Russian Logistics Further Upgrade, Fast Selling, Deep Ploughing European Market

As a leader in the globalization of Alibaba, fast selling is accelerating the layout of the European market.

In December 24th, global express announced its AE PLUS (AliExpress PLUS) project in Russia. The launch of the plan will support faster logistics and more convenient local returns, and goods purchased on the platform can be distributed to 35 major cities in Russia in 10 days.

This project, as the main growth engine of fast selling in the Russian market, is expected to bring an increase of over US $2 billion in market share. "Many people are concerned about the impact of the current global trade situation on our cross-border business. But in fact, our growth rate this year is the fastest growing in the past two or three years. Wang Mingqiang, general manager of express marketing, said in an interview with the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century that next year is the ten year node of speed express. In the development plan, sticking to the platform strategy and strengthening the localization of overseas markets will become the key point.

Up to now, speed express has opened 18 language sites, and consumers cover more than 200 countries and regions in the world. The top five countries and markets are Russia, Brazil, France, Spain and the United States. But in these areas, Amazon's influence has become one of its challenges.

Wang Mingqiang hopes to make Russia and Spain a breakthrough, and will further layout the European market in the future.

Continuous increase in Logistics

While announces the publication of AE PLUS, speed sell also announced the threshold of commodity merchants' access and exit. The entry threshold for merchants requires all businesses to join the cross-border worry free return insurance, and the shop SNAD% (the dispute rate of goods not to be published) is no greater than the prescribed main industry value; the merchants will issue the threshold to make the whole store permanent clearance for the fake overseas shipments, and the delivery time of China is 48 hours less than 80%, and the 3 months will be handled. The project is scheduled to be released in mid February 2020.

In recent years, the "double 11" shopping introduced by speed sell in Russia has also been welcomed by local users. In addition to cost-effective daily necessities, we can also buy some "cold" goods to meet the special needs of consumers. The disadvantage is that it takes longer than a month to receive goods.

"Through the introduction of rookie logistics mode, as well as with Russian post and local enterprises, fast selling is vigorously improving the Sino Russian cross-border logistics system and timeliness." Liu Wei, who is responsible for Russell Russian business, has revealed that the Russian market has great potential to attract more Russian consumers. The rookie with the fast selling business has opened a direct route from China to Moscow, one day at regular intervals and two shifts each day during the "double eleven" period. Without increasing the cost, the flat mail package that needed 50 days will be upgraded to the fastest 10 days.

In addition, rookie will continue to operate the sea rail multimodal transport, transporting Chinese exports through the sea to the Far East, and then to the Moscow from east to west. Last year, the fast selling joint rookie opened a new distribution warehouse in Moscow, and officially launched the "day to day" service, which was delivered to Moscow consumers for free.

On the other hand, the offline self promotion model widely adopted in China has also been transplanted to other regions. Speed sell is working with DPD, the world's leading logistics provider, to add 2000 self pick-up outlets in 100 cities in Russia and Kazakhstan and Belarus, allowing local consumers to receive "double eleven" goods faster.

However, with the increase in postal charges and the increasing demand for consumers, the cross-border electricity providers are also facing greater challenges.

"Logistics upgrading mainly focuses on time, cost performance and reverse (i.e. after-sales service)". Li Dawei, a supply chain expert at speed express international station, told an interview with the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century that in the future, fast selling will use the existing network of rookies and upgrade to FBA services combined with self owned warehouses, which will be transported from the entire warehouse to the entire head office, including the entire stock and sales forecast, including a complete set of financial solutions.

Deep tillage localization

With the continuous penetration of e-commerce shopping, more and more overseas users choose online payment. However, from a global perspective, card payment is still the most popular payment method in the world. In 2018, over 40% of e-commerce transactions were completed by cards, and the fast selling platform now supports more than 11 international card groups. At the same time, through cooperation with 38 local payment channels around the world, the platform can better meet the local consumption habits. For example, in Kenya, fast selling has access to MPesa covering 70% of the population.

Zhang Qi, director of overseas express users and market users, said in an interview with the twenty-first Century economic news reporter that logistics and payment is a very important driving force for platform business. In China, netizens do not have the pain points of payment methods, such as WeChat, Alipay and so on, but many overseas areas are not so convenient. Most countries still pay mainly by credit card, and some countries are mainly paying cash.

He believes that in this case, most consumers want to pay in local currency, how to achieve access to local payment channels, reduce the cost of consumers and businesses, so that businesses avoid some exchange rate risks, foreign exchange losses and fees and so on.

At present, fast selling supports 38 kinds of local currency transactions. About more than 50 countries and regions can use localized payment. These measures are only part of the local operation of fast selling, and innovative new retail and social networking models are being tried. Wang Mingqiang said that in the future, some key countries abroad will make in-depth arrangements, such as Russia, which is the first market of fast selling.

Some businesses have also expanded the market overseas. Mark Ryden brand cross-border director Wanli Yang told the twenty-first Century business news reporter that the brand's revenue in the fast selling platform this year is expected to grow by about 20% over the same period last year. "We use functional luggage as the main commodity, and the Russian market has accounted for about 40% of the total sales volume."

In addition to in-depth localization operations, increasing investment is also one of the shortcuts. In June this year, Alibaba and the Russian sovereign wealth fund direct investment fund (RDIF), Russia's largest social networking and IT group Mail.ru, and the Russian comprehensive telecom operator MegaFon formally signed a joint venture agreement. The new joint venture company includes all the business of speed express in Russia to integrate resources from both sides.

"In October of this year, our joint venture with Mail.ru was formally established. This is a very important milestone in localizing in-depth layout. Mail.ru is a comprehensive e-commerce platform in Russia, including Russia's largest social networking site VK, OK, including its news, portals, mailboxes, second-hand, including games and other resources. Wang Mingqiang said that in the future, social networking providers will really land in depth.

In Europe and South America, speed sell is also increasing investment in localization. At the end of August this year and at the end of November, speed express opened two offline experience shops in Madrid and Barcelona to showcase China's mobile phone and consumer electronics brands, such as Xiaomi, HUAWEI and OPPO, which are popular in Spain.

Wang Mingqiang hopes that this layout will enable Spanish users to experience more directly from Chinese products and increase their confidence in buying. In addition to the traditional foreign trade companies and factories, more businessmen and brands from Taobao and Tmall began to go overseas through the fast selling platform. Russia and Europe are still the core market. However, any form of business can not be duplicated and copied. In the next ten years, localization and personalized operation are all important questions.