Deep Dive: JD.com— A Differentiated E-Commerce Platform

Executive Summary

Online retailer JD.com was founded by CEO Richard Liu in 2004, focusing on 3C—computers, communications and consumer—products, but has since evolved to become China’s largest e-commerce platform by revenue, boasting an extensive product offering, as well as best-in-class, in-house fulfillment capabilities. This report takes an in-depth look at this unique e-commerce platform. We discuss the key drivers behind JD.com’s growth and how its different segments are performing, and look at various industry trends that are shaping the e-commerce market in China and how JD.com stands to benefit from these trends.

• Growth drivers: We expect the product mix shift and online marketplace expansion to drive the growth of JD.com.
• Key strengths:com has one of the largest logistics infrastructures of China’s e-commerce players, giving it tight control over its own fulfillment process.
• Strategic partnerships:com has struck key partnerships with industry leaders, including China tech giant Tencent and US retailer Walmart.
• Business segments: The B2C direct sales business is the major revenue driver, generating over 90% of total revenues.
• Industry trends: com is well positioned to benefit from the shift to a B2C model from a C2C model.