Alibaba deliveries to India to get faster thanks to this tie-up with All Cargo

If you are shopping from Alibaba in India, here’s some good news for you: Expect faster deliveries very soon as the e-commerce giant has now tied up with Gurgaon-based Allcargo Logistics’ overseas subsidiary ECU Line to ship less-than-container load or LCL consignments to India. With an LCL shipment, you pay for your load to be shipped in a container with one or more loads from other customers of the freight transport provider. So it refers to cargo that isn’t enough to fill a standard cargo container and is grouped with other consignments bound for the same destination. This basically allows a company faster deliveries because it no longer has to wait for a container to be full to ship it. Allcargo, last year bought US-based Econocaribe Consolidators, and became the world’s chief player in LCL sector. [caption id=“attachment_2159813” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Expanding its presence. Reuters[/caption] According to a report in the Economic Times, the Antwerp-based subsidiary is one of the two logistics companies that Alibaba has globally tied up with, the other one being Shanghai’s Amass Logistics. Alibaba’s chief Jack Ma  has been trying to enter Indian consumer market for a a couple of years as he sees India as a crucial market for growth. According to research firm IDC, Alibaba is the world’s largest online and mobile commerce company by GMV (gross merchandise value). Alibaba, which in September 2014 raised $25 billion in a record initial public share offering, already has on its site a large number of small Indian businesses selling goods ranging from spices to chocolates to tea. Even though Indians could buy products from AliExpress, logistics has been a problem so far.  Ordered items would take more than a month to get delivered. During his visit to India earlier this year Alibaba owner Jack Ma  had promised Modi about investing in Make in India and also  discussed with the PM about how Alibaba can help empower small businesses in India. In order to capture the Indian market, Alibaba has already entered into a strategic tie-up with Indian mobile wallet company Paytm. Alibaba, through its marketplace AliExpress, will list 100 million stock-keeping-units (SKU) on Paytm, owned by Vijay Shekhar Sharma-led One97. Moreover, Paytm and AliExpress have  also tied up with China Post, the official postal service of China to ship items within one week. And with this Allcargo tie-up deliveries will become more seamless for the Chinese major. According to a report in Business Standard, Alibaba is eyeing a “significant play” in the Indian e-tailing segment and is exploring strategic investments not just in online retail firms here, but also in business-to-business e-tailing and payments services companies. It is also reportedly in talks to buy stake in Snapdeal and Micromax.