AliExpress and Cainiao jointly launched the South China Preferred Warehouse, and "full logistics management" helped merchants "stay open during the Spring Festival"

In the past 2020, China's foreign trade export scale hit a new historical high, among which cross-border e-commerce grew rapidly. According to data from the General Administration of Customs, it increased by more than 63% year-on-year. In order to cope with the rapid growth of cross-border export orders during the Spring Festival and provide Chinese foreign trade merchants with lower-cost and more efficient cross-border logistics solutions, AliExpress, a cross-border retail e-commerce platform under Alibaba, officially opened the South China Preferred Warehouse in Dongguan.

(AliExpress's South China Preferred Warehouse is located in the largest hub of Cainiao's export logistics in South China.)

The warehouse is located in the largest hub of Cainiao export logistics in South China, covering an area of ​​8,000 square meters, and is the largest in the country. Since its trial operation at the end of October last year, the South China warehouse has stocked more than one million orders, and the daily delivery volume has increased more than 100 times.

It is reported that the warehouse provides "full logistics management" services for the merchants . Merchants only need to prepare the goods here, and the subsequent delivery, customs clearance, and fulfillment will all be completed by AliExpress and Cainiao. Even if the merchants are on vacation, they can still be guaranteed to "stay open during the Spring Festival."

(AliExpress Preferred Warehouse staff pick and ship goods for merchants according to orders.)

"In the past, because workers were on holidays and we couldn't ship the goods, the proportion of buyers canceling their orders was relatively high." Guo Yanna, head of AliExpress sales at Henan Isail E-Commerce Co., Ltd., said that after the goods are stocked at AliExpress's preferred warehouse, these orders can be shipped normally, and the customer service staff who were previously urged to ship the goods now have a greatly reduced workload.

Su Xue, operations specialist at Shenzhen Yini Jinggong Electronic Technology Co., Ltd., also said that orders received on weekends used to be shipped on Monday, but after the goods are stocked in the preferred warehouse, "shipping will be faster and there is no need to stop during holidays."

(The packaging and shipping lines in the AliExpress Preferred Warehouse.)

"For the goods in the preferred warehouse, we and Cainiao will guarantee 'T+1' delivery," said Li Dawei, head of the supply chain at AliExpress. According to him, this move not only guarantees the delivery time, but also saves the time of cross-border logistics in China. Compared with the merchants' own delivery, it can usually save 2-3 days.

Preferred warehouses are important infrastructure in AliExpress' cross-border logistics solutions, usually located near domestic customs ports. Packages sent from preferred warehouses are quickly cleared and boarded AliExpress's chartered flights, and can be delivered to consumers in as little as 10 days.

During last year's Double 11, the first order from AliExpress was from the South China Preferred Warehouse. A backpack ordered by a Ukrainian user was shipped out of the warehouse by Cainiao in just 15 minutes, and the backpack was boarded on a chartered flight and arrived in Ukraine within 10 days. The first global cross-border delivery order was from AliExpress's North China Preferred Warehouse in Weihai, and was delivered to a Korean consumer within 48 hours.

Merchants using the Preferred Warehouse not only deliver goods faster, but also reduce costs. "Compared with our own warehouse, shipping from the Preferred Warehouse can save more than 20% of costs and has a lower error rate," said Guo Yanna. Su Xuezhe said that after using the Preferred Warehouse, "you can save a worker's salary." In the early days of the opening of the South China Preferred Warehouse, AliExpress also provided a million-dollar subsidy to reduce the burden on merchants by subsidizing logistics and reducing warehouse rent.

"Because the Preferred Warehouse is located in China, the stocking cost will be much lower than that of overseas warehouses, which can greatly reduce the financial pressure of small and medium-sized merchants." Deng Xiang, head of AliExpress Preferred Warehouse, said, "The goods in the Preferred Warehouse can be sent to more than 200 countries around the world. Compared with the goods in overseas warehouses, the coverage is also wider, which is especially suitable for testing new products and stocking potential hot products."

(A fully automated distribution center within the Cainiao logistics hub.)

According to Li Dawei, in 2021, AliExpress will work with Cainiao to improve the layout of preferred warehouses in North China, East China, South China, and Hong Kong, and form a transfer network between the preferred warehouses to automatically help merchants match the best trunk logistics, save logistics costs, and improve fulfillment time. This year, AliExpress will also work with Cainiao to increase the frequency of charter flights by 50%, and the frequency of daily charter flights will reach the level of Tmall Double 11 last year. The areas that can enjoy the "10-day delivery" shopping experience will also be expanded from the existing five countries of Spain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Russia to 18 leading market countries of AliExpress, covering the United States, Brazil, Russia, and major regions in Europe.

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