Chinese e-commerce giant AliExpress, part of the Alibaba Group, has been studying the macro-developments and changes in online shopping behaviour due to Covid-19 in a bid to introduce a variety of new services that will smooth cross-border e-commerce deliveries ahead of its Global Shopping Festival, due to be held in November.
For example, the group’s logistics arm Cainiao Smart Logistics Network has launched a new international air-freight route to speed up average delivery times between China and Europe by more than 30%. Selected goods shipped through the new route can now reach consumers in the company’s key European markets such as Spain and France in 10 working days, with the aim to expand to more European markets in the near future.
Relying on the overseas warehouses in Europe serving AliExpress merchants, Cainiao notes that its intra-Europe trucking network taps advanced algorithms to generate the most-efficient loading plans and transportation routes for its fleet, as well as the optimal number of trucks to deploy, in real time.
The company claims that by leveraging this line-haul network and collaborating with local last-mile delivery providers, it is able to connect partner warehouses and transportation hubs in Spain, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, achieving three-day delivery in Spain, France and Poland, and five to seven days in other European countries.