Cainiao has its own new story

Author | Huang Yu

Editor | Wang Xiaojuan

After nearly two years of adjustments, the twelve-year-old Cainiao stands before everyone with a brand new look.

On September 10th, on this anniversary that holds special significance for Alibaba Group, Cainiao welcomed its annual Global Smart Logistics Summit and announced its growth to the outside world.

Cainiao Group CEO Wan Lin stated that over the past year, Cainiao has been making continuous adjustments, mainly focusing on two major directions: one is that Cainiao hopes to be more open, and the other is to focus more on international logistics and technology.

Emphasizing globalization, technology, and marketization are typical characteristics of Cainiao entering the 3.0 era.

At the same time, Wan Lin pointed out that since the beginning of this year, Cainiao has successively connected services to major global e-commerce platforms and will continue to focus on four core areas: global supply chain, cross-border logistics, overseas local express delivery, and logistics technology.

Of course, focusing on the global supply chain does not mean that Cainiao will give up the Chinese market. Wan Lin revealed that on one hand, Cainiao continues to solidify the Chinese supply chain by meeting diverse needs through tiered services; on the other hand, it replicates China's advanced supply chain experience overseas, promotes the upgrade of overseas warehouse operation standards, assists Chinese brands in going global, and supports international brands in their global layout.

Overseas warehouses are an important infrastructure for Cainiao's global supply chain business. It is reported that Cainiao currently operates over 40 overseas warehouses in 18 countries and regions in Europe, North America, and the Asia-Pacific, providing omnichannel, end-to-end supply chain management solutions and warehousing and distribution services for a large number of domestic and foreign brands and merchants.

In terms of cross-border logistics, Cainiao is also accelerating and continuously strengthening its global network, intensifying air routes to key markets such as Europe, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.

At this press conference, Cainiao officially announced a long-term strategic cooperation with Qatar Airways Cargo, leveraging Qatar Airways Cargo's global route network to increase the frequency of cargo flights on core routes from China to Europe by more than double each week.

At the same time, Cainiao announced a comprehensive upgrade of its "Global Five-Day Delivery" cross-border express product, expecting to add six major core countries in Eurasia—Vietnam, Hungary, Singapore, Qatar, the Philippines, and Austria—by the end of the year, allowing cross-border packages to be delivered to Europe in as fast as five calendar days.

In September 2023, Cainiao, in collaboration with AliExpress, launched the "Global Five-Day Delivery" cross-border express product for the first time, covering countries such as the UK, Spain, and the Netherlands. It is reported that, for the UK market, since its launch, it has continuously iterated, achieving a speed-up from 5 working days (actual fulfillment time around 7 calendar days) to 5 calendar days, with an average delivery rate exceeding 95%, maintaining the top position in the efficiency of the China-UK express line.

The extreme efficiency of Cainiao's "Global Five-Day Delivery" comes from its dual optimization of the entire logistics chain: on one hand, ensuring seamless connections at each node through refined operations, and on the other hand, continuously increasing investment in AI technology to achieve digital upgrades across the entire chain It is reported that the "Global Five-Day Delivery" service is now open to all cross-border e-commerce platforms and overseas merchants. This upgrade represents another breakthrough for Cainiao in building its global smart logistics network capabilities and is a key milestone in Cainiao's move towards globalization.

Xiong Wei, Vice President of Cainiao Group and General Manager of the Cross-Border Logistics Division, revealed at the press conference that Cainiao has built a cross-border logistics network covering over 200 countries worldwide, currently providing cross-border fulfillment services for 90% of the leading cross-border e-commerce platforms globally. Looking ahead, "Global Five-Day Delivery" will cover more core markets in global e-commerce.

In terms of local express delivery construction overseas, Cainiao has deepened its presence in nine key markets, including Spain, France, the United States, and Mexico, continuously expanding consumer coverage and enriching high-efficiency e-commerce services such as next-day delivery, two-day delivery, and weekend delivery.

Since April of this year, external orders for Cainiao's overseas local express delivery services have grown by over 200%.

While building a global logistics network, Cainiao is also exporting its logistics technology capabilities as an important business, which has become a rapidly growing sector.

Bi Jianghua, Vice President of Cainiao and General Manager of the Logistics Technology Division, revealed that in the last fiscal year, Cainiao's logistics technology business maintained dual growth in both overseas and domestic markets, with growth rates far exceeding the industry average, including a year-on-year increase of over 150% in overseas sales.

While focusing on four major business segments, it can also be seen that Cainiao is transitioning from a past focus on serving Alibaba's platform to becoming a more open logistics service provider for all customers and all platforms.

Wall Street Journal previously learned that Cainiao's external business from third parties has significantly surpassed that from Alibaba Group.

Cainiao, which was incubated from Alibaba's e-commerce system, has after 12 years of growth, already "unfurled its wings," and is no longer just ensuring the logistics operations of Alibaba's e-commerce but is focusing on "international" and "technology," building a globalized and market-oriented logistics network.

Cainiao's planning for future development is mainly based on its judgment of industry development.

According to Wan Lin, the global e-commerce sector is facing changes and challenges in the short term. However, in the long term, as e-commerce penetration rates increase and business forms evolve in various countries, the e-commerce market will continue to grow.

However, in an uncertain trade environment, e-commerce needs more certain logistics, and this trend is driving logistics demand to shift from a single model to a combination model of "cross-border direct mail + overseas warehouses + local delivery."

Facing future opportunities and challenges, Cainiao is accelerating globally.

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