Delivery of icecream: Alibaba rises to challenge in logistics  

天猫卖冰激凌 “菜鸟”实战力遇考

American brands of ice cream are available on Tmall.com.

(ECNS) -- Ten American brands of ice cream are available on Alibaba's online shopping mall, the first time globally for online shops to sell ice cream made by foreign countries.

Customers in 210 Chinese cities can order ice cream on Tmall.com from Thursday. The brands Häagen-Dazs, Ben&Jerry's, Dove, Breyers, M&M's, Snickers, Thrifty and Crystal are included.

The logistics company Rookie Technology Co Ltd, in which Alibaba is an investor, promised that the ice cream won't melt before it's delivered. If it does, they will compensate customers within three hours, Tmall said.

Buyers in 195 cities can get ice cream in 24 hours. The company said that specially designed coolers with dry ice are used to keep the ice cream frozen and fresh.

Jack Ma founded the logistics company last May to beef up its own courier capability. The company has cold chain infrastructure in eastern China and plans to expand into other parts of the country this year.

This month, Alibaba has also signed a deal with the state-owned China Post, the country's largest postal service provider, to strengthen its logistics arm in a series of deals before a planned US listing.

Data shows that each American consumes an average of 23kg of ice cream annually, while a Chinese person consumes less than 2kg. It is expected that the high-end ice cream market in China will reach 700 million yuan ($113 million) this year.