Nov 17, 2020|

JD Q3 2020 Earnings: Supermarket is a Huge Growth Engine

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by Ella Kidron

JD reported third quarter 2020 earnings on November 16th. The full press release is available here. The results indicate both the strong performance to date as well as the potential of JD’s supermarket category, represented by JD Super, the company’s online supermarket, and several other business models in the FMCG Omnichannel business group.

In her opening remarks, Ms. Sandy Xu, CFO of JD.com, mentioned that general merchandise grew 35% YOY, led by the supermarket and healthcare categories. Ms. Xu mentioned that “the supermarket is a key growth area that we are very committed to continuing our investment in to further strengthen our consumer mind share and market leadership. As our online B2C supermarket operation continues to generate growth momentum, we have been exploring various new models in different markets to better capture the growth opportunity in this category. Our aim is always to better serve the diverse needs of our customers with quality products and services.”

In the Q&A, Ms. Xu further elaborated on the promise of the supermarket category, mentioning that JD has seen a “structural opportunity” and that it will definitely be a strategic priority for JD. She added: “We have demonstrated or proved the business model for our traditional B2C operations. And now… we are also exploring different business models of initiatives in this area, covering top-tier and lower-tier markets.”

Mr. Lei Xu, CEO of JD retail further elaborated on the fact that the Chinese fresh food market is very different compared to the European and U.S. markets. “It’s more complicated,” he said, adding that in China the traditional retailers in the fresh food category – the top 10 players – only take up about 5% of the overall market. “That is a much smaller amount compared with the Western markets,” Xu said, referring to JD’s potential growth in this area.

JD Super has seen immense growth this year as it supported the livelihoods of consumers across China, especially at a time when few other players were able to do so. Consumers who turned to online for groceries during the pandemic, have increasingly made this transition a regular habit, choosing to purchase high frequency items through e-commerce that they previously would have bought offline. This trend has been made even clearer during the Singles Day Grand Promotion (Nov. 1st-11th). In the first five minutes on November 11th, JD Super saw transaction volume generated by lower-tier markets consumers up 12 times YOY. Users in lower-tier markets accounted for 80% of JD Super’s new users during the Singles Day period.

Carol Fung, President of JD FMCG Omnichannel said: “It is very encouraging to see consumers’ continuous trust in JD Super and in JD.com. This is evidenced by strong growth in multiple products. Trust is what will enable us to win in user growth, lay the foundation for sustainable development and serve consumers to buy anything they need, anytime, anywhere. Omnichannel has become a key theme for our business and more brands are joining hands with us on this. We continue to find that our strong supply chain ability and the development of deep and sustainable win-win partnerships with brands are instrumental in meeting the needs of our diversified consumers across countless scenarios.”

 

(ella@jd.com)

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