Online firms, customs tie up for Singles Day

Ahead of next month's Singles Day, a number of e-commerce companies are working with customs authorities to speed up clearance and delivery of imported goods as overseas online sellers look to cash in.

E-commerce giant Alibaba Group said it was working with Hangzhou, Ningbo and Guangzhou customs authorities to integrate information of online orders on its Tmall with their inventory management systems.

Customs authorities' inventory management systems can work out the tax and delivery fees and dispatch them from their warehouses to areas which fall under the Chinese customs surveillance.

After consumers pay on Alibaba's payment platform Alipay, the delivery information will be made available on the customs logistics facilities to allow for easier tracking of the packages.

About 100 overseas vendors from nine countries including the US, Japan and South Korea are targeting Tmall's Singles Day shoppers this year. The e-commerce giant is aiming for at least 1 million orders for imported goods in a day.

"Globalization is an important feature of this year's Singles Day online shopping campaign, and we hope to connect Chinese consumers with high-quality products from overseas vendors," said Tmall President Zhang Yong.

Alibaba's logistics affiliate Cainiao Network is also extending its services in overseas markets as the company is trying to sell Chinese products abroad and work on building Singles Day into a global shopping bonanza.

Shanghai-based online shopping website Yihaodian, in which US retailer Wal-Mart holds a majority stake, said its imported merchandise now covers about 12,000 categories from a dozen of countries.

It is working with customs authorities within the Shanghai free trade zone to cut the delivery process to two days.

Yihaodian has also been optimizing payment service by collaborating with Shanghai-based cross-border payment company Easipay.