Chinese retail giant Alibaba will invest 1.4 billion dollars in postal service ZTO and will obtain 10 % of the Chinese package service’s shares. Alibaba is also looking for a logistics center in Germany in order to conquer the European market.
Alibaba will do logistics
Alibab paid 1.2 billion euro for logistical specialist ZTO, which ships orders in China on behalf of Alibaba and competitor JD.com. Alibaba focuses more on its own logistics: it is the second time in a year’s time that the Chinese multinational will invest in the industry. It previously increased its stake in warehouse company Cainiao, which gives it a 51 % majority stake.
The retail holding is getting a hold of more of its own supply chain, which clearly indicates it is evolving from a sales platform to an allround retailer. Similar to Amazon, it wants to cut away as many of the value chain’s steps in between. Alibaba also needs its own warehouses if it wants to supply its rapidly-growing number of stores, including its Hema supermarkets and its brand platform Tmall.
Attack on Europe
Alibaba is also looking for warehouse space: according to Wirtschaftswoche, the Chinese company is talking to the harbour in Hamburg in order to open its own logistical center to service the European mainland. The German hub would mainly target the German and Scandinavian markets according to the German paper. Alibaba already ships 50,000 packages daily to Germany. The paper says it is also considering a Belgian distribution center, although that remains unconfirmed.
Alibaba is also allegedly building a Czech warehouse and CEO Jack Ma has also stated it is willing to invest in France. The Bulgarian government had also previously mentioned actual plans, which shows that the Chinese invasion is slowly taking shape.
