JD.com opens office in Australia; will enter Europe in 2019


Chinese e-commerce giant JD has announced the opening of a local office in Australia, seeking to accelerate growth in the region.

The Australia and New Zealand regional headquarters will be based in Melbourne and already has staff on the ground. JD will offer Australian and New Zealand brands and retailers access to its 266.3m active users and reach to more than 900m consumers through JD’s exclusive partnership with Tencent, owner of the hugely successful social networking platform WeChat.

“Our customers are demanding more and more high-quality products from Australia and New Zealand, and this move is a major step toward meeting that demand,” said Richard Liu, JD.com’s Chairman and CEO.

“Brands and retailers looking for a trusted partner who will both build their brand, and protect their IP in China now have an easy point of contact in the region. We would like to thank the State of Victoria for its tremendous support as we move full steam ahead into the region.”

JD chose to locate in the Victorian capital because of access to an abundance of local suppliers, Australia’s only 24-hour shipping port and a supportive local government.

Winston Cheng, JD.com’s President of International, said, “Australian and New Zealand brands are in strong demand on JD.com, especially in the categories of food, agriculture, dairy and cosmetics.”

Separately, JD’s CEO told the Financial Times that the company wants to be everywhere in Europe within a few years and would start by setting up shop in France next year.

He also asserted that JD would spend at least €1bn to build a logistics network in France over the next two years. By comparison, since 2010, Amazon has invested €15bn across Europe to 2016.

Source: JD.com (Australia content), Ecommerce News (Europe content)