Cainiao Network ("Cainiao"), Alibaba Group Holding Limited's logistics arm, has announced a partnership with South Korea's CJ Logistics, a subsidiary of CJ Group whose business spans four major industries: food and beverage, biotechnology, logistics, and entertainment and media, to streamline and optimize cross-border logistics services between China and South Korea. Furthermore, both parties are in talks with AliExpress to establish fulfillment centers in South Korea to further secure logistics services for local consumers.
This collaboration aims to improve customer experience and service quality by reducing delivery times between China and South Korea to as little as three days, with deliveries even on Sundays. CJ Logistics' expertise and range of logistics offerings in South Korea will be combined with Cainiao's cross-border logistics capabilities in areas such as domestic warehousing, line haul transportation, and first mile network.
In South Korea, CJ Logistics has a large infrastructure and strong logistics capabilities. Since 2018, it has owned and operated a mega logistics hub in Gonjiam with a total area of more than 300,000 square meters and a daily parcel handling capacity of up to 1.7 million. It also has over 274 distribution centers spread across South Korea's major cities.
"Forging alliances with global leaders in e-commerce, such as AliExpress and Cainiao, allows us to provide greater value and a better customer experience." In the future, we will continue to optimize cross-border fulfillment services and the partnership framework in order to achieve mutual growth and provide new overseas shopping services to consumers." Shin Young Soo, CEO of CJ Logistics' Parcel E-Commerce Business Unit, stated at AliExpress' South Korean press conference in March.
"The collaboration with CJ Logistics represents a significant step forward in improving the China-Korea cross-border logistics experience for merchants and consumers." Here, Cainiao will be able to further optimize the logistics efficiency of the entire supply chain, especially when it comes to safeguarding delivery timeliness during major shopping festivals. This will allow us to provide a customer experience and shipping guarantee comparable to local eCommerce," said Wang Ke, Asia Pacific regional manager of Cainiao International Express.
China launched a number of initiatives last year to improve cross-border logistics between the two countries, including the establishment of a distribution center and trucking line haul service in South Korea to expedite AliExpress deliveries from China. These contributed to a 10% reduction in operating costs and a savings of more than 12 hours in processing and handling time for South Korean-bound deliveries.