JD.com, Canadian internet retailer Shopify team up on cross-border e-commerce expansion amid China online sales slowdown
- The partnership will link Shopify’s millions of merchants around the world with JD.com’s 550 million active customers in China
- Through JD Worldwide, online merchants on Shopify can start selling in mainland China in three to four weeks
“We believe that the partnership will unlock the huge potential of the Chinese market for brands outside [the country],” said Daniel Tan, president of JD Worldwide, in the joint announcement.
“The future of commerce is commerce everywhere – and that starts by removing barriers to entry to one of the most important e-commerce markets in the world,” said Aaron Brown, a vice-president at Shopify, in the same announcement on Tuesday.
JD.com and Shopify indicated that they will move to simplify access and compliance for Chinese brands and merchants looking to reach consumers in Western markets. JD.com will support quality Chinese brands to set up their direct-to-consumer channels through Shopify, and enable Shopify merchants worldwide to access the Chinese firm’s supplier network through the JD Sourcing platform.
The two companies also said their collaboration forms part of a larger strategic pact to “solve cross-border e-commerce challenges across product sourcing, selling and logistics for merchants in the US and China”.
For JD.com, the alliance with Shopify could help boost its nascent overseas business, which amounted to less than 3 per cent of its total revenue of 218.7 billion yuan (US$133.9 billion) in the third quarter last year.