Products from China conquered the world pretty long ago, and since the start of the development of China’s impact on the world economy, multiple means appeared to provide more comfortable logistics and storage conditions. Cainiao shipping takes one of the leading places of delivery services that work across China and globally. Here, you can find full information about how Cainiao works, what options it provides, and how to stay updated about Cainiao delivery with Pkge.net. More particularly, it includes detailed information concerning the following:
- the most popular services that people often use when buying on AliExpress;
- how they are connected with the tracing numbers;
- the specifics of using tracking codes appropriately;
- what information they communicate;
- what goods and substances are prohibited for delivery through the Cainiao Global transporting service.
Discover Cainiao with the Pkge tracking platform.
What is Global Cainiao in the Chinese and international markets?
Cainiao is occupied in delivery and was founded in China. Global Cainiao refers to its work on an international level. Cainiao Global tracking is another service Cainiao provides customers with that allows you to trace any shipment worldwide, as Global Cainiao supports shipping to over two hundred countries to deliver goods. It includes varied delivery – from low-cost products to handling large-scale orders.
This company is a common enterprise of several largest companies that are occupied in e-commerce. It is commonly known that Alibaba Group takes the place of the largest shareholder that owns such online platforms as Taobao.com, Alibaba.com, AliExpress, and many others. Since 2018 – a year when the enterprise was recognized as a unicorn – Cainiao became a public company.
Regarding its scale on the Chinese and world market, it explains the assortment of products accessible for worldwide shipping. The delivery durations are limited to business days solely, as in contrast to many other international couriers, Cainiao does not work on weekends and holidays. This inconvenience is fully offset by the broad opportunities of purchasing cheap items with unchargeable shipping. Learn more details about how these Cainiao options work below.
What shipping channels does Cainiao allow for?
Cainiao provides complex solutions for diverse customers, so they provide different options for those who want to buy the cheapest products internationally or something unique and very special cross-border. These shipping options have various conditions to comply with. Some make tracking available easily, others – almost impossible, so if you struggle to find a proper option, you better be informed of all the details.
What are Cainiao Super Economy and CSE Global?
Both these options work to deliver the cheapest goods from point A to point B. Depending on how distant these locations are from each other – more particularly, whether a delivery point is not in China – you can use Cainiao Super Economy (CSE) or CSE Global. Often, people use the names of both services as synonyms.
CSE requires an item to meet the following criteria:
- it should be ≥ 14 cm long and 9 cm tall but ≤ 90 cm in sum of linear dimensions (the longest side should be ≤ 60 cm);
- the diameter or length of rolled-up or round parcels should be ≤ 104 cm;
- the cost should be less than $5;
- the weight must not exceed 2 kg.
When buying electronics, cosmetics, or other items, you can encounter the following restrictions:
- the service does not deliver single or button-cell batteries;
- the devices allowing for replacing the batteries are not allowed as well;
- the gadgets with batteries are accepted for transporting only if the accumulators are non-replaceable and a piece’s voltage is not more than 100V;
- cosmetic goods are also unavailable with this option.
The issue that customers also can face is that the mail going through CSE or CSE Global is unregistered, so the Cainiao track is far more complicated to be performed. You should also realize the risks because it’s nearly impossible to prosecute the responsible in case of non-delivery.
Economy and Standard options for Special Goods – what are they?
These options offer more opportunities for tracking Cainiao shipping. CSE for Special Goods extends the range of products available for purchase and carrying by Cainiao, even though the opportunities are not extended significantly and do not touch on the price and weight. It also offers a slightly faster delivery for a slightly higher product price.
Cainiao Standard for Special Goods tracking is also possible, but it suggests paid shipping. In contrast to Super Economy, which provides free shipping thanks to the transportation price being integrated into the product prices, here, the delivery fee is present as a separate feature to pay.
Expedited Standard shipping by Cainiao – what are the distinguishing points?
Conditions for delivering products through Cainiao Expedited Standard are almost the same as in the previously mentioned solutions, but it allows for the following:
- faster delivery – twice as fast as CSE offers;
- no restrictions in package size;
- simple tracking.
The price for this delivery is categorized as a medium compared to Special Goods shipment – most depend on how far the destination point is.
Explaining Heavy Parcel Line provided by Cainiao
Providing similar services as previous solutions, this one is implemented most often when the item bought does not meet the size or weight restrictions of Economy or Standard solutions. Usually, if a product is not a match for any criteria offered by the abovementioned variants, this option is chosen by the system automatically while all the others are not available. It is a paid option, but you cannot track it from departure to destination.
Is it complicated to track a parcel taken by Cainiao for shipping?
Among the other world and national couriers, the Pkge.net service allows for tracing Cainiao packages. To learn the location and status of your parcel, act as follows:
- Visit the pkge.net page.
- The link leads you to the Home Page where you see the search bar before everything else. Use it to look for information by your tracking codes.
- Click “Search”.
- Examine the parcel-related information.
The service does not impose any geographical limits for search, so even if you ordered delivery through unregistered mail options, you may succeed in learning its status until it leaves the Chinese territories.
Where to look for a tracking number?
Ordering goods from far away, you always want to realize the approximate arrival date. The status helps better understand the conditions of shipping and possible issues to solve. So, if you don’t have your tracking code yet, wait till the addresser sends it or look through the following sources:
- most mentioned solutions are offered by AliExpress online shop, so try learning your code from your shop profile;
- if you used the opportunities of other online retailing platforms, they often provide similar profile sections (distinguish your order number with a parcel tracking code – they are assigned to the item by different systems, so order No. will not work for tracing);
- when the item was passed to the courier, the seller can send you a shipping confirmation message, either through the chat of an online retailing platform or as an e-mail letter – if your parcel is already in the courier system, you can find the tracking ID in these messages;
- if you have got any receipt or another document related to your package, look through it to discover the tracking code;
- after you’ve got the parcel, the label on the box should have the code.
As you learned a number you suppose is dedicated to tracking the parcel, you should make sure it corresponds to Cainiao format for tracking IDs.
How to distinguish Cainiao's tracking number format from others?
To use the pkge.net Cainiao tracker, you should enter the correct code that your parcel was assigned to. It contains numeric and alphabetic symbols of the Latin alphabet, which are usually, two letters at the beginning of the code, nine figures, and two more letters with which the code ends up. The letters stand for which Cainiao solution you’ve chosen for shipping and the country codes the parcel goes to.
For example, if your order goes through a Super Economy Global channel to Ukraine, your parcel number can be UB123456789UA, where the first “U” means “unregistered” (unregistered mail is not available for tracking since it crosses the Chinese borders), and the second letter is changeable. Cainiao tracking number can equally not contain any letters at the end. Correspondingly, the quantity of digits may vary to more numerous.
The most frequent reasons for a Cainiao tracking number to not work?
Most often, they do not work in case of incorrect spelling. If you don’t copy your numbers from e-mails or messages but write them manually, remember to not include any hyphens, gaps, or other unnecessary symbols (e.g., punctuation marks). The only punctuation mark that is acceptable is a comma between the tracking IDs (but never in the middle of a code) if you need to trace several simultaneously.
The tracking number can also not work if you use an invalid or outdated code. When you copy or write the IDs, check twice for them to be currently valid and true for your package(s). It happens rarely, but it’s also possible that your device’s system is having a lag and does not allow you to copy and paste the numbers accurately. Check out if your copied numbers are identical to those you received from the sender.
Specifics of tracking Cainiao from the USA, Canada, and the UK
Actually, there is no clear difference between tracking from the USA, Canada, and the UK, as well as from other places. The Cainiao delivery service operates in over 200 countries, but for comfortable and unified usage, the Cainiao systems are versatile to track any parcel. Consequently, the Pkge service also has no additional requirements for searching for a packet from the mentioned countries.
Is tracing different for Singapore and Malaysia compared to the other regions?
As with the previous question, tracking conditions do not differ much for the other regions. The services provide a versatile tracking system for all consumers and users to apply the search systems comfortably.
How to understand Cainiao statuses?
When tracking your parcel, you see not only its current location but also its status which helps realize better the shipping conditions and speed. Cainiao courier provides the following statuses to get acquainted with:
| Status | Meaning |
| Waiting for the Carrier to Pick Up | The carrier has not reached your package yet, but he’s on his way after receiving a notifying message. |
| The Pick-Up | The carrier got your shipment and is delivering it at the moment. |
| Leave Origin | The status indicates has crossed the borders of the country when it was produced. It does not necessarily go by the direct route, so you may see it coming to the other country first. |
| Arrive at Destination | The status communicates that the parcel crossed the borders of your land and is heading to the checkpoint. |
| Waiting to be Picked-Up (by you) | The addressee should go get his parcel from the delivery center he indicated shipping to. Keep the storage timeframes in mind, if you do not collect your parcel before the period is finished, it goes back to the seller. |
| Delivered | The recipient collected the package from a courier after the delivery has been performed by the indicated address. |
| Undelivered | The parcel has not reached the receiver for some reason. Possible reasons include delay by the courier, delay request by the receiver, wrong destination address, and recipient’s absence at the moment of delivery. |
| Security Check Fails | The customs did not let your parcel go further, so it will never reach the destination point. Contact courier support for details and a refund. |
| Not Found | Your request may result in this status if:
|
Cainiao delivery takes a pretty considerable amount of time, so you should not worry if your status stopped updating and there were no news for a long time. Depending on the option shipping takes from days to months. Most issues related to the time a customer waits are solved by waiting patiently a little more.
