Couriers rise to occasion

The expressmen with Shentong Express are sorting the mails in Beijing. Increasing sellers have participated in the Singles' Day festival and an estimated 400 million parcels will be delivered during the festival, a record 50 percent increase over last year. [Photo/China Daily]

Delivers due to expand by as much as 50 percent this year, say experts

Express delivery firms said they were ready to handle a record high number of parcels on Singles' Day, the unofficial Chinese festival that falls on Nov 11, as the resulting shopping boom has put a high demand on courier services.

The day, also known as double 11, is a new twist on Valentine's Day, with bachelors celebrating single life across the country.

But rather than try to find a partner on the day, singles are surfing the Internet on what has become a national online shopping spree.

To meet the surge in business, delivery firms such as Shanghai-based Shentong Express Co and SF Express Co said they had planned months ahead to meet the projected demand, introducing various ways to give customers quicker deliveries.

Lin Xinjian, director of the logistics operation center of Shentong in Beijing, said the company invested more than 20 million yuan to build a warehouse covering 10,000 sq m that can handle more than half a million parcels.

Measures such as recruiting 1,000 extra staff members and adding 300 vehicles to the fleet are also part of the company's plan to handle the large influx of orders, he said.

Last year, the Shanghai-based company - of which 80 percent of its business comes from Alibaba Group, along with Taobao.com and Tmall.com - shipped more than 8 million items on double 11 day.

"It is already a miracle, but the figure will be doubled this year," said Lin, who has had only a few hours of sleep a night recently as he supervises each step in the distribution and dispatch process to prevent a full warehouse.

An estimated 400 million parcels will be delivered during the festival, a record 50 percent increase over last year, according to data released by the China Express Service Association.

According to Alibaba, China's biggest online shopping site, each of the 13 main courier companies in China has invested at least 1 billion yuan to upgrade their infrastructure. As many as 150 warehouses have been built or expanded.

To handle the surging number of deliveries expected on the date, other Chinese courier companies began looking early this year to expand their air services.

Shanghai-based STO Express Co said it planned to set up an air cargo unit by acquiring six to eight aircraft next year as the number of parcels shipped during the festival continues to climb.

"More than 20 percent of our parcels are now being delivered by air," said Shen Tao, the company's public relations officer. "To tap the booming market, the only sensible move is to invest in our own air fleet."

A Beijing recruiting agency said it was getting a lot of business from express firms needing delivery people.

Delivery services have become the latest frontier in an e-commerce battlefield as online retailers compete to make the customer experience as cheap and easy as possible, experts said.

"Last year, the battle over double 11 began with the competition for retailers. This year it is the logistics," said Liu Yong, a courier with more than five years of working experience.

Liu said he still had another 70 parcels to deliver in the afternoon. He was lucky to get 10 minutes for lunch.

"I used to deliver 80 to 100 parcels on a normal day, but a peak day like this, I double my workload," he said.

Last year, Alibaba generated 19.1 billion yuan in sales during the double 11 promotions, almost twice the revenue generated by the US' post-Thanksgiving Cyber Monday event.

The company said it was expecting to rake in 30 billion yuan in sales for the day this year.