From: Daily Economy
June 18th has always been a training ground for the logistics industry. This year marks the 20th anniversary of the establishment of JD.com and Taobao. After 20 years of training in e-commerce logistics, under the trend of capitalization and mergers and acquisitions, there is even more undercurrent among express delivery companies.
On the one hand, the speed, service, and technology wars of express delivery companies have reached new heights. During the "June 18th" period this year, Cainiao launched night delivery of pre-sale orders in cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Consumers paid the final payment on Taobao and Tmall, and the courier delivered overnight. The main pre-sale packages will be delivered in half a day. JD Logistics will pre sell products in over 300 cities to ensure delivery efficiency.
In response to this year's "6.18" event, SF Express has also pre deployed over 30000 front-end warehouse resources in over 300 cities across the country to deliver products faster. Zhongtong Express has announced its logistics operation measures during the 2023 "June 18th" period to ensure the quality of express delivery services.
In addition, instant delivery has become the biggest highlight of this year's "6.18" e-commerce promotion. Just 10 minutes after the start of "6.18", more than 700 consumers in counties, districts, and cities across the country have already received goods from JD.com. JD.com only takes 9 minutes to deliver the first order for hourly purchases; Tmall has launched local delivery services at Tmall Apple authorized stores in over 170 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou; Meituan Flash Shopping collaborates with more than 360 cities across the country to provide users with the fastest 30 minute home experience.
However, from the perspective of the express delivery market, what is even more exciting than traditional business competition is the intense competition for capitalization among the top companies of express delivery companies, which has also brought more highlights to this year's "6.18" in addition to business competition. On June 5th, Cainiao announced that it would take over a 25% stake in Shentong Express for 3.9 billion yuan. On June 16th, Jitu submitted a Hong Kong stock prospectus, and the appearance of SF Express in the list of shareholders in the prospectus also confirmed the market rumors about SF Express investing in Jitu.
On the one hand, there is a concentrated training of business capabilities, and on the other hand, various companies are collaborating to create a turbulent flow. The "open and secret struggles" of express delivery companies have also pushed the competition for express logistics on June 18th this year to a climax.
Compared to the same period last year, e-commerce and express delivery have been heavily involved, manifested in releasing more incremental resources and fierce competition for market share, "Xu Yong, Vice President of the Express Branch of the China Transportation Association, said in an interview with the WeChat reporter of the Daily Economic News. However, he also mentioned that from the major industry events of the past two years, horizontal mergers and acquisitions between giants and the survival of the fittest are the trend.
The largest "6.18" express delivery company in history, each showing their skills
On the annual "June 18th", express delivery companies collectively submit their answer sheets.
Daily Economic News reporter learned from SF Express that during this year's promotion period, SF Express deployed over 80 full cargo planes, 927 high-speed rail routes, over 160000 trunk and branch line transport vehicles, over 200000 self operated and cooperative terminals, and over 300000 sets of Fengchao express boxes to fully ensure the timeliness of express delivery.
For fresh fruit delivery, SF Express will add over 30 additional routes and invest 3300 cold chain train resources to collaborate with high-quality fresh e-commerce and platform customers in various regions, providing customized preservation and transportation solutions to ensure the sales and brand building of various seasonal fruits such as lychees, cherries, and bayberries.
JD Logistics recently launched the second phase of the "Asia No.1" Kunshan Intelligent Industrial Park on June 18th this year, continuously reducing costs and increasing efficiency for merchants through the integration of software, hardware, and system integrated supply chain logistics technology.
It is worth mentioning that for large items such as home appliances, we have launched the industry's first integrated value-added service of "delivery, installation, dismantling, and collection". A professional team completes the delivery and installation of new machines and the dismantling and recycling of old machines in one go, upgrading the after-sales service of home appliances from multiple visits to one visit, improving the consumer experience.
Zhongtong Express stated that during the "June 18th" period, the company had nearly 100 sorting centers and over 30000 branches across the entire network, providing high-quality express delivery services to merchants and end customers through targeted security measures and scheduling systems. Yuantong, Yunda, and Shentong have also improved the efficiency of express delivery through digital upgrades and new equipment upgrades in their transit centers. Yunda fully leverages the multiple advantages of customer butlers, grid warehouses, and transit support to improve the operational efficiency of the full chain of front-end and end-to-end delivery, in response to the comprehensive launch of service support work on June 18th this year.
Deppon Big data predicts that during the "June 18" promotion this year, the package delivery volume of Deppon Express is expected to increase by 15% to 20%. At present, many household brands have reached deep cooperation with Deppon Express in terms of vehicles, express delivery and less than truckload.
In terms of cross-border logistics, Cainiao International Express, in collaboration with AliExpress, has launched multiple measures to ensure stable international logistics efficiency during the "June 18th" summer promotion period and help cross-border export merchants better serve overseas consumers. Among them, the inventory of Cainiao Preferred Warehouse increased by over 400% year-on-year, and the timeliness and services of key 15 countries will be further guaranteed. It is expected that the overall timeliness will be optimized by nearly 10%
It is worth mentioning that every year on June 18th, there is no shortage of logistics black technology. During this year's June 18th, SF Express upgraded its terminal distribution equipment and cold chain unmanned vehicles. Four Shunfeng intelligent building distribution robots were put into use in Shenzhen Chuangzhi Tiandi Building, while in Jinhua, Zhejiang, Shunfeng put into use the first cold chain unmanned vehicle in the whole network, supporting the cold storage transportation demand of 0~15 ℃, ensuring the freshness of local waxberry, and realizing the whole cold chain transportation at the end.
