JD.com increases investment in cross-border e-commerce

Author | Liu Baodan

Editor | Zhou Zhiyu

In the past two years, cross-border e-commerce has been booming, with cross-border platforms such as TEMU and Alibaba International achieving rapid growth. Now, JD.com has also begun to ramp up its overseas business.

On April 9th, Wall Street News learned that JD.com has launched international brand and overseas brand recruitment for its maternal and infant products and toys categories in its European online retail business. At the same time, JD.com revealed that it has been testing the operation of its European online retail brand Joybuy in the London area.

Joybuy is JD.com's European all-category online retail brand, relying on JD.com's supply chain and logistics capabilities, and currently offers same-day and next-day delivery services in the London area. By checking the app, it can be seen that Joybuy offers a variety of products including daily necessities, beauty and skincare, 3C electronics, and home goods.

Currently, JD.com has chosen London for several reasons, one being its optimism about the local e-commerce development. As the third-largest e-commerce market in the world, the UK retail e-commerce scale is expected to reach USD 160 billion by 2024. At the same time, JD.com's cross-border e-commerce follows a quality route, which aligns well with London's characteristics.

In fact, since the end of last year, JD.com has been continuously increasing its international development efforts.

In November 2024, JD.com's cross-border e-commerce platform JD Worldwide announced the addition of Malaysia and Thailand to its free shipping zones and launched independent sites in both locations; in December, JD Logistics announced it would fully build an overseas warehouse distribution "2-3 day delivery" time circle, currently having over 100 overseas warehouses, bonded warehouses, and direct mail warehouses worldwide.

Following this, JD.com officially launched its self-operated warehouse in Japan; in early March 2025, JD Logistics opened its third warehouse in Poland; on March 10th, JD.com announced a cooperation agreement with the European Football Association, becoming the official e-commerce innovation partner of the UEFA Champions League, stating, "We hope this cooperation will allow more friends in Europe to gain a deeper understanding of JD.com."

Subsequently, JD Worldwide announced further expansion of its overseas free shipping service coverage, adding South Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Australia as free shipping zones, and establishing independent service sites; at the same time, it upgraded the free shipping policy for Singapore and Thailand.

Hong Kong is also a key area for JD.com's overseas expansion. In March of this year, JD.com launched a "Price Guarantee" service for Hong Kong consumers, covering all categories of JD.com’s self-operated products, initiating large-scale subsidies for home appliances for the first time, and providing services such as "30-day return and 180-day replacement for defective self-operated home appliances" and "free shipping for one item." It is reported that JD.com’s express delivery center on Hong Kong Island has officially announced its operation, further enhancing the shopping experience for Hong Kong consumers.

Currently, JD.com has integrated into local industrial chains and supply chains in dozens of countries and regions across the Asia-Pacific, Middle East, and Europe and America, serving consumers and clients.

From a strategic perspective, JD.com’s approach is similar to that of Pinduoduo, choosing to transfer its years of accumulated e-commerce capabilities abroad, providing fast fulfillment and quality assurance through a self-operated model, which is also a distinguishing feature of JD.com's cross-border platform.

As JD.com's e-commerce business in Europe, ochama was launched in January 2022. Previously, ochama had provided home delivery and self-pickup services for all categories of products in 24 countries including the Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, and Luxembourg through its own warehousing and self-operated model A relevant person in charge at JD.com pointed out at the press conference that in the future, JD.com will explore 211 delivery services in mainstream cities in Western Europe by leveraging its advantages in infrastructure construction and self-operated models, collaborating with international brands, local brands, and high-quality Chinese brands to create a fast and reliable one-stop shopping experience for European consumers.

The challenges are also evident. JD.com launched its international strategy as early as 2015, at which time it launched the JOYBUY business, which was in contrast to Alibaba's AliExpress. However, due to various issues such as strategic direction and execution, JD.com ultimately chose to scale back its efforts. JD.com needs to break free from past inertia and make more thorough innovations.

In addition, going overseas has become a trend, and JD.com faces market competition in different countries and cities, including direct competition with domestic peers like Alibaba International and TEMU, as well as formidable local competitors. JD.com also needs to shake off the stereotype of Chinese manufacturing and create a new mindset for quality e-commerce.

Going overseas is a tough nut to crack, and JD.com must demonstrate its true capabilities