Sometimes even a 1.4bn-strong marketplace isn’t enough. China’s ecommerce giants are doubling down on overseas expansion. Amazon, the global leader by a country mile, needn’t break a sweat quite yet. But the arrival of new competitors could tilt the balance in favour of the bargain-seeking public.
The latest effort, by JD.com, is not the retailer’s first rodeo: an earlier attempt to launch overseas platform Joybuy was abandoned in 2021 and a subsequent foray quietly fizzled out. This time Joybuy will be backed up with company-owned logistics, including a number of warehouses in the UK, France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, as well as a fleet of couriers.
That facilitates same-day delivery to a limited number of regions within these countries, where orders made before 11am will arrive before 11pm. But it also entails hefty capital investment, as peers know. Alibaba replicated its asset-heavy model for AliExpress, its international business, and Pinduoduo is now doing likewise for Temu.