JD Central will cease operations on March 3, while JD.ID will stop on March 31. Both sites will stop accepting orders on February 15. The statements confirm an earlier report that JD was mulling ways to exit the markets to refocus on growth at home after years of expansion in Southeast Asia.
The Chinese tech giant launched JD.ID in 2015 through a tie-up with local investors, including Provident Capital, to tap into the then-burgeoning Indonesian ecommerce market. Two years later, the company launched JD Central with Thai property and shopping mall developer Central Group.
JD.ID and JD Central both lagged behind major competitors in their markets, according to data from ecommerce market intelligence service iPrice. In the second quarter of 2022, JD.ID ranked 10th in Indonesia, where the market is dominated by local behemoth Tokopedia and Shopee.
JD plans to pivot from running its own regional ecommerce platforms to building ‘a cross-border supply chain network with logistics and warehousing’ to serve regional global customers, including those in Southeast Asia.
Over the past few years, ecommerce has emerged as one of the largest drivers of growth in the region’s digital economy.
The driving factors behind this growth are increased internet and mobile phone use, as well as improved logistics and e-payment systems, which heightened convenience and consumer confidence to shop online. According to the Digital Economy Promotion Agency, the revenue in the ecommerce market is estimated to amount to USD 4,492 million in 2019 with an annual growth rate of 9.2% resulting in a value of USD 6,384 million by 2023.
The growth potential drew in a swarm of new players, contributing to a red-hot competition in the industry. A fierce rivalry between Singapore-based firms Shopee, owned by Tencent Holdings-backed Sea, and Alibaba Group Holding’s Lazada emerged, along with a slate of other local players, leaving little room for JD to find a profitable foothold.
In January 2022, Shopify has signed a deal with China-based retailer JD.com to make it easier for US merchants to sell to consumers in China. The partnership between Shopify and JD.com aims to unlock China’s ecommerce market for US merchants by giving them access to a new marketplace. By letting merchants list their products on JD’s cross-border ecommerce platform JD Worldwide, this new sales channel opens access to 550 million active customers in China who are shopping for products from brands all over the world.
In September 2022, Worldline has partnered with retailer JD Sports Group to allow customers to make donations using Pennies' micro-donation application.
This launch is another step in the strategic partnership between Worldline and JD Group, as the retail group deploys the additional charitable donations service provided by Worldline and Pennies. Currently, the product runs across 151 locations and will be fully implemented in Q3 of 2022 to circa 679 stores in the UK, across JD Group including Tessuti, Size, Scotts, Go Outdoors, Black, and Millets fascia.
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