Taobao Marketplace, China’s largest consumer-to-consumer shopping website, on Wednesday launched self pick-up service in collaboration with five logistics partners in Hong Kong in order to improve local consumers’ online shopping experience.
With more than 200 self pick-up points located within the city, the service allows local consumers to pick up their goods at a preferred time and location without any delivery constraints.
In addition to the usual option of door-to-door delivery, local consumers who purchase goods from sellers on Taobao Marketplace will have the option of selecting this new service to pick up their purchases from more than 200 locations provided by Taobao’s logistics partners – Hongkong Post, 7-Eleven Hong Kong, SF Express, ZTO Express and 4PX Express.
All parcels are subject to a weight and size limit that varies depending on the specific pick-up point, and the new service is expected to offer consumers with more economical shipping costs, especially for consumers residing on the outlying islands in Hong Kong. The shipping costs are expected to be lower than the standard international parcel forwarding service, while offering consumers more than 50 percent savings when compared with direct courier services.
To ensure the quality of logistics service, China Smart Logistic Network (CSN) will leverage its logistics network data platform to support and coordinate between the logistics providers and offer full tracking of goods to keep buyers updated on their shipments. Known as "Cainiao Network", CSN is a 48 percent-owned affiliate of Alibaba Group.
With the support of all partners, the broad network of local Self Pick-up Points will cover almost every corner of Hong Kong for users to choose from. It also represents the first in-depth collaboration between Hongkong Post and Taobao Marketplace Hong Kong. Hongkong Post offers a large and comprehensive local network operating 125 post offices throughout Hong Kong, including the outlying islands.
Convenience store retailer 7-Eleven Hong Kong will offer greater convenience to customers with a 24-hour pick-up service and its advantage of branch locations. The participation of these two partners will further enhance service efficiency and the quality of shopping experiences for Hong Kong users.
"The collaboration between Taobao Marketplace Hong Kong with Hongkong Post, 7-Eleven Hong Kong, SF Express, ZTO Express, and 4PX Express has been a great success, with all parties having a common goal of offering a high-quality logistics service to Hong Kong consumers. We are grateful for the support of these outstanding logistics service providers, which has made the Self Pick-up Service possible. Upon enabling convenient payment methods such as PPS and Octopus, the Self Pick-up Service will be another major innovative step to localize logistics services by Taobao Marketplace in Hong Kong. In the future, we will continue to explore collaboration in different forms and areas to further improve our platform services and to enhance customer satisfaction," said Teddy Lui, Head of Hong Kong Business for Taobao Marketplace.
The Chinese largest consumer shopping platform has been ramping up its efforts to expand in Hong Kong and enhance local consumers’ shopping experience. In February 2014, it launched the "Octopus Online Payment Service" in partnership with Alipay and Octopus as well as other payment methods like PPS, Alipay Purchase Card, and credit card, with the efforts of introducing Hong Kong buyers to a variety of new, convenient and secure online payment experiences where they can shop online anytime and anywhere.