the chinese e-commerce giant alibaba has
big global plans
one major goal to deliver goods from
china to anywhere on the planet in 72
hours
amazon and alibaba are both looking to
capture a larger share of the global
e-commerce market which is expected to
grow by 1.4 trillion dollars by 2025.
it's all execution it's who's faster on
the ground
it's who's focused where and
fast shipping plus cheaper prices is a
big part of winning new customers
alibaba's fast delivery service is
already gaining traction in european
cities and working with western delivery
companies as it builds a shipping
network different from amazon's
alibaba gave us a look at its largest
automated warehouse in china as it plans
to speed up deliveries around the world
oversees daily operations in this
warehouse run by alibaba's logistics
company tanya
he says robots here do all the heavy
work
this efficiency helped alibaba process
75 billion
worth of packages during the company's
largest sales event in china last year
called singles day
which takes place over 11 days
e-commerce analysts say this was more
than all of e-commerce sales during
black friday
cyber monday and amazon's prime day
combined
but alibaba isn't just an e-commerce
company it owns a vast empire
of other tech businesses and many of
those parts help speed up the shipping
process
so when you buy a product from its
retail website alibaba's payment company
can process the transaction and then the
shipping is handled here
this network allows tanya to quickly
gather information digitally about your
package
including the price weight and
destination and then send it directly to
chinese customs to be cleared for export
over the years this process has gotten
faster from taking one month to clear a
package to now only a few minutes
every year we set very aggressive
experience improvement targets william
xiong
is in charge of making sure your
packages take the most efficient route
the company relies on a global network
of 3000 partner airlines postal services
and other delivery companies to handle
the actual transport
this allows alibaba to expand its
shipping routes with new partners
without having to build and maintain its
own fleet
we are running more than 80
charter flights every weeks and transfer
centers
in key markets like russia france spain
to allow a very effective final
deliveries
that's a striking difference from amazon
which says it has invested billions of
dollars to build its own fleet that
includes more than 40 000 trailers and
75 cargo planes
amazon is also making a promise for fast
delivery but unlike alibaba its
speediest service is only available in
21 countries where products can be
delivered in a few hours
but customers must pay for a
subscription program that can be as low
as about 13
or as much as about 130 a year right now
alibaba delivers to more than 190
countries
but only a few products arrive within 72
hours with no shipping fee
so as the company tries to gain traction
it says it plans to expand the service
to a wider array of products and charge
three dollars
the company says this service will
entice more people to its retail website
aliexpress looks very similar to amazon
and users can browse more than 100
million items
but there's one thing you'll notice as
you compare products
ecommerce analysts say they are
generally cheaper on aliexpress
and that's largely because the company
has direct access to chinese factories
and merchants
cutting out the middleman aliexpress is
connecting the world consumers with
chinese manufacturers that's an
advantage
amazon doesn't have jeffrey towson runs
a market research firm that looks at
tech and logistics companies
aliexpress is effectively alibaba at its
most
opportunistic it's trying to do
something very difficult which is
reach the rest of the world's consumers
but
e-commerce analysts say aliexpress's
low-cost strategy has a risk
counterfeit products for years consumer
watchdogs
tech and luxury companies plus the us
government have accused alibaba's
e-commerce websites of selling fake
products
amazon has also faced accusations from
the trump administration for selling
counterfeit goods from chinese
third-party merchants on the site
you get defrauded when you buy a
counterfeit but sometimes these things
can kill you
alibaba says it was cooperating with
governments to address counterfeiting
and using technologies and partnerships
with brands and other stakeholders to
help identify and remove counterfeit
goods from its platforms
amazon said its reporting confirmed
counterfeiters to law enforcement
to deliver any product from its website
anywhere both companies will have to
tackle one of the most challenging
issues for any delivery company
the last mile ecommerce analysts say
this step represents about
50 of the total cost of a delivery
because that's been hard to automate and
requires manpower
so alibaba is testing a new system in
chinese cities
the company calls this a post office but
instead of a mail carrier there are
self-driving robots
alibaba says one delivery robot can
carry 50 packages at once and can trim
cost and time
amazon said it's also committed to
transforming its transportation network
so it's conducting trials to improve the
last leg of the journey like
testing drones that it says could
deliver packages within 30 minutes of an
item being ordered
the push to gain more traction in the
global ecommerce market could push the
two tech giants to improve their systems
even more
and that could mean that the next item
you buy gets you even faster