China e-commerce price war flares as JD.com begins ‘largest ever promotion’, including 14 per cent discount on some iPhones
- JD.com has described the 10 billion yuan subsidy campaign as ‘its largest sales promotion event in history’
- Some products, including the iPhone 13 and iPhone 14, were marked as running out of stock on Monday afternoon by some JD.com stores
Beijing-based e-commerce giant JD.com kicked off a multibillion yuan price war on Sunday night amid rising competition with peers including Alibaba Group Holding and PDD Holdings.
The company has described the 10 billion yuan (US$1.4 billion) subsidy campaign as “its largest sales promotion event in history”, covering a wide selection of items, such as iPhones, earphones and air conditioners, as well as groceries like milk. For example, an 128G iPhone 13 is being sold for 4,649 yuan on its Apple-authorised store, compared to an original price of 5,399 yuan.
For certain products, JD.com is even offering double compensation to consumers if they can find the same good at a lower price on competitor sites Pinduoduo, the budget shopping platform owned by PDD Holdings, and Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Tmall, both of which have also kicked off March 8 campaigns.
Alibaba is the owner of the South China Morning Post.
“JD doesn’t compete on price as much as some other platforms, but has positioned itself on trustworthiness, reliability and quality of service,” said Mark Tanner, managing director of Shanghai-based consultancy China Skinny, “This makes it hard to compete on price for a sustained period due to their higher cost structure, but perhaps they are seeking to acquire some new customers and keep a few of those who have had a taste of their other benefits.”