(Yicai Global) Dec.17 -- You don't need to look further than China's Singles' Day for an insight into the Chinese consumers' appetite.

This year, as Kweichow Moutai -- the most sought-after alcohol brand in China -- introduced their flagship Feitian Moutai on Alibaba Group's T-mall and Juhuasuan shopping platforms at CNY1,499 a bottle, their entire inventory of 20,000 sold out within a second of sales kicking off. Stunned by the huge demand, the platforms ordered another 60,000 bottles of the national drink.

In addition to distributors' channels and established e-commerce websites, more and more spirit brands are tapping rising digital platforms such as Pinduoduo, Kuaishou and TikTok for sales.

According to the latest figures, hundreds of millions of yuan of spirits were sold on Singles' Day this year, as many Chinese consumers used the annual shopping festival as an opportunity to stock up alcohol before Chinese New Year. That leaves us with a question: How do we deliver them?

Known as the center of baijiu, Renhuai county in the southwestern province of Guizhou is where Kweichow Moutai as well as 2,900 other distilleries are located. Every day, the province ships up to 4,000 tons of spirits through full truckload, or FTL, direct line-haul as well as less than truckload, or LTL, transport services.  

According to Best Freight, the freight delivery unit of the supply chain and logistics company Best Inc., baijiu used to be shipped in bulk and huge volumes, contributing to full truckloads of the commodity. Now, as more and more drinkers shop online, the shipments are being ordered in smaller batches which are more fragile, requiring special care and protection, on top of the regularly expected timely delivery.

Therefore to accommodate the shift in demand, Best Freight has developed a specialized logistics solution for the liquor producers, which helped it win over 40 percent of the local alcohol LTL market. The solution includes door-to-door delivery, customized extra-care packaging, direct-line transport, prioritized shipping, online tracking, and discounted insurance rates.

Concurrent to the customized service offerings for the alcohol LTL market, the company has launched five new direct line-haul routes since August, as well as replacing and upgrading trucks to increase their capacity for even more timely delivery of spirits. Additionally, on top of its two current sortation hubs in Guizhou province, Best Freight is planning to add another 3,000-square-meter hub in Renhuai to further increase capacity and minimize handling times.

Thanks to the enhanced efficiency and dedicated resources that Best Freight allocated to the liquor shipping business, the company has seen freight volume in Renhuai double this year, compared with the 28 percent annual jump in nationwide freight volume in the third quarter.

Focusing on large items from e-commerce has also improved Best Freight's profitability, where Liu Tao, general manager of Best Freight and senior vice president of the parent company, has noted significant profitability of cargo below 70 kilograms, describing it as "the prime beef" of freight orders.

At Best Freight's nationwide franchisee meeting in March, Liu championed a shift of focus toward the e-commerce market, calling on franchisees to be aligned with a focus to be 'All in E-commerce.' Since then, this strategy has shown to be paying dividends, with baijiu as a prominent example.

This can be seen in the financial results of New York-listed Best Inc. where the gross margin of Best Freight has been consistently improving, with the first three quarters of this year outperforming the same periods last year and a 1.7 percentage point jump in the gross margin in the third quarter.