How JD.com Become So Successful with China Logistics

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JD.com is an e-commerce firm from Beijing, China. JD.com was initially called 360buy. The company offers a wide range of products such as video, consumer goods, audio, books, and electronics. JD.com is the largest e-commerce platform in China by revenue. It is included in Nasdaq under JD. The full name of the platform is Jingdong.

The company is among the two top online e-commerce retailers in China Logistics. JD Multimedia was started in June 1998 by Richard Liu in Zhongguancun, Beijing’s technology center. Initially, the firm was a brick and motor store before shifting to online merchandising. The outbreak of SARS was the primary reason for the company’s shift to online operations.

The JD.com name was adopted after the shift in business operations. During its first operations period, JD stock was mostly revolving around electronic products. It became a full-merchandize e-commerce retailer in 2008. 2007 saw the company receive its first round of financing of more than $10 million and around $21 million in 2009. During this time, it was still using 360buy.com.

After the 7th round of funds, the company changed its sphere name to JD.com. That was the start of its campaign of going public and growth. When the platform was at its grassroots, there was a strong presence of Alibaba’s Taobao.com in the e-commerce B2C market. However, JD.com was able to challenge Alibaba’s platform.

Its owner, Richard Liu, came up with the idea of starting his logistic model. During this time in 2007, China’s e-commerce pioneers were facing a huge hassle. The self-owned China logistics model concept led to an intense debate between JD’s early investors and Richard Liu. The debate was if the platform was to build its logistic network or not.

Despite the contrary views from investors, Richard being the majority shareholder, built the logistic network of the platform. Starting with China’s large cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, Richard was able to establish warehouses and logistic hubs. The logistic network increased JD’s stock. In 2007, the same year, JD.com became the first of China’s e-commerce retail to launch a POS system.

The system was a massive change in customer experience as they could now pay using credit cards upon delivery of their goods. The payment method also led to increased customer trust as they could check on the goods after delivery before making any payment.

The logistics’ idea came up as a winning idea. After the idea’s success, logistics has become JD’s winning idea for the ruthless e-commerce completion in China’s market. Between 2009 and 2013, JD has extensively focused its operation on logistics. Within that period, JD poured an estimation of $1.5 billion in the logistics network.

In March 2013, JD came partnered with Tencent to make an outstanding partnership. JD was able to access Tencent’s QQ Mobile and WeChat operations. This was a huge change in JD’s operation, which enabled customers to access JD’s services. On May 22nd, the same year, JD made history, becoming the first e-commerce platform in China Logistics to be included in NASDAQ (New York’s Stock Exchange).

JD has been heavily relying on technology in its operations. It’s one of the e-commerce platforms to use AI and high-tech delivery through drones. The platform also uses robots and autonomous technology. Its drone delivery system is the largest in the industry.

The platform has been investing heavily in infrastructure, unlike its competitors. On January 1st 2021, JD stock was quoted to be $90.38. JD makes its delivery directly to its customers and sometimes acts as a middleman. The company has been a Global Fortune 500 member. JD has been making significant changes in the e-commerce industry in China.