JD.com to invest $2.9b in online supermarket expansion

JD.com said it will invest more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.9 billion) over three years in a subsidy program to boost its online supermarket business.

The program targets the “Billion-Yuan Supermarket,” a dedicated channel under its JD Supermarket service.

JD.com said it aims to help vendors generate an additional 200 billion yuan (US$29 billion) in sales and make this its largest subsidized category, surpassing electronics.

Analyst Li Chengdong described this move as a strong defensive response to rivals like Meituan, Pinduoduo, and Alibaba.

Last year, JD.com launched a 10 billion yuan (US$1.45 billion) subsidy to expand food delivery after Alibaba increased efforts in that market.

Li also noted JD.com’s strategic shift over the past decade from electronics to fast-moving consumer goods.

The company said JD Supermarket grew rapidly in 2025, with user and order growth rates over 20 percent, without revealing specific figures.

It aims to grow its user base from 300 million to 500 million within three years, a target announced last year.

🔗 Source: South China Morning Post

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

The subsidy war has already wiped out profits

JD.com’s latest spending comes after a harsh 2025 price war, when its move into food delivery squeezed profits amid heavy outlays and intense competition 1.
Chinese regulators stepped in by mid-2025 and urged a truce, after platforms poured more than 100 billion yuan into discounts that drove Meituan to its first quarterly loss in three years 2.
Pinduoduo often gets cast as a rival, yet it has stayed out of food delivery and put money back into merchants plus its broader platform ecosystem 3.

Why groceries are more valuable than iPhones for JD

The shift aims to lift purchase frequency for JD Supermarket shoppers, not only chase topline sales.
Electronics sell in bursts, while groceries and fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) cover everyday items like food and household supplies and bring people back daily or weekly.
More grocery orders can also keep logistics running fuller, since higher volume helps JD.com use its on-demand delivery capability through Dada Nexus, its delivery platform 4.
Results hinge on follow-through, because the earlier food delivery push ran into merchant onboarding problems plus backend system issues as it scaled up 4.