SHANGHAI — China’s second-largest e-commerce platform and Alibaba’s number-one rival JD.com saw total orders increase by 130 percent and an increase in gross merchandise value of more than 140 percent, compared with its Singles’ Day sale last year.
By 6:26 p.m. Wednesday, the B2C e-tailer had received more orders than in all of its previous Singles’ Day sales combined, and by midnight had received more than 32 million orders over the 24-hour event, said JD.com, which declined to release GMV figures.
As with other major e-commerce platforms, one of the major growth areas this year has been m-commerce, with 74 percent of sales coming via JD.com’s native app, as well as through the platforms of partner Tencent’s WeChat and Mobile QQ. More than 52 percent of first-time customers on JD.com throughout Singles’ Day were driven there by Tencent platforms, demonstrating the value of their strategic alignment (Tencent paid $215 million for a 15 percent stake in JD.com in March of last year).
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“On mobile, our partnership with Tencent puts JD.com in front of more than half a billion WeChat and Mobile QQ users, a tremendous industry advantage that enabled us to reach and win over new customers during the sale,” ceo of JD Mall Haoyu Shen said.
Prior to Singles’ Day, much of the Chinese news media’s commentary had focused on the perceived “war” between Alibaba and JD.com, with cartoons depicting cats — the logo of Alibaba’s Tmall platform — and dogs — JD.com’s logo features a pooch — fighting like, well, cats and dogs.
The intense competition was highlighted last week by JD.com’s decision to send a letter to China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce, complaining about Alibaba’s efforts to strong-arm vendors into exclusively working with their platforms, which is illegal in China.
Home decor, apparel and footwear saw the most orders out of any product category on November 11 for JD.com. The site said it sold more than 14 million articles of clothing and pairs of shoes, and brands such as Forever 21 saw one-day sales increased by 650 percent compared to Singles Day 2014.
Top performers among international brands on JD.com over the Singles’ Day sale period included Apple, Samsung, Adidas, New Balance, Columbia and The North Face.
Consumers spent $14.3 billion on Alibaba’s shopping platforms for the Singles’ Day shopping festival, beating analysts’ expectations and smashing the Chinese e-commerce giant’s 2014 sales record.
In a separate announcement, JD.com said it has formed a joint venture with Germany’s Otto Group, an operating retail and services group, to provide B2C e-commerce services to brands on JD.com’s platform.