Alibaba to invest over 100bn yuan on smart logistics

Beijing, June 1 (IANS) Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group on Friday announced that it will invest over 100 billion yuan to build a smart logistics network, aimed at improving the company's efficiency and delivery reach to customers.

The announcement was made by Jack Ma, Executive Chairman of Alibaba Group at the 2018 Global Smart Logistics Summit in Hangzhou, China.

The new network being planned will mainly focus on pushing a 24-hour product delivery across China and 72-hour delivery to the other countries, the company said in a statement.

Additionally, the smart network also aims to narrow down the logistics costs to less than 5 per cent and increase the profit margins for the manufacturing industry and logistics sector.

"This network is not only national but global. This is what we will work closely with our partners to achieve and bring benefits to all," said Ma.

Alibaba claims that its logistics affiliate, Cainiao Network has reduced cross-border shipping time to less than 10 days for some countries along with same-day and next-day deliveries within China and over 1,500 other counties and districts.

"Today, the industry can process 100 million packages a day. In the future, we will need to process one billion packages a day. The logistics industry needs to get prepared for that with a robust infrastructure," Ma added.