After the first launch of Xinjiang Free Shipping in 2022, Pinduoduo has upgraded its express delivery services again, promoting free free free shipping to villages in the Xinjiang region, 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.
It is reported that this service has been opened in more than half of the villages in Xinjiang, covering more than ten categories including women's clothing, men's clothing, beauty, automotive products, general merchandise, digital products, mother and baby products, shoes and bags, home textiles and home decoration, food, etc. Daily necessities as low as a few yuan, and mobile appliances as high as thousands of yuan all support free free shipping and delivery to villages.
In response to urgent needs, Pinduoduo has also launched the "3-day delivery" express delivery service, allowing both northern Xinjiang herdsmen living in high mountains and grasslands and southern Xinjiang residents living in deserts and Gobi to enjoy the convenient life brought by e-commerce.
Pinduoduo Xinjiang Free Shipping Special Page has launched the "3-day delivery" express delivery service.
In terms of after-sales service, the platform also 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. Consumers only need to search for "Xinjiang Free Shipping" on the homepage of Pinduoduo, enter the exclusive channel page, and place an order with just one click to purchase their desired product. They can identify the words "return shipping fee" and "7-day return and exchange" on the product introduction page, and enjoy the same fast and high-quality express delivery and return service as consumers in the "Free Shipping Area".
"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.
"Free shipping to villages" covers more than half of the administrative villages in Xinjiang
As a pioneer of new e-commerce, Pinduoduo has always been consumer oriented, committed to providing consumers with a shopping experience of "more affordable" and "good service", and Xinjiang region is no exception.
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.
Pinduoduo has pioneered a transit consolidation and free shipping model to address this pain point, allowing all merchants to deliver packages from Xinjiang consumers to the Xi'an transit consolidation warehouse. The platform then delivers 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 layout of villages in Xinjiang and high delivery costs, 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. Photography | 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. Winter is long and cold, and entry and exit rely solely on vehicles. Once encountering snowy or windy weather, the door only exits once a few days.
Last autumn, when the village of Panjiataizi was just filled with wet mist, Xu Jianfen was driving out of the village and was attracted by a bright colored express truck approaching.
"I thought someone was working at a courier company and drove back. Later, I received a text message from the platform reminding me that Pinduoduo Express has been delivered to the village and is also free." Xu Jianfen smiled and said that in the past, express delivery needed to be picked up a few kilometers away and had to pinch the staff's work point. Now, the pick-up point is less than 1 kilometer away from home, and the business hours are longer, making it very convenient to receive the 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.
Ma Chunyu, a Hui girl living in the Ili River Valley, is only 30 years old this year but has seven or eight years of online shopping experience. On the recommendation of her friend, she came into contact with Pinduoduo and became one of the most experienced users on the platform. She had bought everything from a few yuan small item to a washing machine worth several thousand yuan, and it has been two years since she bought it.
Over the years of online shopping, she has witnessed the upgrade of Pinduoduo's express and free shipping services in Xinjiang. From being the first to offer free shipping services to Xinjiang, delivering goods to towns and townships, to now offering free delivery to villages, Ma Chunyu has gradually gained a shopping experience for consumers in the "free shipping area".
The Guozigou Ranch in Guozigou Town, Huocheng County, where she lives, has already separated a space of 30-40 square meters from a supermarket, with three shelves placed on three sides, providing end point pickup services. "In the past, express delivery to the town was still more than ten kilometers away from home, and it took more than twenty minutes by car to arrive. If you only bought a few small items for a few yuan, the cost of picking them up once could offset the price difference between online and offline." Ma Chunyu said, "Now the pickup point is less than one kilometer away from home." It's only two minutes by car, and about ten minutes by walk, and you don't have to spend money, it's very convenient. "
Pinduoduo Express provides free village service, which is an upgrade on the basis of free shipping. The service was launched in just two months and went out of Shache County, promoting it throughout Xinjiang; By mid October 2023, coverage of 60 counties in Xinjiang has been achieved. At present, this service has been implemented in more than half of the administrative villages in Xinjiang, and its scope is still expanding.
Smooth freight flow stimulates regional economic vitality
Things flow smoothly, goods flow everywhere. The construction of a rural road for express logistics in Xinjiang 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 has been running an electronic service store since graduating from junior high school, providing services such as water and electricity bill payment, taking electronic photos, copying and printing for villagers. In 2020, Mi He Re Ayi embarked on an online shopping journey on the Pinduoduo platform. The affordable and convenient shopping experience built her trust in e-commerce shopping, and she has been shopping and consuming on the platform almost every month since then.
After Pinduoduo Express delivered the goods to the village through free shipping, she not only received the express delivery more conveniently, but also gained an additional income. "Previously, goods sent from Urumqi would take four to five days to arrive. Now, not only can they be delivered in one or two days, but the express delivery will be placed in my store after it enters the village, and I will receive subsidies for each order."
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.
The data highlights the economic growth potential and social driving benefits of Xinjiang. Once the free shipping service expands to more villages, it will undoubtedly stimulate the online shopping enthusiasm of Xinjiang consumers to a greater extent, facilitate local consumers to "buy in", and also benefit more and more industry chain participants like Mihere Ayi, providing a basic condition for local specialty products to "sell out".
In the first three months of 2020 alone, Pinduoduo's increase in new merchants in Xinjiang 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.