Hui girls in the Ili River Valley of Xinjiang have a shopping experience for consumers in the "free postal area". For seven or eight years of online shopping, she has been accustomed to placing orders on Pinduoduo, from small items worth a few yuan to washing machines worth thousands of yuan. Recently, she discovered that Pinduoduo's Xinjiang free shipping service has been upgraded, and her family can drive two minutes to the nearby supermarket to pick up the package. Prior to this, it took over 20 minutes to drive to the town to pick up the express delivery, and the cost of a single pickup could offset the price difference between online and offline.
Data shows that in 2023, Xinjiang achieved an online retail sales of 64.093 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.68%, with a growth rate 10.57 percentage points higher than the national average. The total volume of express delivery business in Xinjiang (excluding parcel business of postal companies) has reached 305 million pieces, with a total revenue of 6.204 billion yuan. The volume and revenue of express delivery business have increased by 88.1% and 77.89% year-on-year, respectively. Xinjiang has become a new market for e-commerce platforms to compete for, and has successively launched "Xinjiang Free Shipping".
According to Southern Metropolitan Daily reporters, after the first launch of Xinjiang Free Shipping in 2022, Pinduoduo has upgraded its express delivery services again, promoting free free free shipping and delivery to villages in Xinjiang, further reducing the distance between the end of the delivery network and consumers to within 2 kilometers, and compressing the delivery time to 24 hours. This service has been opened in over half of the villages in Xinjiang, covering more than ten categories such as women's clothing, men's clothing, and beauty. In response to urgent needs, Pinduoduo has also launched the "3-day delivery" express delivery service. In terms of after-sales service, the platform provides Xinjiang consumers with a "7-day no reason return" service, and the returned and exchanged goods will be subsidized with shipping fees based on the first weight logistics cost.
"Express delivery is a bridge connecting production and consumption, and a 'barometer' reflecting economic vitality." The person in charge of Pinduoduo's related business stated that in the future, we will continue to unite forces from all parties, mobilize platform resources, continue to clear blockages in e-commerce cargo flow, continuously expand express package delivery services to villages, and build a logistics corridor from the manufacturing source to Xinjiang, driving Xinjiang and even the entire western region to revitalize the economy.
Pinduoduo Xinjiang Free Shipping Special Page has launched the "3-day delivery" express delivery service.
"Free shipping to villages" covers more than half of the administrative villages in Xinjiang
"Xinjiang's postage is expensive and the speed is agonizing. The postage for products over 50 yuan is 40 yuan." A netizen who went to Xinjiang to study at a university found that before 2022, most stores not only did not offer free shipping to Xinjiang, but the postage also ranged from 10 yuan to over 100 yuan, with some postage being even more expensive than the products.
For a long time, due to the vast territory and sparse population, high logistics costs, and difficulty in large-scale transportation of packages, Xinjiang has always been blocked from the threshold of "free shipping". "This store's package mail, except in remote areas such as Xinjiang and Xizang," has become a popular response script for many e-commerce customer services.
In response to this pain point, Pinduoduo pioneered the transit consolidation and free shipping model, allowing all merchants to deliver packages from Xinjiang consumers to the Xi'an transit consolidation warehouse, and the platform then uniformly ships them to Xinjiang through third-party logistics service operators, ending the history of non free shipping for express delivery in Xinjiang. However, due to the scattered village layout and high delivery costs in Xinjiang, many express packages are still stuck in counties and towns, which to some extent suppresses the regional consumption potential.
In order to streamline the channels for consumer goods to enter villages, in July 2023, Pinduoduo partnered with third-party logistics service operators to pilot express delivery services in Shache County, Kashgar. The distance between the end of the delivery network and consumers was shortened from a few tens of kilometers to a few kilometers, and the delivery time was also reduced from a few days to within 24 hours. Consumers no longer have to save up a few days to pick up packages, nor do they need to drive for half an hour or an hour to pick up packages in the county or town. They can pick up packages on their way home every day.
Pinduoduo Express has delivered the package to Siyuan Village, Daxiqu Town, Changji City, Xinjiang for free. Photographer: Liu Zhou
Xu Jianfen, who is 40 years old this year, lives in Panjiataizi Village, Santai Town, Jimusar County, Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture. This place is located at the eastern end of the northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountains, with long and cold winters, and entry and exit are entirely dependent on vehicles. Once encountering snowy or windy weather, people only leave their doors once a few days.
