Alibaba today announced the launch of an instant delivery service called "Delivery in An Hour" on its Taobao App in 16 cities across China.
When a consumer searches for a specific item, the search results page will automatically pop up with the "Delivery in An Hour" channel entry in an eye-catching location, and upon entering the channel, the consumer will be able to find the surrounding merchandise that enables accurate to minute level delivery.
"Delivering in An Hour" channel features merchandise not only from Tmall supermarkets, but also merchandisers on Taoxinda, as well as access to many supermarkets, convenience stores and more on Hungry Meal.
Alibaba said that when shopping, consumers don't need to log into different APP stores to search for products, and all products located near consumers will appear in one place, realizing instant search, instant buy and instant get.
"Delivery in An Hour" service will be the first to come online in the 16 cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Shenyang, Nanjing, Zhengzhou, Hefei, Shanghai, Wuhan, Suzhou, Chongqing, Xiamen, Shenzhen, and Tianjin, of which six places in the north, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Shenyang have achieved full coverage of the main urban area, which is expected to reach the whole country by the end of the year.
"Delivery in An Hour" head of operations Guo Wenpeng revealed that more than 300,000 supermarkets, convenience stores, florists and fruit shops have now accessed "Delivery in An Hour" with more than 10 million kinds of goods.
Behind Taobao's launch of "Delivery in An Hour," it means Alibaba is upgrading its local lifestyle business again.
Taobao App is another 100 million level traffic portal under Alibaba's banner, Alipay, which has previously focused on local life after its revamp and aims to become a digital life service platform, which is Meituan's stronghold.
For the foreseeable future, Alibaba's competition with Meituan for local living services will continue to intensify.