(Yicai Global) April 25 -- Alibaba Group Holding’s logistics arm Cainiao and Tmall Supermarket have been getting back to normal and expanding their grocery delivery volumes in Shanghai amid the eastern city's longer-than-expected lockdown.

Cainiao has distributed 15,000 tons of supplies from Tmall Supermarket in Shanghai as of yesterday, Yicai Global learned from the delivery company. The megacity began its full lockdown on April 1 while communities where Covid-19 cases are detected still remain isolated.

Tmall Supermarket is striving to get back to work fully by adding communities one by one, said Zheng Yang, who is in charge of the e-grocer's supply chain. Currently, two-thirds of distribution stations in Shanghai are operating as usual, serving more than half of the streets in the city, he added.

Tmall Supermarket and Cainiao have opened a new model of group-buying. Consumers can fill in their addresses on the online grocery platform and see whether the goods can be delivered. However, delivery ranges can change anytime and orders may be more or less timely with deliveries the next day or later, said Zheng.

Jiading Logistics Park, Cainiao’s largest smart e-commerce warehouse in Shanghai, is a key spot for Tmall Supermarket. The logistics park has been one of the few local warehouses that has remained open through the lockdown.

Cainiao's technological prowess has been useful. The company's fleet of unmanned trucks, which was initially planned for trunk lines in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, is now being adopted by Shanghai in its fight against the pandemic.

Since April 11, Cainiao's trucks have been transporting goods to Shanghai from Nanjing or Jiaxing via two 24/7 emergency routes. Thus, hundreds of tons of supplies can be delivered to the city every day. At present, Tmall Supermarket has more than 7,000 tons of stock in Shanghai.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi