Cross-border e-commerce and carrier cooperation: CEP, air and ocean cases

The scenario: connected roles, different evidence levels

This scenario involves different roles. Temu, TikTok Shop and SHEIN generate or organize commercial demand; Cainiao, JD Logistics, SF, J&T and Zongteng’s YunExpress perform distinct logistics functions. The cases connect platform orders, origin handling, aircraft capacity and destination networks. They describe separate partnerships, not one alliance among all the named companies.

IATA reports that global air-cargo demand grew 3.4% in 2025, measured in cargo tonne-kilometres (CTK), while available capacity grew 3.7% in ACTK. These are industry-wide traffic and capacity measures, not parcel counts or the contribution of these businesses. CEP Insight interprets the cases as evidence of cooperation across more operational interfaces. Establishing an unprecedented historical height would require a defined comparison series, geography and common measure that these disclosures do not supply. These external cases are not CEP Insight client projects.

Temu and DHL: existing services alongside a new framework

DHL’s 4 April 2025 announcement both records a memorandum with Temu and states that DHL divisions were already providing services including air freight and last-mile delivery. This supports an existing commercial operating relationship, with the new memorandum intended to deepen cooperation.

The same release presents local-to-local sales reaching up to 80% of Temu’s European sales as a future expectation. It does not report that share as achieved, identify completed ocean volumes or quantify a route-level service improvement. The case shows how a marketplace can connect international transport with destination fulfilment, while its operating baseline and new ambitions remain separate.

TikTok Shop and Royal Mail: connecting orders to a postal service

TikTok’s 20 November 2023 announcement offers UK merchants a Royal Mail Click & Drop integration. Royal Mail’s connection guide describes account authorization, order import and postage-label creation. Together they document a service interface between platform orders and a destination postal network.

Seller authorization and label creation do not prove physical carrier acceptance or recipient delivery. The sources supply no complete shipment denominator, measured saving or on-time-delivery result for the integration. TikTok Shop is the platform, the merchant initiates the connection and Royal Mail provides the postal service; this does not establish that Royal Mail carries every TikTok Shop order.

J&T and TikTok Shop Singapore: an ongoing local partnership

J&T Singapore’s release, dated 14 September 2023 in its text and displayed as published on 25 September, describes an ongoing TikTok Shop partnership and J&T Singapore’s role as an official logistics partner. It documents local seller support and joint promotional arrangements, not only a future agreement.

The disclosed role is specific to Singapore, without proof of global exclusivity or a quantified delivery improvement. J&T’s own history dates its Indonesian launch to 2015 and its China launch to 2020. It therefore belongs in this China-linked commerce and logistics discussion without being described as a business founded in China and subsequently exported everywhere.

JD Logistics and Geopost: an agreement and a later development account

JD announced a strategic Geopost partnership in July 2023. A 15 March 2024 corporate follow-up states that the cooperation had enabled JD to develop comprehensive China–Europe shipping solutions. That later account reports solution development beyond the original announcement; it does not establish full deployment of every proposed service.

The same follow-up describes JD’s broader international express service and use following its December 2023 launch. Those users or shipments cannot all be attributed to Geopost. No jointly disclosed order denominator, comparable on-time rate or measured customer saving establishes the partnership’s performance. JD Logistics’ operating role must also remain distinct from JD.com’s retail and marketplace activities.

Cainiao and Atlas Air: dedicated capacity for Asia–Latin America

Atlas Air’s 15 November 2021 release reports an expansion of Cainiao charter cooperation from three flights per week in 2020 to daily Asia–Latin America operations, and a dedicated fleet operated for Cainiao reaching five aircraft. It describes an additional B747-400F serving Hong Kong–Santiago. This is a carrier-reported capacity arrangement tied to specified networks.

The aircraft are operated by Atlas for Cainiao, not thereby owned by Cainiao. Dedicated capacity is not measured load factor, profitability or every parcel’s delivery outcome. The case illustrates longer-term coordination between a logistics network and an airline; it does not prove that all the named commerce platforms use these flights.

