AliExpress, the B2C subsidiary of Alibaba which last year became the number one online marketplace in Russia, has resumed delivery to Crimea. Just months ago, the Chinese platform had stopped serving this Black Sea peninsula, which is disputed between Ukraine and Russia. It was assumed that Alibaba was complying with western sanctions, which bar companies from working in this peninsula.
The news was announced earlier this month by Nikolay Nikiforov, Russia’s Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications, who referred to an exchange with Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma.
“I wrote Jack Ma an email. They quickly investigated the issue and confirmed having a problem with either supply chains, or USA companies, or something else. According to Jack Ma, they had to relocate a number of servers to China, which they are planning to then shift to Russia. All in all, as of two days ago, Alibaba was operating as usual, Jack Ma informed us,” explained Nikiforov in a somehow confusing way.
“Alibaba doesn’t expect similar problems in the future,” Nikiforov added, as reported by Russian news agency Interfax.
Progress in delivery time
The Russian minister also expressed satisfaction over the improvement in international deliveries: “The Russian Post is performing well and the parcels are delivered quickly, there are no problems any more.”
Indeed considerable progress has been achieved in this field over the past couple of years, with parcel delivery time from China to Russia reduced from a few months to a few weeks — or even a few days.
The volume of B2C cross-border e-commerce exchanges between China and Russia grew by 50% in 2015, according to Nikiforov, while the Russian domestic online retail market tended to stagnate.
Russian export: From myth to reality?
Alibaba has also positively reacted to the Russian authorities’ call to develop an e-commerce platform for Russian companies to sell products in China and beyond.
“We have seen the initiative of President Putin to create an electronic platform that would help Russian small and medium enterprises to enter export markets. And we hope very much that we can contribute to its implementation,” the Russian media quoted Ma as saying last week.
According to Ma, Russia should develop further its payments and logistics infrastructures.
He stressed the role of the younger generation to develop such projects: “We believe that the world belongs to the young people. Internet technologies have a 20 year-history, and the next 30 years will open up new opportunities. Alibaba hopes to create a new platform adapted for commercial development together with the youth of Russia,” the Chinese entrepreneur stated.
While recognizing the considerable potential of the Chinese market, Russian industry experts are cautious about Russian exporters’ capacities to seize such opportunity at a massive level. So far, just few Russian e-commerce players companies — such as 220-volt.ru — have developed significant activities in China.
Last month AliExpress started moving in this direction by allowing Russian vendors to sell their goods through its platform.
Meanwhile, several B2B projects are emerging. This past August, Alibaba inked a memorandum of cooperation with Gazprombank, the subsidiary of the Russian gas monopoly, to stimulate cross-border exchanges via Gazprombank’s B2B marketplace. Thousands of Chinese Alibaba sellers or buyers will thus be connected to the Russian marketplace, receiving the inquiries of its users. In November, Russia’s B2B-Center and China’s XBNiao also agreed to develop B2B flows.
