Alibaba's Cainiao signs deal with Spain's postal service

Cainiao Network Technology, the Alibaba-owned courier aggregator, signed a new strategic partnership with national postal service of Spain on Wednesday to speed up the country’s cross-border transportation of goods.

Under the new agreement, Cainiao and Correos will help small and medium-sized Spanishenterprises to accelerate parcel delivery within Europe, the company said in a press release.

The pair agreed to offer storage, product sorting, main transportation and last-kilometer delivery services for goods.

They are also eyeing to shorten delivery procedures through technological upgrade to trim the waiting time for European consumers who shop from China’s AliExpress shopping platform, a retail site also owned by Alibaba that sells exclusively to overseas customers.

New initiatives also include utilizing residential buildings, offices and some 5,000 self pick-up boxes across the country as delivery spots.

Currently, parcels sent from China reach Spain in 10 days on average. Using big data to predict needs, Cainiao enables roughly 90 percent of sought-after items to reach popular destinations such as Madrid in three days.

The agreement marks the step toward Cainiao’s goal of 72-hour global delivery, though no detailed timetable was disclosed.

Last month, Cainiao announced it would join hands with Russian national postal operator to offer same-day delivery of China-made goods in Moscow among other big Russian cities.