E-Commerce Sites Bracing For 2-Week Shutdown as Chinese New Year Nears

A courier at work. (Image source: CNbeta.com)

Remember all that stuff about 750 billion RMB being spent online in China last year, and how Alipay sees 2.1 million RMB in transactions every 60 seconds? Well, all that pretty much comes to a standstill when it’s Chinese New Year, the most important of the annual festivals here.

That’s because all the couriers – those low-paid, scooter-riding, traffic-weaving frontline soldiers of home deliveries – tend to be migrant workers who need longer than the mandated week-long holiday in order to travel back to their hometowns in other provinces. So even though the Chinese New Year doesn’t start until January 23rd, the courier industry is pretty much shutting down in two days’ time: on Wednesday the 18th. Any orders placed on most e-commerce sites will not be delivered to your doorstep until early February, once the courier companies get back into full swing a few days after the festival officially ends.

Indeed, if an item bought online needs to go some distance, then it’s probably already too late for it to be shipped. I ordered something on a Chinese e-commerce site last night, and was told it won’t arrive until after the holiday. Goods being shipped within large urban areas might well get delivered during the rest of this week if there are enough local staff.

Today, DoNews reports that some larger Chinese logistics companies, such as EMS and China Post, will try to keep things moving all week, right up until the start of the holiday. But most e-commerce companies make use of a veritable army of smaller courier firms which are faster and more flexible than the state-owned behemoth, China Post. That’s why China’s online shopping boom, across both the C2C and B2C sectors, is also proving to be a huge boost for private delivery firms, creating thousands of new jobs.

And, of course, they all deserve a break and a chance to get back with family for the festive season – especially after worrying stories of overwork, and even a stress-related death, among couriers earlier this year.