Photo credit: Evan Krause / Unsplash
In a rare move outside its homeland, China’s JD has opened its online shopping marketplace to customers in Thailand. It’s a direct challenge to its nemesis, Alibaba, which runs Lazada across Southeast Asia.
Lazada is Thailand’s top online store.
JD has warehouses in the capital, Bangkok, and will ramp up to offer same-day delivery, it announced today. Nationwide deliveries are also available on JD Central, as the Thai store is named.
The site has a mix of Thai and Chinese merchants, though the company didn’t disclose figures when interviewed by Tech in Asia. “The average delivery time for cross-border orders is around one week,” said a JD spokesperson. “Chinese brands can also sell through the general trade model and can store their goods in JD Central’s warehouses in Thailand, significantly shortening the delivery time. For example, customers based in Bangkok can receive their orders in just one to two days.”
Southeast Asia’s biggest market
Today’s launch is only JD’s second overseas marketplace, coming nearly three years after it opened in Indonesia. The Chinese e-tailer has also invested in Vietnam’s Tiki.
By expanding to Thailand, the company is “taking another exciting step forward in JD’s ongoing journey to serve customers throughout Southeast Asia,” said Vincent Yang, JD Central’s CEO.
Of Asia’s US$1.4 trillion ecommerce spending, Thailand rang up US$94.4 billion in 2017, making it Southeast Asia’s top market.
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Editing by Judith Balea and Eileen C. Ang
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