360Buy’s Express Delivery Trucks Ready to Hit the Road After Government Approval
We reported recently on a significant strategic shift in China’s e-commerce industry whereby a number of leading e-tailers wanted to start logistics companies so as to deliver their own products to customers. Now, China’s State Post Bureau has evaluated all their applications and it’s good news for only one of them: 360Buy. It was the only e-commerce site granted a license to expand into the courier industry, thereby dashing the hopes of Vancl, Coo8, and VIPshop.
我々は先日、大手オンライン販売ショップの数社が、顧客に独自の商品を送り届けるべく流通企業を立ち上げたいとしており、中国のEコマース産業における戦略の傾向が著しく変化していることを伝えた。そして今、中国の国家郵便局が全ての申請内容の査定を終え、朗報は1社にのみ届けられた。360Buyがその1社だ。360Buyはクーリエ分野への事業展開を許可された唯一のEコマースサイトで、その結果、Vancl、Coo8、そしてVIPshopの望みは全て断ち切られることになった。
先だって我々は、中国のE-コマース業界に重要な戦略的転換が起きていることを報告した。
中国では、多くの先進E-コマース業者が製品を消費者に届けるために自前の物流会社を始めたいと考えている。
中国国家郵政局はE-コマース業者からの申請全てを承認している。360Buyのような業者にとっては朗報だ。
E-コマースサイトにのみ認証が付与されたが、今後は宅配業界への展開、そしてVancl、Coo8、VIPshopの牙城を切り崩すことにつながるだろう。
In response to the news, 360Buy’s CEO Liu Qiangdong took to his Weibo account to say that his company’s express delivery service will launch at the end of August. It marks the end of a battle that has actually rumbled on for two whole years when the site – China’s second-largest B2C e-tailer – first applied to expand into logistics.
The strategic move being made by some of these sites reflects a desire to crackdown on the weakest link in its chain to customers, the assortment of hundreds of private and state-run courier businesses that deliver billions of dollars worth of items each year. The recently-listed VIPshop (NYSE:VIPS) claims that the company hits a successful delivery rate of just 95 percent with its current logistics partners, and that it needs to up those percentage points in whatever way it can – even if it means a phenomenally expensive shift into a new industry.
But the e-commerce market leader in China, Alibaba (with its Taobao and Tmall businesses), is sticking with the current system, and has made no sign of moving into logistics itself.
In total, the State Post Bureau approved 260 licenses for logistics companies in this initial round of audits, with all but one of them being conventional courier firms. The likes of Vancl and other hopefuls might be luckier next time.