Aliexpress strengthens European presence with local warehouses

Chinese online marketplace AliExpress has brought its services closer to European customers. The company further expanded its European strategy with the launch of the new fulfilment channel, Local+. With this initiative, AliExpress aims to shorten delivery times by shipping products from local warehouses in Europe. To this end, the company recently acquired 10 warehouses in the UK, Germany, and Spain, according to Retail Detail and E-commerce News.

AliExpress also took over the shipping from European traders. Since 2022, European sellers were able to offer their products through the platform, but until now, they were responsible for shipping themselves. With the introduction of Local+, AliExpress took over this logistical responsibility.

For European fashion companies, this potentially meant a lowered threshold to operate via AliExpress. The company underlined that “European consumers will benefit from faster deliveries, free shipping and free returns.”

For the time being, it remained unclear how many European fashion retailers were active on AliExpress. More than one billion parcels were brought into the EU annually, a large proportion of which came from AliExpress and other non-EU e-commerce platforms, reported the NVWA.