AliExpress, the Alibaba subsidiary which has overwhelmed the Russian e-commerce scene with cheap Chinese products, is still expanding aggressively in the country.
The Chinese company, which opened its platform to Russian merchants in late 2015, has announced that domestic deliveries will be performed in just one day.
At start, the one-day delivery standard will apply to some Samsung and Apple smartphones, Asus and Lenovo notebooks, Philips headphones and some other items delivered to 20 Russian cities.
Deliveries to 50 other cities will take three days, reports Russian business daily Kommersant.
Cainiao, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group which recently launched in Russia, will provide the required logistics services.
AliExpress plans to expand the new delivery standard to new regions and constantly enlarge the assortment in the future.
Intense competition
One-day delivery is not new in Russia. Many local e-commerce companies do offer such a service as the country’s logistics infrastructure improved considerably over the past few years.
However, AliExpress’s move may hit hard its Russian competitors, believes Alexander Ivanov, president of industry association NAMO.
“The Chinese platform will attract even more users,” Kommersant quoted him as saying.
AliExpress is also introducing a purchase-on-credit option in partnership with Tinkoff Bank, according to Kommersant.
Just weeks ago, the Chinese platform launched ‘AliExpress LIVE,’ a video service which allows customers from Russia and other countries to buy the displayed goods immediately.
Launched in Russia three years ago, AliExpress quickly got strong traction, with millions of Russian users buying its low-priced items.
In March 2017, the platform attracted 23.6 million Russian users of 12 to 64 years of age, according to Mediascope data cited by Kommersant. Such traffic puts the Chinese platform far ahead of any other foreign or domestic e-commerce site or marketplace in Russia.
The Russian e-commerce market amounted to some $26 billion in 2016, including $16 billion for physical goods, according to EWDN’s latest industry report.
