JD.com Q2 results put a spotlight on the success of the marketplace-brand partnerships, attributing the win-win model to the marketplace’s “strong performance” during the three months of the second financial quarter.
JD.com today announced net revenues of RMB150.3 billion £117.60 (billion) measured on the three month basis, and compared to the last year’s results. That’s up by 22.9% from the second quarter of 2018. Net revenues for the third quarter of 2019 are expected to be between RMB126 billion and RMB130 billion, representing a growth rate between 20% and 24% compared with the third quarter of 2018.
The second quarter saw the Chinese marketplace’s arsenal of 220,000 merchants welcoming premium international brands to the online platform, highlighting the wider move of the marketplaces’ working with brands.
JD.com’s marketplace counterpart, Amazon stepped up their efforts last week in their work with brands with an announced of a recruiting process to house brands in the soon-to-launched pop-up stores in the UK. Amazon have also introduced Amazon Project Zero in Europe to help brands trading on the marketplace to reduce counterfeit products, as brands often see their items replicated and sold as genuine goods.
Meanwhile, eBay helped a US outdoor recreation product company, North Face open a storefront on the marketplace in a bid to showcase their offering to eBay’s millions of shoppers.
JD.com says their June 18 Anniversary Sale served an opportunity to debut high-end brands on their platform. The legendary Italian fashion house Prada Group announced a partnership under which three of its major brands Prada, Miu Miu, and Car Shoe opened first-party flagship stores on JD.com. Twenty other fashion and luxury brands have joined the JD platform since April, including French apparel brands Sandro and Maje under the SMCP Group, iconic British brand Mulberry and Italian high-end footwear brand Giuseppe Zanotti.
Leveraging their capabilities in big data and consumer insights, JD.com continued to collaborate with brands and manufacturers to tailor products specifically for their consumers.
As part of JD’s Consumer to Manufacturer (C2M) initiative, TCL, one of China’s leading appliance manufacturers, partnered with JD in April and launched three new customised smart appliances specifically for the Chinese consumer market.
JD also worked with top food and beverage company Nestlé on two C2M projects. Using insights from JD, the brand was able to optimise the flavour of its Purina cat food as well as its wafer bar packages to support customer needs for a larger variety of flavours.
