JD.com has pledged more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) under its ambitious “Double Hundred Plan” to support so-called benchmark brands across various categories, further heating up China’s on-demand delivery sector, as industry-wide daily orders reached a new high of more than 200 million.
The Beijing-based e-commerce giant’s latest initiative seeks to elevate sales of select brands beyond one million items on its platform via measures that include increased traffic, marketing incentives and enhanced after-sales service.
The new plan reflects JD.com’s determined effort to unseat Meituan as mainland China’s top on-demand local delivery services provider, while also trying to fend off a strong challenge from online shopping rival Alibaba Group Holding. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
JD.com’s plan was unveiled after a weekend price skirmish between Alibaba and Meituan, which involved discount coupons that allowed more consumers to buy milk tea at unusually low prices. A surge in orders led to overwhelming demand, which prompted delivery riders to work extended shifts and temporarily crashed Meituan’s servers in certain regions.
Taobao reported on Wednesday that in the previous week, 4,124 restaurant brands on its platform set record sales and orders, while orders for 2,318 non-food categories doubled. Non-food orders surged 143 per cent compared with the platform’s initial launch figures, according to Taobao.
Alibaba last week announced a new 50 billion yuan subsidy programme over the next 12 months for consumers and merchants on its Taobao instant commerce business in an effort to “boost consumption”, the company said.
