics at shanghai university of finance and economics, told a reporter from the "daily economic news" that it should be a benefit to overseas end consumers from the perspective of supply chain and shipping costs, " but it cannot be directly equated to an improvement in competitiveness in the global market."
at present, cross-border e-commerce is still in the stage of rapid development.
according to relevant reports from western securities, the total transaction volume of the global cross-border e-commerce industry will be us$2.4 trillion in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 14.29%. the total transaction volume in 2023 will be approximately us$2.8 trillion, a year-on-year increase of 16.67%, and is expected to reach 33,000 us dollars in 2024. billion dollars.
in the past two years, local cross-border e-commerce platforms have made a lot of efforts, whether on the merchant side, logistics side or marketing side.
in 2023, the "four little dragons" will rush to embrace full trusteeship. yang yufan, senior consultant at cic consulting, once told a reporter from the "daily economic news" that the fully managed model is essentially an e-commerce platform that expands its capabilities and helps sellers complete store operations, logistics and warehousing, marketing activities and other aspects of work. it has greatly lowered the threshold for sellers to enter the e-commerce platform. for industrial and trade sellers, the fully managed model is one of the best choices for companies to quickly monetize their supply chain capabilities.
the launch of full custody has allowed local e-commerce platforms to tap greater potential of the domestic supply chain. at the beginning of this year, the term semi-custodial gradually attracted attention from the outside world. aliexpress, alibaba international station, temu and shein have all "opened the book" "semi-managed.
on the marketing side, major platforms are also increasing investment.
after appearing in the super bowl for the first time in 2023, temu once again contracted the super bowl advertising space this year, and the number of advertisements it placed was more than twice that of last year. in march, aliexpress announced that it had signed two saudi football stars, salem al-dawsari and feras al brikan, to become spokespersons for the middle east. by may, aliexpress it also officially announced that it has signed football superstar david beckham as its global spokesperson.
logistics is even more crucial for cross-border e-commerce. as far as cainiao is concerned, its attitude towards continuing to develop its global logistics network is quite firm.
in september this year, at the 2024 global smart logistics summit, cainiao group ceo wan lin said: “we hope to build a truly global end-to-end open network through the cross-border backbone network of china’s express delivery network, plus overseas local networks. "
it is reported that cainiao overseas local express has launched operations in 10 countries and regions. in terms of global supply chain, cainiao has operated over 800,000 square meters of overseas warehouses around the world and provided professional services in 18 countries and regions.
at present, local cross-border e-commerce platforms have their own strengths.
zhuang shuai believes that alibaba's cross-border e-commerce has advantages in logistics and supply. temu has insufficient supply, while tiktok is relatively weak in logistics and supply, but in terms of visit duration (stickiness), number of visits, and user size has advantages. cui lili believes that in the cross-border arena, alibaba is a relatively traditional existence, while other cross-border e-commerce platforms use new methods.
to this day, temu is still expanding rapidly, the alibaba department has taken out taobao as a general and is fully committed to cross-border logistics, and tiktok has led internet celebrity anchors to go overseas...on september 30, jd.com announced we will further increase our presence in the hong kong market with an initial investment of rmb 1.5 billion, which will not be capped in the long term and will be mainly used for commodity price subsidies, logistics subsidies and service optimization.
in any case, at a time when the domestic e-commerce market has fallen into competition for existing products, these cross-border players need to seize the time and rush forward in order to get a bigger piece of the global market.
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