The global logistics industry is evolving at a rapid rate. Increasing customer expectations, new entrants to the market, diverse collaboration and the intelligent use of technology are all disrupting the industry to bring both risk and opportunity to organizations working in this diverse market.

This whitepaper will examine Alibaba Cloud’s Cainiao smart logistics cloud and Big Data powered platform and the underlying strategies used to optimize logistics services, including predictable demand, controllable inventory and reachable delivery.

A case study is discussed where Alibaba Cloud worked with the Chinese online food delivery service Ele.me. As a result, Ele.me reduced its average delivery time from 37 minutes to 29 minutes and achieved a cost reduction of the order of hundreds of millions of renminbi.

Alibaba Cloud’s vehicle-cargo matching, and route planning strategies are discussed. The Tianchi platform is also introduced, where more than 130,000 data professionals work with Alibaba Cloud’s vast data sets to exchange ideas and information and compete against each other through a range of data-driven competitions.

Finally, Alibaba Cloud’s Automotive Logistics Solution is introduced, including how it overcomes many of the complications that traditional logistics systems face.