Jul 20, 2026|
Shop Smarter in China: JD.com Upgrades Online Tax-Free Shopping with Instant VAT Refunds
BEIJING, July 20, 2026 – Shopping in China is now even easier for international travelers. Building on the launch of China’s first online departure tax refund store this May, JD.com (also known as JINGDONG) has introduced three new digital upgrades to make tax-free shopping faster and more convenient: fully paperless tax refund processing, international bank card binding, and an instant VAT refund option.
Available through the JD.com app in both English and Chinese, the service allows eligible foreign visitors, as well as travelers from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, to shop online from more than one million products across nearly 800 sub-categories. Eligible purchases may receive VAT refunds of up to 9% under China’s departure tax refund policy, helping travelers save on everything from consumer electronics and home appliances to beauty products, fashion and cultural merchandise.
The upgraded experience makes online shopping simple from start to finish. Travelers can browse products marked with the tax refund label, enter their travel information during checkout, and have the required electronic tax refund documents generated automatically—eliminating paper forms and simplifying the refund process.
JD.com has also enhanced payment convenience by enabling users to securely link internationally issued bank cards directly to their JD.com accounts through JD PAY, creating a seamless checkout experience without requiring a local payment method.
For even greater convenience, shoppers can choose the instant VAT refund option when placing eligible orders. Once authorized, an advance payment equivalent to the estimated VAT refund is credited directly to the linked bank card, allowing travelers to enjoy their tax savings immediately instead of waiting until departure.
Unlike traditional tax-free shopping, JD.com’s online service lets travelers shop anytime, anywhere without visiting a physical store. During the current pilot in Beijing, eligible purchases can be delivered directly to hotels or other designated addresses through JD.com’s signature same-day and next-day delivery service, combining the convenience of online shopping with one of China’s fastest retail fulfillment networks.
“JD.com is committed to making shopping in China easier and more enjoyable for international visitors through technology and supply chain innovation,” said a JD.com spokesperson. “We will continue expanding our selection of tax-free products, enhancing digital services, and bringing this convenient online tax-free shopping experience to more cities across China.”
(vivian.yang@jd.com)
Jul 2, 2026|
JINGDONG Industrials’ JoyIndustrial LLM Featured in World Economic Forum Human-Led AI White Paper at Summer Davos 2026
- JINGDONG Industrials’ supply chain innovation has been highlighted in the World Economic Forum’s new AI white paper at Summer Davos 2026.
- The company’s AI-powered data platform, IndLens, uses 27 autonomous agents to compress data processing times from months to hours, boosting efficiency tenfold.
- By automating tedious and repetitive data tasks, JINGDONG Industrials’ technology frees workers to focus on innovation, driving growth for corporate clients and partners.
The World Economic Forum has highlighted JINGDONG Industrials, a leading industrial supply chain technology and service provider under JD.com, for its ability to harness the power of AI in its newly released white paper, “Asia’s Human-led AI Opportunity: A Framework for Transformation.” Published ahead of the Annual Meeting of the New Champions, also known as Summer Davos, the report examines how the company leverages AI to establish unified industry standards and a shared digital ecosystem, unlocking a leap in supply chain productivity while elevating the role of human capital from routine labor to high-value innovation.
This recognition comes amid growing discussions across the globe about scaling AI to fuel real economic change. The white paper identifies a major bottleneck in the current technology landscape, noting that while 77% of organisations across Asia have adopted advanced AI, fewer than a third have managed to extract sustained, systemic value. The report argues that the primary challenge is no longer technological capability, but rather a lack of shared infrastructure and end-to-end process integration across value chains.
The solution developed by JINGDONG Industrials directly solves one of the most persistent inefficiencies in the industrial sector, which is highly fragmented product data. Historically, inconsistent technical specifications and naming conventions across different suppliers have driven up transaction costs and stalled procurement. To bridge this gap, the company leverages its proprietary JoyIndustrial LLM alongside the Mercator Standard Product Library. Together, they establish a unified digital parameter system and identical product algorithms, creating a standard data ecosystem that eliminates redundancy and ensures high-quality data integration.
At the operational core of this architecture is IndLens, a state-of-the-art product data governance platform powered by 27 autonomous AI agents. IndLens compresses data processing timelines from months to mere hours, delivering a tenfold increase in efficiency and an 80% reduction in manual labour costs. This shift effectively automates repetitive data management, allowing the industrial workforce to pivot away from manual input and focus on strategic, high-value innovation.
“Scaling AI is fundamentally a human systems challenge that requires treating workflow redesign as a primary agenda rather than a secondary effect,” said Maria Basso, Head AI Applications and Impact at the World Economic Forum. “As organizations scale AI,success will depend on shared data standards, interoperable platforms, and effective collaboration to bridge the gap between AI deployment and sustainable, ecosystem-wide value creation.”
This structural approach underpins an expanding commercial footprint. In the first quarter of 2026 alone, the company used nearly 40 specialised AI agents, supporting over 3,000 major corporate clients. Today, its JoyIndustrial LLM and digital supply chain solutions optimise procurement, demand forecasting, and automated ordering for an expansive roster of large-scale enterprises, including Fortune Global 500 companies.
To drive industry-wide modernisation, JINGDONG Industrials also launched the Baichuan Initiative. This collaborative programme invites upstream and downstream partners to co-develop an industrial ecosystem across data, models, and commercial applications. By sharing its digital infrastructure, the company enables partners, many of whom possess valuable specialist data but lack the resources to train standalone models, to unlock clear, measurable value.
Ultimately, this technological evolution is designed to elevate the role of the workforce within the industrial sector. By positioning AI as supportive infrastructure, the company aims to foster a collaborative environment in which technology manages complexity and humans drive creative breakthroughs.
“Our philosophy is simple: let AI handle the heavy lifting of industrial data management so that humans can be redeployed toward strategic growth and business breakthroughs,” said a spokesperson for JINGDONG Industrials. “Through the continuous evolution of our JoyIndustrial LLM and initiatives like Baichuan, we are committed to sharing a standardised digital framework with our global partners to build a more streamlined, resilient, and human-centric industrial ecosystem.”
(vivian.yang@jd.com)
JD Central Achieves 550% GMV Growth From 2018-2020
