Chinese consumers are about to get their purchased items sooner. Walmart is pairing up with JD.com — Alibaba Group’s competitor — for a two-hour delivery service.
Walmart has had an online presence in China since 2011 after buying part of the Yihaodian supermarket business. Unfortunately, at the time, that partnership failed for Walmart in terms of grabbing market share. But there was some subsequent buying and selling of Yihaodian.
As PYMNTS reported earlier this year, Walmart agreed to unload Yihaodian to JD.com for 144.9 million shares of the company, or approximately 5 percent of JD.com’s total shares outstanding. JD.com now controls the Yihaodian brand, website and app, while Walmart continues to handle Yihaodian’s direct sales business and sells on Yihaodian’s online marketplace.
JD.com seems to have more promise for Walmart, as JD holds 23 percent of the market. Alibaba has 58 percent, and Yihaodian has a mere 1.3 percent.
Walmart has now announced that more than 20 of its 423 stores in the country will provide the service for customers ordering on New Dada, a joint venture between JD and logistics site Dada. The Arkansas-based company adds that it intends to open a Sam’s Club store on JD.com in order to sell imported products through its cross-border eCommerce unit.
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