Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, intends to launch its services in Russia, the business daily Kommersant reported today.
The move will support the development of the group’s e-commerce activities in Russia. With almost 22 million monthly web users in Russia, Alibaba’s B2C marketplace, Aliexpress, is the leading e-commerce player in the country and number 10 site by audience, according to TNS Russia.
Cainiao — whose valuation reportedly exceeds $7 billion — does not define itself as a traditional logistics company. Rather, the company “leverages the capacity and capabilities of logistics partners and empowers the logistics ecosystem through data, standards and collaboration,” as stated on its website.
Thus in Russia Cainiao intends to create an ecosystem of logistics, fulfilment and warehousing services around the AliExpress platform, serving both cross-border and domestic operations.
Cainiao’s Russian office will be headed by Alex Vasiliev, a former top executive at Russian shipment company SPSR Express who was later hired by JD.COM, then LeEco, when these Chinese players entered the Russian market.
Cainiao’s network encompasses 224 countries as of August 2014 through partnerships with several dozens of logistics partners — including the Russian Post, according to an Alibaba Group representative cited by Kommersant.
Meanwhile, the AliExpress marketplace is developing a service section. Not only does it display a range of discounted offers from local restaurants and providers of entertainment, health and beauty services — competing with local coupon sites, — it also intends to provide its users with financial services. An experiment in this field was announced last month in partnership with Russian bank Ak Bars. Additional digital offers could be launched in the future.
Online sales of physical goods reached some $14 billion in 2015, including approximately $3.5 billion for cross-border sales, according to market experts cited in EWDN’s latest industry report. Amid the economic crisis, domestic sales could slightly increase this year in real terms, while cross-border sales could grow by up to 70%.
Sources: Kommersant, Interfax
