Dive Brief:
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JD.com will launch its Google shopping storefront by the end of the year, Bloomberg reports. JD didn't immediately return Retail Dive's request for comment.
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"When Google Shopping launches, JD will have a flagship store," JD Logistics director of strategy Bao Yan told Bloomberg, addding that the company was shipping from U.S. fulfillment centers to U.S. end-customers. According to Bloomberg, Google will handle payment and order processing.
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The move, which could come in time to grab some U.S. holiday sales, makes good on plans the companies announced in June, which included a $550 million cash investment by Google in JD as part of a strategic partnership to develop retail solutions in Southeast Asia, the U.S. and Europe. The Alibaba rival in a blog post last week also announced that it would open its parcel delivery infrastructure to individuals and businesses in China.
Dive Insight:
JD is already set up for U.S.-based fulfillment, with its own logistics operations in California and a partnership with the U.S.'s foremost distributor of consumer goods — Walmart.
The launch of its Google Shopping storefront could bring Amazon fresh competition in digital sales, where it continues to dominate despite legacy retailers' own entry into e-commerce and omnichannel selling.
JD's infrastructure is also apparently ready for prime time in China, where it's going forward with a business plan to provide package delivery beyond its own needs. Something similar has long been buzzed about here regarding Amazon's potential to expand and open its formidable fulfillment and delivery operations and disrupt shipping giants United Parcel Service, FedEx and the U.S Postal Service.
JD's American logistics are new and small, but the company sounded ambitious last week. "JD is the only large-scale e-commerce company in the world to operate a nationwide in-house logistics network, down to the last mile," the company said in its post. "The network, powered by the company's proprietary supply chain management technology, is able to deliver over 90% of orders same- or next-day, and reaches 99% of China's population."
And JD, which raked in a record 159.2 billion yuan ($24.6 billion in U.S. dollars) during its summer sales event this year, a 37% year-over-year increase, according to Coresight Research, has apparently beaten larger Alibaba to the punch in getting into the parcel delivery business in China.
