Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and its delivery partners in the Cainiao Logistics network have launched a massive logistics operation to handle a tsunami-style flood of hundreds of millions of parcels from tomorrow’s ‘11.11 Global Shopping Festival’.
Last year’s event generated 278 million logistics orders in the 24-hour period, and about 40 million of these orders were delivered in the following 48 hours. The overall total is about 10 times more than the 30 million packages that Cainaio Logistics processes on a normal working day.
Alibaba Group is not making any official forecasts for volumes from its event this year. However, China Post estimates that 760 million packages will be generated by Singles Day (November 11) sales held by all Chinese online shopping websites compared to 540 million packages produced last year.
This year, more than 1.7 million delivery workers (including hundreds of thousands of temporary staff), 400,000 vehicles, 5,000 warehouses and 200 airplanes will be used by the 3,000 logistics partners who cooperate in Cainiao Logistics, Alibaba Group’s logistics affiliate, to handle deliveries in the coming days and weeks. Partners include major Chinese delivery firms such as China Post, SF, STO, YTO, ZJS and ZTO.
For cross-border deliveries, Cainiao has launched a “Hassle-Free Logistics Service” consisting of 49 international partners who have set up 16 dedicated global delivery routes and 74 warehouses, creating a cross-border network that can handle up to 4 million international package deliveries per day.
“The massive number of delivery orders generated from this great online shopping event really pushes us and our delivery partners to do our very best,” said Cainiao Chief Technology Officer Ben Wang. “By leveraging big-data technology and our extensive domestic and international logistics network, all of us stand ready to deliver world-class logistics services to our customers once again this year.”
Cainiao operates a logistics information platform which provides real-time access to information for both buyers and sellers, as well as information that allows delivery service providers to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their services. It has recently developed a wide-ranging suite of proprietary logistics applications that utilize big data technology, such as an e-Waybill system, a digitized parcel sorting solution, and a parcel forecasting application.
More than 27,000 merchants participated in Alibaba's online shopping event in 2014, selling to consumers from 217 different countries. Alibaba generated US$ 9.3 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV), making 11.11 bigger in revenue terms than US online shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
This year will be even bigger with more than six million products on offer from over 40,000 merchants and more than 30,000 brands from 25 countries. The event “will highlight the strength and cutting-edge innovation of the entire Alibaba ecosystem, featuring a wide variety of products and brands from around the world, marketing campaigns for merchants, mobile initiatives, logistics technology and capabilities, omnichannel commerce, and much more,” the group declared.
Launched by Alibaba Group in 2009 with just 27 merchants to promote online shopping in China, the November 11 sale has grown exponentially over the last six years, driven by rising online, mobile and data technology adoption, as well as the strong trajectory of the Chinese consumer market. 11.11 is not just the world’s largest shopping day, but represents how online shopping has transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers, particularly the booming middle-class population as well as lower-tier and rural regions across China, according to the e-commerce group.
