Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com removes veteran executive as retail CEO after brutal Singles’ Day price war

JD.com CEO Sandy Xu Ran will take over leadership of JD Retail from Xin Lijun, the company announced on Wednesday
The shake-up comes days after the end of the annual Singles’ Day shopping festival, which saw intense competition between JD.com and rival Alibaba

E-commerce

Ben Jiangin Beijing

Published: 9:00pm, 16 Nov 2023

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Chinese e-commerce powerhouse JD.com has appointed its CEO as the new chief of the company’s main revenue driver JD Retail in a major executive reshuffle at its core business, as the firm comes under mounting competitive pressure amid a sluggish domestic economy.

Sandy Xu Ran, who was promoted seven months ago to helm JD.com, has also assumed the top role at the company’s retail unit with effect from Wednesday, the parent firm said in a filing with the Hong Kong stock exchange on the same day.

Xin Lijun, former CEO of JD Retail, will move to an unspecified position at the company, according to the announcement.

The shake-up comes just days after the conclusion of China’s annual Singles’ Day shopping extravaganza, which saw JD.com and rivals including Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao and Tmall platforms engaged in a brutal price war to draw consumers who have become more conservative with their spending.

A JD.com advertisement promoting tge Singles Day shopping festival in Beijing. Photo: Reuters

For the second year, neither Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post, nor JD.com published their sales tally at the end of the Double 11 campaign.

The leadership changes at JD.com speaks to the growing challenges faced by traditional e-commerce platforms amid the rapid rise of newcomers in the live-streaming e-commerce sector, according to Zhang Yi, founder of Guangdong-based market consultancy iiMedia.

Live-streaming e-commerce generated 1.98 trillion yuan (US$273 billion) in sales in the first nine months of the year, growing 60 per cent from last year, according to a report released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce last week. That compared with just under 12 per cent growth for the overall online sales market.

The increasing popularity of live-streaming e-commerce signals more difficulties ahead for traditional online retail players, as consumers tighten their purse strings amid an unstable economic recovery.

“The downhill road [for them] has just begun,” Zhang said, “Companies will need to change either their people or their business strategy.”

The CEO reappointment at JD Retail highlights “a change in the company’s business and operational strategies to becoming more aggressive” in order to wrest market share from competitors, according to Zhuang Shuai, founder and chief analyst at e-commerce market consultancy Bailian.

Beijing-based JD.com on Wednesday reported a better-than-expected 1.7 per cent increase in revenue for the September quarter.

This year has seen a series of key leadership and strategic changes at JD.com and its competitors.

Former JD.com CEO Xu Lei stepped down from his role in May, months after company founder Richard Liu Qiangdong informally reasserted control at the firm. Liu’s return saw JD.com opening its platform to more small and medium-sized vendors as part of the company’s push to woo cash-strapped shoppers with cheaper products.

Kuaishou Technology, main rival of ByteDance’s short-video hit Douyin, announced last month the departure of chairman and former CEO Su Hua from the company board, with co-founder and current CEO Cheng Yixiao taking over.

Alibaba, meanwhile, is undergoing a sweeping restructuring to break its sprawling business empire into six major units and several small businesses, in the internet behemoth’s most significant reorganisation since its founding in 1999.

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