Cainiao Network (hereinafter referred to as Cainiao) is a logistics platform directly sponsored by Alibaba. It is a logistics technology company with big data as its core and the largest 4PL (fourth-party logistics) in China. It has five major business segments: end-to-end express delivery network, supply chain warehouse and distribution network, cross-border network for global buying and selling, terminal network for enhancing consumer experience, and rural e-commerce network. Cainiao Network’s right to speak on logistics essentially comes from the e-commerce traffic of Alibaba system, so it has become a platform that aggregates advantageous resources in the entire logistics industry chain. Among them, warehousing, freight forwarding, express delivery, postal services, and even social resources such as railways, highways, and aviation use data, standards, and systems to drive efficient collaboration of network resources; it tends to monopolize the channels for consumers to contact and let logistics companies check and balance each other. Cainiao proposed the integration of “three networks”, among which Skynet is an open data network and cloud supply chain collaboration platform, which is a smart logistics information network with big data as energy and cloud computing as engine, open and shared with merchants on the platform; Ground Network is a physical network with deep involvement in channel layout, parks, hubs, transportation capacity, urban distribution, outlets/post stations and Cainiao Alliance ecology, which is a physical network laid out in the form of nodes to implement Skynet’s data capabilities; Human Network is a social logistics terminal network and convenient services based on various scenarios in consumers’ real lives.
Cainiao Network ET Logistics Laboratory is committed to introducing the most cutting-edge technology to help improve logistics efficiency, and has launched product platforms such as electronic waybills, routing distribution, four-level address library, robot warehouse, kuakou collection and delivery, Eagle Eye abnormal monitoring, and intelligent cloud customer service. During the “Double 11” period, Cainiao subsidized and “empowered” merchants and logistics companies in the field of intelligent warehousing and distribution: realizing inventory pre-positioning in advance, providing order volume forecasts for thousands of routes, online accurate cargo volume warnings, timely allocation of manpower and vehicles to avoid logistics congestion, using electronic fences to improve sorting and delivery accuracy, and jointly with Ant Financial to open a series of functions such as payment, finance, and credit to logistics companies.
Cainiao provides inbound and outbound logistics services to Alibaba International, Tmall International, Taobao Global, AliExpress, Tmall Overseas and other Alibaba international ecosystems by building a “global 72-hour delivery” logistics network, matching consumers and suppliers worldwide, and benefiting from logistics coordination and management services. Alibaba’s cross-border B2C AliExpress platform is expanding rapidly around the world, complementing the acquired Lazada/Daraz and Tmall Overseas. For example, Tmall Russia’s products are shipped from the warehouses of local partners, while AliExpress is mostly shipped directly. Cainiao has cooperated with hundreds of cross-border logistics companies around the world to launch cross-border logistics solutions such as worry-free logistics, super economy, special cargo lines, and overseas warehouses, and has built a cross-border logistics network with global distribution capabilities.
Cainiao obtains network resources, distribution capabilities, warehousing facilities and convenient postal customs clearance services in the countries and regions where the post offices are located by connecting with data from postal services, commercial express delivery and local warehousing and distribution companies in many countries; focuses on cross-border logistics markets such as Southeast Asia, Russia and Europe, and subsidizes Russian Post to create simple small packages and mail pre-clearance services exclusively for AliExpress: China Export Line signs regular charter agreements with many airlines to achieve one-stop processing of consolidation, customs clearance, sorting and on-site distribution; builds a large number of overseas warehouses and cross-border connection hubs eHub, builds eWTP with Malaysia, invests in the Hong Kong Airport Transshipment Center, and sets up multiple overseas warehouses in Spain, France and other places, introducing Chinese merchants to prepare goods in advance, thereby increasing the proportion of fixed-day delivery throughout Europe; by setting up global order fulfillment centers in Madrid, Los Angeles, Frankfurt and other places, and setting up bonded warehouses of more than 1 million square meters in multiple cross-border pilot cities, in the overseas import section, merchants can hand over the goods to Cainiao at the source of the goods, and Cainiao will provide overseas warehousing and transportation and customs clearance from warehouse to port, and hand them over to partners for distribution, providing full-link traceability of logistics. Cainiao’s cloud warehouse mainly outputs systems and automation, which are handed over to 3PL (third-party logistics) for operation and management. Tmall International’s bonded import merchants must join the Cainiao system.