Last autumn, when Xu Jianfen was driving out of the village, he was attracted by a bright colored express truck approaching him. "I thought someone was working at a courier company and drove back. I only found out after receiving a text message reminder from the platform that Pinduoduo Express has been delivered to the village and is also free." Xu Jianfen smiled and said, "Previously, express delivery had to be picked up a few kilometers away, but now the pick-up point is less than one kilometer away from home, and the business has been longer, making it very convenient to receive goods.".
Efficient logistics and convenient pick-up have been Xu Jianfen's biggest experiences since using Pinduoduo Express's free shipping service to enter the village. She now spends about one-fifth of her monthly income on online shopping, buying pens and homework books for her children's education, household items for her family, clothing, shoes, and hats from Pinduoduo. "The fastest time, the jeans that were ordered after 9am on March 13th were delivered on March 15th, very fast."
Xinjiang consumers go to the nearby village express delivery collection point to collect their packages. Photographer: Liu Zhou
Ma Chunyu, a Hui girl living in the Ili River Valley, enjoys online shopping and is also a senior user of Pinduoduo. She chooses to shop online, from daily necessities to household appliances such as washing machines that cost thousands of yuan. Over the years, she has also seen that from being the first to offer free shipping services to Xinjiang, delivering goods to towns and townships, to now offering free delivery to villages, Pinduoduo allows Xinjiang people to shop online with peace of mind, just like consumers in the "Jiangsu Zhejiang Shanghai Free Shipping Area".
At present, there is a supermarket in Guozigou Ranch, Guozigou Town, Huocheng County, where she is located, providing end of line pick-up services for surrounding residents. "In the past, express delivery to the town was still more than ten kilometers away from home, and it took more than 20 minutes by car to arrive. If you only bought a few small items for a few yuan, the transportation cost of picking up the express could offset the price difference between online and offline." Ma Chunyu said that the supermarket where the goods were picked up was less than one kilometer away from home, and it only took two minutes by car.
It is understood that Pinduoduo Express's free village service was launched only two months after leaving Shache County, covering 60 counties throughout Xinjiang in mid October last year. At present, this service has been implemented in more than half of the administrative villages in Xinjiang and is still expanding its scope.
Smooth freight flow stimulates regional economic vitality
Things flow smoothly, goods flow everywhere. The construction of the Xinjiang express logistics village road plays a crucial role in revitalizing the regional economy and promoting commercial flow in the western region.
In Jiashi County, Kashgar Prefecture, a Uyghur girl named Mi He Re Ayi runs an electronic service store that specializes in providing services such as water and electricity bill payment, taking electronic photos, copying and printing for villagers. After the Pinduoduo Express package was delivered to the village, she, who loves online shopping, not only received packages conveniently, but also gained an additional income. She said, "Previously, it took four to five days for shipments to arrive in Urumqi, but now it only takes one or two days. After the express delivery enters the village, it is placed in my store, and I can receive subsidies for each order."
Like Mihere Ayi, many convenience stores in villages in Xinjiang have set up express delivery collection points. Photographer: Liu Zhou
According to the National Postal Administration, in 2023, the cumulative volume of express delivery business in Xinjiang (excluding postal company parcel business) was 305 million, and the cumulative revenue from express delivery business was 6.2 billion yuan, with year-on-year growth of 88.1% and 77.9%, respectively. Both growth rates ranked first in the country.
It can be foreseen that the free shipping service to villages will be extended to more villages to facilitate local consumers to "buy in", and it will also benefit more and more industry chain participants like Mihere Ayi, and help local specialty agricultural products go out of Xinjiang.
It is worth noting that in the first three months of 2020 alone, Pinduoduo's increase in new merchants in Xinjiang has exceeded the same period last year by 23.9%. Turpan grapes, Korla fragrant pears, Aksu apples, Hami melons and other characteristic agricultural products have reached hundreds of millions of consumers nationwide through Pinduoduo and gained widespread recognition.
Last year, Xinjiang's aquatic products became even more popular, with seafood such as salmon, South American white shrimp, crabs, and Australian freshwater lobster becoming new internet celebrities. Among them, Xinjiang snow crabs can log in to the "Duoduo Harvest Hall" and be delivered to long-distance consumers such as the Yangtze River Delta in just one day. With the support of billions of subsidies from Pinduoduo, the sales of Xinjiang snow crabs continue to rise. Some Pinduoduo merchants have stated that "the overall production of upstream breeding bases can reach 100 to 150 tons in 2023, and it is expected to double to 300 tons next year.".
"No free shipping" and "no shipping" were once the biggest pain points for Xinjiang consumers in online shopping. With the promotion of Pinduoduo's free shipping and delivery services to villages, this era is coming to an end. The rapid development of new e-commerce will not only drive the continuous improvement of infrastructure in the express delivery industry, but also find new growth opportunities for the regional economy.