Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group has chosen the Finnish postal operator Posti to deliver products purchased by Russian online shoppers from its international e-retailer AliExpress from China to the Russian Federation.
Posti expects to handle about 20% of the AliExpress shipments, according to Russian media. The company said: “The agreement with Alibaba will bring Posti millions of new shipments every year.”
Posti Vice President Jaakko Kaidesoja told the Russian news agency TASS that this is the company’s first agreement with Alibaba but did not disclose the contract value. "It is a natural and profitable cooperation for the Finnish postal operator because we have already been working in the Russian market, and online sales and purchases are a growing market. We will deliver goods directly from China to Russia.”
Mark Savadsky, Director Business Development at AliExpress in Russia and CIS countries, told TASS that Cainiao (the company responsible for Alibaba Group’s global logistics) signed an agreement with Posti through which part of the shipments sent from China to Russia will go through Finland. At the same time, Russian Post will take care of the last-mile delivery, as it was the case before. “There is no difference for the end customer, rather a benefit in terms of shorter delivery times.”
“Prior to this deal, Cainiao had been cooperating with China Post, Russian Post and other operators. Along with the existing delivery routes, we have thus now added a new one,” Savadsky said. He added that the current agreement will only affect the standard delivery process but not express delivery, including the involvement of SPSR Express, as express carriers make deliveries to the end-customer independently.
In February this year, AliExpress announced its partnership with SPSR Express which has been integrated in Alibaba Group’s global information platform of logistics partners. This makes SPSR Express the first authorised express operator of AliExpress in Russia. Shortly after signing the cooperation agreement, SPSR Express and AliExpress announced a new common project in which AliExpress is now offering major Turkish fashion brands via its trade platform for Russian online shoppers.
In early June 2015, Alibaba Group registered a representative office in Russia – OOO “Alibaba.com (RUS)”.