What are the Cainiao shipping timelines?
Cainiao delivery time depends strongly on what solution you’ve chosen and where you wait for the item to be delivered. Some Cainiao services offer faster delivery for paid transport, but the reasonability for using these possibilities can be disputable regarding the price of an item.
Generally, Cainiao claims their delivery takes up to 72 hours to ship any parcel to any part of the world – but it is an exclusive top service. Regular shipping timeframes vary from weeks to months if ordering to the US or the European Union. The shipping time also depends on where the order comes from and how far this location is from the recipient. As it is logical to assume, the delivery from China to the neighboring countries will take much less time than to more distant places.
As for the Super Economy services that provide delivery of goods under 2 kilos, it takes Cainiao about 30 to 55 weekdays to ship items from China to European countries.
Expedited delivery is usually faster – it happens within twenty to forty days. Non-standard items come to the recipients within 30 to 50 days. The maximum delivery period does not exceed 70 days, but usually, delivery is completed faster. According to Pkge statistics, the average arrival time is 24 days.
As a consumer, you should pay particular attention to the fact that, in contrast to many other couriers that work with no days off, Cainiao shipping time does not include any services on weekends or holidays. These periods are frequently subject to delays, particularly during the winter holiday season, when Chinese delivery is shut for a week or two due to the Chinese New Year. Other holidays should also be taken into consideration for a clearer understanding of why the parcel’s status is not updating or why some routes take so long.
Does Cainiao use intermediaries to deal with the packages?
As Cainiao provides delivery mainly across China, they often pass the packages to the local couriers to deal with the shipping. To talk more particularly about Cainiao’s geographical presence in the world, it would be fair to mention that the company offers a chance to pick up your parcels from their delivery centers in 21 countries, including the following:
- the US in North America;
- most European countries;
- Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, and Japan in Asia;
- Brasil in South America.
Except for their delivery centers, in 2018 they had more than 80 courier partners that delivered through Cainiao channels like Cainiao Super Economy or Cainiao Expedited. Thanks to a wide logistic network of channels and fulfillment centers, Cainiao can provide its services even in those regions where it does not have delivery centers.
In other words, yes – Cainiao involves third parties in the delivery process, but these are the company partners that act according to the licenses, local legislations, and other regulations.
Does Cianiao impose any restrictions on delivering products?
In order to provide a lawful service, Cainiao imposes particular restrictions for delivering items with specific characteristics. Restrictions or bans may touch on products because of safety reasons or the impossibility to comply with the reasonable delivery timeframes required for saving the product quality. Restrictions for delivery are often imposed to avoid taking responsibility for unreasonable or unlawful use of the items and to prevent them to affect people’s health, both public and individual.
What items are prohibited to be shipped with Cainiao service?
The following products, substances, and creatures are impossible to be carried by Cainiao:
| Item | Reason |
| Perishable nutrition products (including meat and seafood). | These products require special conditions for delivery, and the delivery services that do not specialize in shipping food and beverages are not allowed to carry them as they are not simply able to save the proper freshness. |
| Living creatures (including insects, small pets, exotic animals, etc.) | Transportation of any living beings requires particular conditions and equipment to provide the well-being and health of a creature being transported. Even in the case of a seller providing the abovementioned, the carrier should have appropriate permission to perform shipping lawfully.
