Alibaba Delivery Service Compromised Due To Terrible Roads In Rural China

Alibaba will be opting for the 'Alibaba Everywhere' approach to expand in the rural areas of the country.

Alibaba Group Holding is the leading tech company in China. The online retailer, being the biggest, has all the power in its hands to change the industry with its move. It has amazing reputation in the urban areas of the country but it is hungry for opportunities to expand its reach in the less developed areas of China, the northern rural side.

Regardless of the challenges it might face, Alibaba is all set to proceed, considering the fact that it will be very tough to deliver the goods to customers in those areas on time. Alibaba Group strategy for this year tells that the firm wants to grow its operations in the biggest cities of the country. This further includes putting more focus on online grocery and online sales in Beijing.

The ecommerce company said, “Beijing is a gateway for serving the some 400 million people in the less developed northern territories”. This strategy is termed as ‘Alibaba everywhere’ and this approach will act as a pivot for the rural areas to buy their desired goods and products from its online marketplaces.

The Wall Street Journal said that the e-commerce behemoth’s progress and growth is slowing down in the urban areas of the country, which is why it is more inclined towards the rural areas and set to build roads in such untapped regions.

It is true that being everywhere is a very tough challenge. The company’s approach for this year is no piece of cake as well, considering the fact that the postal system of China is extremely unreliable because there are less distribution centers overall and the roads in the rural areas are in a poor condition.

The Wall Street Journal added that Alibaba’s online sales in the country would surpass $356 billion this year. “In large cities, that means millions of packages being delivered by couriers zipping through streets on scooters. In far-flung communities, though, getting deliveries is a more cumbersome venture,” the Journal added.

This will indeed be a big challenge, as Alibaba Group will have to consider all issues before finally taking such step. It has already said to battle with the terrible roads of the rural areas but this is not it. The firm will have to take care of China’s postal system first. The main reason is the fewer number of domestic retail chains in the region when compared to the United States.