SF Airlines and Etihad Cargo: reciprocal capacity through Wuhan

Etihad Cargo’s 20 June 2023 announcement looks back on an April reciprocal-capacity agreement with SF Airlines and an Abu Dhabi–Wuhan Tianhe twice-weekly freighter service already launched. This is a network-connection case, distinct from the later Ezhou inaugural flights covered in our overseas-expansion study.

The frequency describes the service at the announcement date, not today’s timetable or a full-year flight-completion record. Further Ezhou cooperation explored in the same release was still prospective. The source does not allocate this capacity to named Temu, SHEIN or TikTok orders. The analytical value lies in the airline-to-airline connection and the handoffs needed to turn capacity into customer delivery.

Zongteng’s YunExpress and Atlas Air: an operating charter route

Atlas Air’s 28 March 2024 release identifies YunExpress as a Zongteng Group subsidiary. It reports that the partners had launched a 777 charter service between Xiamen and Miami in December 2023 and that the service was operating. This ties the parent group, executing logistics business, airline and route to one reported operating milestone.

A second aircraft’s planned April 2024 entry and associated future weekly schedule were not completed results at the release date. The source supplies no measured punctuality, utilization or route profitability. Zongteng’s other businesses and every platform order should not be assigned the results of this specific YunExpress–Atlas arrangement.

SHEIN and Atlas Air: a bounded sustainable-fuel pilot

SHEIN’s 24 March 2026 account reports a 2025 pilot involving procurement and use of 187.3 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across 14 Atlas Air charter flights, with an estimated reduction of 579.1 tCO₂e. These are company-reported quantities and an estimate for a defined pilot, not a whole-fleet outcome or independent verification.

The same account announces a DHL GoGreen Plus agreement. It explains network fuel supply and allocation of associated lifecycle emissions reductions to participating customers. That new agreement is not the Atlas pilot’s result, nor proof that each SHEIN parcel’s aircraft used a matching SAF share. The case exposes the practical need to separate transport operations, fuel procurement, accounting boundaries and attributable climate claims.

Alibaba.com and Maersk: ocean services available within a B2B platform

Alibaba.com’s 24 March 2025 announcement states that the first Maersk service lanes went live on 19 February 2025, including full-container-load service to port and less-than-container-load service to door. Maersk’s April market update also records the February LCL/FCL partnership. The supported milestone is ocean services made selectable within a B2B commerce platform.

This is an Alibaba.com business-buying case, not evidence of Temu, SHEIN or Cainiao ocean volumes. Online availability and booking terms do not measure realized cost savings, completed container deliveries or the share of air cargo shifted to sea. The case adds an ocean mechanism to the portfolio without treating B2B container shipments as equivalent to consumer parcel orders.

Opportunities and challenges across CEP, air and ocean

CEP Insight sees an opportunity for destination CEP and postal operators to connect local delivery, returns and merchant support with platform order flows. The challenge is to define who contracts for each stage, who receives exception records and which event counts as successful handover or delivery. Order integration and promotional participation should not substitute for operating evidence.

For air cargo, dedicated capacity and reciprocal networks can support a planned flow, while demand concentration, peak changes and fuel-accounting requirements need explicit review. IATA’s industry growth does not establish that any one platform caused the increase or that every airline benefits. For ocean-linked procurement or local stock, evaluate booking, sailing, clearance, receiving and inventory availability together; compare transport cost with stockholding and replenishment risk rather than assuming a universal air-to-sea saving.

The opportunity and challenge therefore concern the division of work across commerce, origin logistics, main transport, overseas inventory and local CEP. A proposed cooperation should define the market, product, route, cost boundary, eligible cohort, return responsibility and review period. These are our analytical questions, not additional results achieved by the companies. Initial contact can describe the market and problem; further records can follow during scope discussion.

A comparison of what the cooperation evidence establishes

The following comparison keeps existing service, a usable interface, corporate development accounts, dedicated capacity and a reported trial distinct. Dates describe the cited evidence, not a common current operating status. Each group answers a different question about cooperation.

Taken together, the evidence supports a discussion of deeper connections among commerce and transport functions. It does not establish a single all-company alliance, a universal service level, a shared profit result or a quantified historical maximum. Assess the local opportunity through attributable shipment and cost records, while retaining the geographic and product limits of each source.