An exceptional case is providing the creatures through registered mail to the official establishments that conduct legal research. |
| Medications and drugs are potentially able to affect public sanitation (include all items that impact human organisms directly). | To exclude the possibility of massive poisoning or any other harm to the personnel and other people resulting from improper transmittance. It is also necessary to exclude any complaints and responsibilities for harming a person’s health in case of non-compliance with the transportation rules and conditions. |
| Malicious content (includes texts, pictures and images, and other forms of content with potentially offensive or destructive characteristics). | Whether such content is assigned to a recipient or a public audience, it communicates negative information and is potentially dangerous from social, political, and simply psychological points of view. To prevent negative consequences of using such content and disclaim responsibilities in case of applying malicious texts or images, the service prohibits items that contain it. |
| Unlawful items (according to Chinese and International law). | Legislation differs from one region to another, so Cainiao complies with Chinese and International law mainly. Thus, prohibited items include commonly banned weapons and narcotics.
If you doubt that the product will pass customs according to the legislation of your country, you should search for which items are prohibited from shipping cross-border in your region. |
| Explosive materials and substances. | As with medications and other products that require special conditions for transportation, explosive materials are dangerous to ship without relevant equipment and certification. Consequently, its casual carrying is unlawful according to many countries’ laws in the world. |
| Items that emit radiation or are capable to do so in certain conditions. | Radioactive items are subject to careful research and prohibition in most situations that exclude scientific interest or energetic value. In the mentioned conditions, radioactive products are always transported by certified carriers with compliance with all the standards of safe shipping. It means that all the other cases are not safe and reasonable, and, thus, must be banned. |
| Products and naturally created objects that extract toxic substances or are anyway poisonous. | The features of poisons, venoms, and toxins, whether they are natural or synthetic, are subject to research and are potentially dangerous for individuals and the large public. Removing this item from the list of delivery-available things helps avoid any negative consequences and responsibilities. |
| Alcohol. | Alcohol-containing beverages vary from the cheapest products to the unique or custom-made collection items with an extraordinarily high cost. Any of them can be potentially dangerous for human health if produced or delivered without compliance with the general or strict rules. They are also excisable goods, which may cause customs issues if the quality or quantity of the alcoholic substance transmitted does not correspond to the country’s norm. To release itself from the related complexities and responsibilities, shipping these products is prohibited completely. |
| Flammable products and substances (including gunpowder, firecrackers, fuel, etc.). | Because of safety reasons, tax-related issues, and other disputable aspects, these items are also prohibited from being transmitted with the Cainiao services. |
Remember that other restrictions also exist. They touch on particular services – for example, it’s impossible to order cosmetics or batteries shipment through Cainiao Super Economy. For particular bans, restrictions, and conditions, look for details when ordering delivery through a particular channel.
What items must correspond to particular conditions to be accepted for delivery?
Some items can be delivered with Cainiao service only if they meet particular requirements. Among such specifically conditioned items you will find money (in any form), precious stones and metals and products made of them (jewelry of any size and form), valuable items, and bearer securities. Customers can order their delivery only if bought the insurance.
How can customers contact Cainiao?
You can use several ways to use customer support, leave feedback, or make a business offer. For this, you can use the phone, web services, or physical addresses:
| Global Cainiao contact number | 400-6767-903 |
| Address | Block B1, XIXI Center, No.588 West Wenyi Road, Xihu District, Hangzhou City, P.R. China. Post code：311100 |
| cainiaoglobalpr@list.alibaba-inc.com | |
| Social media pages | |
| https://twitter.com/OfficialCainiao | |
| https://www.facebook.com/OfficialCainiao | |
| https://www.linkedin.com/company/cainiaonetwork/?viewAsMember=true | |
To have clearer consultation, it’s better to connect your local delivery centers or post offices that act as intermediaries to deliver Cainiao shipments. Usually, they have more full information than the head office. If you fail to find the local shipping service contacts, try contacting the online shop you’ve bought from – some shops Cainiao delivers from also have local offices to help you solve the issues related to your parcel delivery.
Cainiao is one of the largest shipping networks in the world that includes multiple delivery channels, routes, warehouse facilities, and other infrastructure objects. They also have many partners around the world that help Cainiao deliver in any part of the world. Usually, delivery takes weeks to months, but you can fasten the shipment by ordering expedited services or using premium options. If you use Cainiao delivery for business, keep in mind that some delivery options suggest transporting as unregistered mail – it is available for products under a couple of dollars in price, but it creates considerable troubles if your business depends on the mail that you cannot track and protect from losing. If you use registered mail for your orders through Cainiao, use Cainiao Standard tracking or tracing other companies’ services on the pkge.net platform. It is a universal platform that allows you to learn about the package statuses regardless of where it comes to and from, so you won’t have to use different ways of tracking for discovering the info for Malaysia or the US. Use pkge.net order tracker for Cainiao and other services to enjoy fast and simple tracking!