Featuring "half hour delivery" instant delivery as a new increment
In addition to the collective readiness upgrade of express delivery companies and the breakthrough bottom price of e-commerce platforms, real-time retail has also become one of the areas where multiple platforms are competing for the first time this year's June 18th, and logistics efficiency such as half hour delivery and hour delivery has also become one of the selling points.
Unlike express delivery networks, point-to-point instant delivery has higher efficiency, eliminating the need for transit centers and stations, and delivering directly from merchants to consumers, making it possible to get what you buy.
According to data disclosed by various companies, consumers in over 700 counties, districts, and cities across the country have received goods within 10 minutes of the opening of June 18th. Among them, the first order delivered by JD Hourly only took 9 minutes. Tmall has launched local delivery services at Tmall Apple authorized stores in over 170 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou. In addition, Xiaomi, Apple mobile phones and other platforms in Meituan, Ele.me also achieved half an hour.
The instant delivery network also provides the possibility of half an hour delivery. According to public data, JD Home can provide consumers with a service experience of about one hour delivery of a large number of goods, including supermarket convenience, fresh fruits and vegetables, mobile digital, medical and health, personal beauty, flowers, cakes, clothing, home appliances, and other products, covering over 2000 counties and cities, with over 300000 active offline stores. Meituan Delivery also focuses on a 30 minute home service, covering more than 2800 counties, cities, and regions across the country, with over 678 million users.
SF Express stated that this "June 18th" will adopt a mixed transportation mode of "two wheel+four wheel" to compete with "June 18th", fully expanding the distribution radiation range and improving the hardware level of transportation capacity. Among them, two rounds meet the demand for refined distribution, penetrating into communities, buildings, etc., while four rounds of transportation capacity can fully utilize the urban road network, better meeting the needs of medium to long distance, large volume or weight, and multi-point distribution.
Dada Express revealed that on June 18th this year, it has established a multi network elastic transportation mode of "store based+crowdsourcing, regional store based, and commercial district store based", providing multiple vehicle delivery options including two wheel, four wheel, and unmanned delivery, providing users with hourly purchase and door-to-door delivery services.
Compared to traditional logistics services that serve remote e-commerce, real-time delivery has a higher level of refinement and can reach a minute level of timeliness, further improving consumers' consumption experience in the e-commerce promotion festival. Yin Sheng, an Internet analyst, said in a telephone interview with a reporter from the Daily Economic News that at the instant retail track, including Meituan and Tiktok, user demand is being aggregated around the user end, which has a reverse impact on the supply chain, improving the timeliness and service experience of traditional e-commerce, and will not or will overturn the existing e-commerce pattern.
Speeding up Capitalization Competition of Express Delivery, Combining Vertical and Horizontal Trends
On the one hand, the main battlefield of "6.18" was fiercely fought, and in the capital market, express delivery companies also began a new round of mergers, acquisitions, and capitalization struggles during the "6.18" period.
On June 16, J&T Express officially submitted its prospectus at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. With the disclosure of its operating conditions and shareholders' conditions, the rumors that Shunfeng had bought 1% -2% shares of Jitu were also confirmed. Just a month ago, Jitu announced the acquisition of Fengwang Express, a subsidiary of SF Express, which made the relationship between SF Express and Jitu even more ambiguous.
On June 5th, Cainiao announced that it would take over a 25% stake in Shentong Express for 3.9 billion yuan, and earlier, Cainiao and Shentong had started closer cooperation. On May 24th, Shentong Express and Cainiao announced the launch of a logistics upgrade plan for national key economic circles, allowing businesses to provide consumers with a "next day delivery" experience using economical express delivery. This is also the most direct cooperation between the latter and Cainiao since Alibaba's shareholding in Shentong in 2019.
In the history of e-commerce promotion over the past decade, many express delivery companies have fought on their own. Nowadays, with the acquisition of Debang and Cainiao Shentong by JD.com, as well as the establishment of a closer relationship with SF Express after the acquisition of Baishi by Jitu, the relationship between express delivery companies has continued to expand.
Xu Yong believes that due to the uncertain competitive landscape, the intensive actions between express delivery companies in the past two years have limited impact on the entire express logistics industry in the short term, and further observation is needed for the medium to long term impact. At the same time, mergers and acquisitions between top enterprises will continue.
Express delivery expert Zhao Xiaomin once told a reporter from the Daily Economic News that from the competitive landscape of franchise express delivery companies, Zhongtong and Yuantong compete for the first place, and the ranking of "3, 4, and 5" changes at any time. Shentong and Jitu both have the possibility of competing for third place, and the closer relationship between Shentong and Cainiao has also added some chances of victory for Shentong's "battle for three", but all of these will be settled in the next two years.