Chinese online retailer JD.com announced it had formed a strategic partnership with Ottawa-based Shopify to help U.S. merchants sell their products in Mainland China.
The partnership marks a step up in the China expansion for Shopify and is another in JDs internationalization trajectory. It will also open access to JD’s 550 million customers in China as Shopify clients.
The companies said that merchants in Shopify’s network could list products on JD.com and the Chinese e-commerce company would handle distribution.
The partnership will also simplify access and compliance for Chinese brands and merchants looking to reach consumers in Western markets.
JD will support Chinese brands to set up direct-to-consumer channels through Shopify. And through JD Worldwide, online merchants on Shopify can sell in China within three to four weeks, compared to the average 12-month timeline for international brands to initiate sales in the Chinese e-commerce marketplace.
“We believe that the partnership will unlock the huge potential of the Chinese market for brands outside of China,” said Daniel Tan, president, JD Worldwide. “At the same time, it will increase cross-border commerce by leveraging our global supply chain ability, simplifying what has traditionally been a very complicated process.”
The announcement is part of a larger strategic partnership between JD and Shopify that aims to help solve cross-border commerce challenges in product sourcing, selling and logistics for merchants in the U.S. and China.
“Bringing together two world-class commerce platforms—Shopify and JD—is a major step in solving cross-border commerce for merchants,” said Aaron Brown, VP, Shopify. “The future of commerce is commerce everywhere, and that starts by removing barriers to entry to one of the most important e-commerce markets in the world.”
Illustration courtesy TechCrunch
