Alibaba Group has released its financial results for the first quarter of 2021, and the fiscal year ending March 31, reporting a 32% growth in revenues.
“Alibaba achieved a historic milestone of one billion annual active consumers globally in the fiscal year ended March 2021,” said Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group. “Our overall business delivered strong growth on a healthy foundation, with the Alibaba Ecosystem generating a record US$1.2tn in GMV [gross merchandise value] during this fiscal year.”
The group reported that its international retail marketplaces, which include the AliExpress cross-border retail platform and Lazada in Southeast Asia, served approximately 240 million annual active consumers over the year. It attributed much of this success to the growth of its digital infrastructure in areas such as logistics.
In the case of its logistics arm, Alibaba noted that it continues to expand its domestic services and global smart logistics infrastructure by deepening integration with logistics partners, as well as offering more products and services.
In fiscal year 2021, after elimination of inter-company transactions, Cainiao Network, responsible for the group’s logistics operations, achieved revenue growth of 68% YoY, to US$5,687m, representing 5% of the group’s total revenue. Cainiao Network also reached an important milestone of generating positive operating cash flow during fiscal year 2021. A key driver of the network’s strong financial performance, stated Alibaba, was its global smart logistics infrastructure, including increasing use by retailers of the Fulfilled by Cainiao cross-border businesses, including AliExpress and Tmall Global.
Daily package volume on Cainiao’s global parcel network for the month ended March 31, 2021, exceeded five million. Meanwhile, in China, Cainiao Network expanded the coverage of Cainiao Post (neighborhood and campus stations and residential self-pick-up stations) and improved the customer experience of Cainiao Guoguo (crowdsourced parcel pickup and delivery service). Cainiao Post’s average daily package volume nearly tripled year-on-year.