Service has equated to speed until now in today’s evolving business structure. If anyone thought same-day delivery was only becoming a household name in the US, they will definitely be surprised by the way its’ thriving elsewhere in the world. Amazon, Wal-Mart and others aren’t the only e-retailers implementing same-day delivery. Slide over and make room for China’s Dangdang.
Dangdang has announced that it has officially launched “Super Speed Delivery” in 400 cities in China. Dangdang has coined the catchy service name “111 super speed delivery” in China that shoppers have become familiar with. The term means that Dangdang orders placed by 11 am, will be delivered within 12 hours, which is its’ version of same-day delivery. Orders placed by 1am, will be delivered within 24 hours. Therefore, Dangdang offers two types of service within its’ 111 super speed delivery.
This is an explosive move for the company, yet it only made sense in comparison to what Dangdang has already built, and building, to support it. The company has 29 warehouse centers and has plans to build 16 more by year’s end. In a recent report from the company’s website via Yahoo.com, Dangdang stated its’ mode of operation can simply be termed as “self-built warehousing plus external logistics cooperation.” Dangdang is focused on cooperation and its’ growth will essentially convert into growth for many logistics express companies.
As some US e-retailers have done, Dangdang is not handling the delivery logistics aspect of super speed delivery by itself. The same day the company announced its’ commitment to servicing 400 China cities, Dangdang stated in the report that it also signed strategic agreements with large logistics corporations in China to improve delivery speed and service. Without its’ own delivery fleet and expertise, no e-retailer with a service this robust can be successful alone. It makes sense to partner with delivery companies to handle the foundational implementation of the service, while Dangdang handles the rest.
Dangdang is after speed and efficiency, which are two ingredients their supply chain needs to make this service sustainable. Centralized storage and value-added services of nationwide unified delivery were also mentioned in the article, as well as the company will allow couriers to enter their warehouses and sort orders. Amazon certainly has some commonalities with Dangdang relative to building warehouse centers in the right places to create the most effective delivery system. Even Google and eBay have partnered with store retailers, which their physical locations essentially act as centralized storages to fulfill customer online orders.
Online retail is an emerging business strategy to increase sales, especially for brick-and-mortar stores seeking to get their product to move. Same-day delivery is meeting the convenience demand of shoppers and Dangdang has made a very aggressive shift in China business with it. One can only imagine where the company’s business will expand into next. The US market probably is attractive to Dangdang and a Same-Day Courier like A-1 Express could be a viable option to partner with there. The San Francisco Courier has a national footprint and can implement a delivery logistics solution for Dangdang with super speed also.
Reference: 7.10.14, Yahoo.com, Dangdang Launched "Super Speed Delivery" in 400 Cities of China