🔍
Alibaba Challenges Amazon With a Promise: Fast Global Shipping | WSJ - YouTube
Channel: unknown
[0]
(speaking in foreign language)
[4]
- [Narrator] The Chinese e-commerce giant,
[5]
Alibaba, has big global plans.
[7]
♪ Ali, Ali ♪
[8]
- [Narrator] One major goal.
[9]
♪ Ali, Ali, Ali ♪
[11]
- [Narrator] To deliver goods from China
[12]
to anywhere on the planet in 72 hours.
[16]
(speaking in foreign language)
[19]
- [Narrator] Amazon and Alibaba
[20]
are both looking to capture a larger share
[22]
of the global e-commerce market,
[23]
which is expected to grow
by $1.4 trillion by 2025.
[28]
- It's all execution.
[30]
It's who's faster on the ground,
[32]
it's who's focused where.
[34]
(tag beeping)
[35]
- [Narrator] And fast
shipping plus cheaper prices
[37]
is a big part of winning new customers.
[41]
Alibaba's fast delivery service
[42]
is already gaining
traction in European cities
[44]
and working with Western
delivery companies
[46]
as it builds a shipping network
different from Amazon's.
[50]
Alibaba gave us a look at its
largest automated warehouse
[53]
in China as it plans
[54]
to speed up deliveries around the world.
[57]
(packaging rumbling)
[60]
(speaking in foreign language)
[71]
- [Narrator] Ping Tu
oversees daily operations
[74]
in this warehouse run
[75]
by Alibaba's logistics company Cainiao.
[78]
He says robots here do all the heavy work.
[81]
(speaking in foreign language)
[90]
- [Narrator] This
efficiency helped Alibaba
[91]
process $75 billion worth of packages
[94]
during the company's largest sales event
[96]
in China last year called Singles' Day,
[98]
which takes place over 11 days.
[101]
E-commerce analysts say this was more
[102]
than all of e-commerce
sales during Black Friday,
[105]
Cyber Monday and Amazon's
Prime Day combined.
[109]
(upbeat music)
[110]
But Alibaba isn't just
an e-commerce company.
[112]
It owns a vast empire
of other tech businesses
[115]
and many of those parts help
speed up the shipping process.
[119]
So when you buy a product
from its retail website,
[121]
Alibaba's payment company
[123]
can process the transaction
[124]
and then the shipping is handled here.
[128]
This network allows Cainiao
[129]
to quickly gather information
digitally about your package,
[132]
including the price,
weight and destination
[135]
and then send it directly
to Chinese customs
[137]
to be cleared for export.
[139]
Over the years, this
process has gotten faster,
[141]
from taking one month to clear a package
[144]
to now only a few minutes.
[146]
(voices murmuring)
[148]
- Every year we set very aggressive
[151]
experience improvement targets.
[154]
- [Narrator] William Xiong is in charge
[155]
of making sure your packages
take the most efficient route.
[159]
The company relies on a global network
[161]
of 3,000 partner airlines, postal services
[164]
and other delivery companies
[165]
to handle the actual transport.
[167]
This allows Alibaba to
expand its shipping routes
[170]
with new partners without having
[171]
to build and maintain its own fleet.
[173]
- We are running more than 80
chartered flights every week
[178]
and transfer centers in key markets,
[180]
like Russia, France, Spain
[183]
to allow very effective final deliveries.
[186]
- [Narrator] That's a striking
difference from Amazon,
[188]
which says it has invested billions
[190]
of dollars to build its own fleet
[191]
that includes more than 40,000 trailers
[193]
and 75 cargo planes.
[196]
(upbeat music)
[197]
Amazon is also making a
promise for fast delivery
[200]
but unlike Alibaba, its speedier service
[202]
is only available in 21 countries
[204]
where products can be
delivered in a few hours.
[206]
But customers must pay
for a subscription program
[209]
that can be as low as about $13
[211]
or as much as about $130 a year.
[214]
Right now, Alibaba delivers
to more than 190 countries
[218]
but only a few products arrive
[219]
within 72 hours with no shipping fee.
[222]
So as the company tries to gain traction,
[224]
it says it plans to expand the service
[226]
to a wider array of
products and charge $3.
[230]
The company says this service
[232]
will entice more people
to its retail website.
[234]
AliExpress looks very similar to Amazon
[237]
and users can browse more
than 100 million items.
[241]
But there's one thing you'll notice
[243]
as you compare products.
[245]
E-commerce analysts say
[246]
they are generally cheaper on AliExpress
[248]
and that's largely because
the company has direct access
[251]
to Chinese factories and merchants,
[253]
cutting out the middleman.
[255]
- AliExpress is connecting
the world consumers
[257]
with Chinese manufacturers.
[260]
That's an advantage Amazon doesn't have.
[263]
- Jeffrey Towson runs
a market research firm
[265]
that looks at tech and
logistics companies.
[268]
- AliExpress is effectively Alibaba
[271]
at its most opportunistic.
[273]
It's trying to do
something very difficult,
[276]
which is reach the rest
of the world's consumers.
[279]
- [Narrator] But e-commerce analysts
[280]
say AliExpress' low-cost strategy
[283]
has a risk.
[284]
Counterfeit products.
[285]
For years, consumer watchdogs,
[287]
tech and luxury companies,
plus the US government
[290]
have accused Alibaba's e-commerce website
[292]
of selling fake products.
[294]
Amazon has also faced accusations
[296]
from the Trump administration
[297]
for selling counterfeit goods
[298]
from Chinese third-party
merchants on the site.
[301]
- You get defrauded when
you buy a counterfeit
[303]
but sometimes these things can kill you.
[306]
- [Narrator] Alibaba
says it was cooperating
[307]
with governments to address counterfeiting
[309]
and using technologies and partnership
[311]
with brands and other stakeholders
[312]
to help identify and
remove counterfeit goods
[315]
from its platforms.
[317]
Amazon said it's reporting
confirmed counterfeiters
[319]
to law enforcement.
[322]
To deliver any product
from its website anywhere,
[324]
both companies will have to tackle one
[326]
of the most challenging issues
[327]
for any delivery company.
[329]
The last mile.
[331]
E-commerce analysts say
this step represents
[333]
about 50% of the total cost of a delivery
[336]
because that's been hard to automate
[337]
and requires manpower.
[341]
(packaging rustling)
[341]
So Alibaba is testing a new
system in Chinese cities.
[346]
(speaking in foreign language)
[350]
(trolley rattling)
[351]
- [Narrator] The company
calls this a post office
[352]
but instead of a mail carrier,
[353]
they are self-driving robots.
[355]
Alibaba says one delivery robot
[357]
can carry 50 packages at once
[359]
and can trim cost and time.
[362]
(speaking in foreign language)
[365]
- [Narrator] Amazon
said it's also committed
[367]
to transforming its
transportation network.
[369]
So it's conducted trials
to improve the last leg
[371]
of the journey, like testing drones
[373]
that it says could deliver
packages within 30 minutes
[376]
of an item being ordered.
[377]
(dramatic music)
[379]
The push to gain more traction
[381]
in the global e-commerce market
[382]
could push the two tech giants
[383]
to improve their systems even more.
[386]
And that could mean that
the next item you buy
[388]
gets to you even faster.
[390]
(dramatic music)
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage