Sign In Newsletters Contact Us


Air CargoAmerican ShipperAsia-PacificGlobal Supply ChainMaritimeNews

Alibaba moves into Japan with third-party logistics offering

E-commerce giant in competition with Amazon to become global logistics provider

Eric Kulisch
·
Cainiao has a "smart" warehouse in Yokohama that uses robots to move shelves of goods. (Photo: Alibaba Group)

Cainiao, the logistics arm of Chinese e-commerce powerhouse Alibaba (NYSE: BABA), has opened for business in Japan to provide comprehensive logistics service to importers and exporters there.

The latest step in Alibaba Group’s global logistics expansion follows last month’s launch of third-party logistics services in South Korea and an air charter service to South America. Alibaba is racing rival Amazon (NASDQ: AMZN) to extend end-to-end logistics services beyond its own delivery needs to other companies.

“Alibaba is moving as fast as possible to expand into 3PL services. Like Amazon, they understand that the big growth area for retail is in providing logistics services. Amazon has every intention of becoming a 3PL and Alibaba has to get ahead of this,” said Brittain Ladd, the chief marketing and supply chain officer at Pulse Integration and a former Amazon executive.

In Japan, Cainiao will handle first- and last-mile delivery, international ocean and air shipping, customs clearance, trucking and warehouse management. The company said its turnkey service will knock more than a week off the typical time it takes to complete freight moves by ocean, down to 11 to 13 days from the current 18 to 22 days. Its ability to aggregate ocean shipments is expected to save money for customers.

Cainiao has block space agreements on 10 weekly cargo services between Yokohama and Kobe in Japan to Ningbo and Shanghai in China and with air carriers.

To continue reading this article...

Already have an account? Sign In

Create a Free Account

No payment required

By signing up with your email, you will receive newsletters, special offers, and occasional third-party promotions from FreightWaves.com and its family of brands.

    Need Help? Contact Us

    One Comment

    1. chrisgail

      I appreciate the services of Alibaba which is moving their services into Japan where it will help the people in the business community

    Comments are closed.

    Eric Kulisch

    Eric is the Supply Chain and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He was runner up for News Journalist and Supply Chain Journalist of the Year in the Seahorse Freight Association's 2024 journalism award competition. In December 2022, Eric was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist. He won the group's Environmental Journalist of the Year award in 2014 and was the 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. He has appeared on Marketplace, ABC News and National Public Radio to talk about logistics issues in the news. Eric is based in Vancouver, Washington. He can be reached for comments and tips at ekulisch@freightwaves.com