China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) and Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) yesterday expanded the companies’ strategic partnership to include Chunghwa Post Co (中華郵政), in an effort to profit from the growing Web commerce market by offering a new door-to-door delivery service.
“With the addition of Chunghwa Post, we aim to expand into the segment where bulk container shipments of goods ordered on major online shopping platforms are stored and processed for door-to-door parcel delivery,” China Airlines chairman Sun Hung-hsiang (孫洪祥) said.
The companies have identified growth potential in the Internet commerce market, Sun said.
Photo: CNA
“The new service is expected to reduce logistical costs of delivering goods to and from Taiwan, translating into savings of inventory expenses and reduced risks for international companies hoping to tap the domestic market,” Yang Ming chairman Frank Lu (盧峰海) said.
Last month, China Airlines and Yang Ming signed a memorandum of understanding to pool their respective resources in air cargo and sea freight, such as by sharing bonded warehouses, and combining marketing campaigns and enterprise service plans.
In addition, demand for the new service would be partly driven by the companies’ employees, who can take advantage of discounts, the companies said.
Although the three companies’ disparate electronic commerce businesses are expected to continue growing as the partnership takes hold, they also announced plans to establish a joint online shopping platform that is scheduled to be introduced in April next year.
Yang Ming is tasked with developing the transaction processing system for the shopping platform, the companies said.
Chunghwa Post’s PostMall (郵政商城) site has an estimated 300,000 members and annual sales of about NT$300 million (US$9.08 million), while China Airlines’ eMall has about 200,000 members with annual revenues of NT$1.8 billion, including duty-free sales.
Geared toward consumers who are looking for seasonal products from abroad, Yang Ming’s MyCaptain online shopping platform is undergoing internal testing and is expected to be opened to the public in the first quarter of next year.
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