JD.com To Add Parcel Delivery Service

To take advantage of its warehouse and driver network, JD.com plans to add a parcel delivery service to its lineup. The offering would let individuals and businesses in three Chinese cities – Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing – send packages around China, Reuters reported.

JD Logistics CEO Zhenhui Wang said in a statement, “this marks the next step in leveraging the nationwide logistics network that JD has built over the past decade.” In order to use the service, customers would ask for a pick-up through the firm’s app.

The network could deliver many parcels the next day or the same day. In the past, the service was only used to mail purchases from JD.com or companies that leased JD.com’s mailing assets. Now, the company “aims to eventually make residential and business deliveries for shippers from anywhere to anywhere within mainland China in the future.”

The news comes as JD.com’s annual 618 Shopping Festival was a big success for the Chinese eCommerce player earlier this year, raking in $24.6 billion, according to new data from Coresight Research. According to a report, the shopping festival, which ran from June 1 through June 18, saw a year-over-year increase of 37 percent. Mobile phones, PCs, air conditioners, digital products, and food and beverages were the leading categories.

For the event, JD.com partnered with more than a half a million physical retail stores. The sales at the physical stores saw a big jump on June 18, with JD Daojia, JD.com’s online grocery delivery firm, driving the growth.

Meanwhile, Walmart participated again this year and saw sales jump fourfold, which was tiny compared to local Chinese retailers. Yonghui Superstores saw sales increase five times last year, and Century Lianhua had sales that were up seven times compared to a year ago. And according to Coresight, on June 18, sales of mobile phones on JD.com reached 10,000 units in eight seconds and $15.5 million in 30 seconds.