China-Korea cargo airline to speed up deliveries

The popularity of cross-border online shopping has prompted shipping services to cooperate for faster delivery in the competitive e-commerce industry.

CJ Korea Express, Korea’s top delivery company, has forged a partnership with two of China’s logistics giants to launch a cargo airline that will ship goods sold by China’s largest online shopping platform, T-Mall.

Under the partnership, Shanghai YTO Express and Alibaba Group’s courier service Cainiao will handle purchases in China while CJ will be in charge of shipping goods manufactured by Korean companies.

A celebratory ceremony was held at Sofitel Hotel in Shanghai, which CJ Korea Express Vice President Lee Cheol-hi attended. Ben Wang, CTO of Cainiao and President Xiang Feng of YTO also participated in the event.

With the launch of the airline, transportation time between the countries will shorten to an hour, making delivery far faster than before, CJ Korea Express said.

“If the goods are delivered by plane, consumers could receive their orders a day after they paid online,” said Lee Dong-soo, a public relations official at CJ Korea Express.

The Korean company says customers in Korea and China will benefit.

“There are plenty of consumers using T-Mall in Korea. So they can receive their orders quickly,” Lee said.

“At the same time, Chinese people who order Korean-made products can get their purchases earlier than before,” he continued, “And the fast delivery will make Korean products more attractive.”

The announcement follows an agreement made by CJ Korea Express and YTO in April, which marked the first time for companies from two countries to forge a cross-border delivery network.

The agreement stipulated that both companies will cooperate on the parcel delivery service.

Major Korean retailers have opened shops on Alibaba’s e-commerce site.

CJ O Shopping, Korea’s top cable home-shopping channel by sales, opened a flagship store on Alibaba Group’s Tmall Global platform, an extension of Tmall.com, last year.

Tmall Global exclusively carries foreign brands, allowing merchants around the world to access Chinese consumers without the need for a physical presence in China.

Direct buying from overseas online malls reached more than 1.5 trillion ($1.3 billion) last year, according to the Korea Online Shopping Association, setting a new record.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]