Jan 9, 2018|

JD.com Commits to Sell €2 Billion in French Imports as President Macron Meets CEO Richard Liu

JD.com, China’s largest retailer, has announced plans to sell €2 billion of French goods to Chinese consumers over the next two years, and to purchase another €100 million in French industrial products.

With French President Emmanuel Macron on hand during his official state visit to China, JD.com signed an ambitious agreement in Beijing today with Business France, France’s official trade promotion agency. JD Chairman and CEO Richard Liu and Business France CEO Christophe Lecourtier were on hand for the signing. President Macron also met with Mr. Liu to discuss opportunities for more French brands reach JD’s 266.3 million customer base.

Separately, JD also signed an MOU with French industrial engineering giant Fives Group to purchase €100 million of Fives’ technology. Fives has been assigned by the French Government to lead the “Industry of Future” and “Made in China 2025” plans, and the company’s advanced sorting technology will be used in JD’s highly automated “Asia No.1” warehouse network around China.

President Macron also met with Mr. Liu to discuss opportunities for more French brands reach JD’s 266.3 million customer base.

The agreements come as JD launches its ‘Celebrate France’ sales promotion for French goods on its e-commerce platform, showcasing unique promotions and discounts on a range of carefully curated, high-quality French products from brands including Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite), Remy Martin, Evian, L’Oreal, Lacoste and others. Such sales promotions are hugely successful for suppliers and brand partners, including brands that are lesser known in China but have significant potential on JD because they leverage the company’s immense marketing resources and consumer insights to reach new audiences, often achieving record sales.

JD is already a key channel for French products to reach Chinese consumers, and counts popular beauty brands L’Oreal, Clarins and Sephora as key beauty partners. In 2017, sales of fresh food from France on JD.com, including oysters and cod, increased 640% year-on-year. Sales of French brands on JD’s cross-border e-commerce platform, JD Worldwide, increased nearly 200% in the same period. In addition, JD is now the biggest online retail channel in China for Lafite. At the end of last year, La Poste jointly launched a La Boutique France flagship store on JD.com to promote more French products in the Chinese market.

JD and Business France will work together to hit the target of €2 billion in sales by the end of 2019 by building out a ‘one-stop shop’ solution for French brands and retailers to get their products to Chinese consumers quickly and conveniently.

In addition to access to JD’s unparalleled supply chain and logistics capabilities, quarter billion-plus customers, and marketing solutions, JD will offer education and training programs about the Chinese e-commerce market targeting senior executives across France. It will provide a dedicated express enrollment service for French companies to get them up and running on JD.com as quickly as possible.

Future collaboration is expected to include logistics support on the ground in France to facilitate the transport of goods from France to JD’s customers in China.

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