JD.COM — China’s largest online direct retailer in terms of transaction value — has set up its first offshore office in Hong Kong to source global goods to meet the booming demand on the Chinese mainland.

    The NASDAQ-listed company is banking on the SAR’s logistics convenience, authenticity of goods and rule of law, saying the move is to support local retailers in reaching out to mainland consumers.

    “With the explosive growth of e-commerce, Chinese consumers’ appetite for imported products is picking up rapidly. Against the backdrop of a supportive regulatory environment, we see great prospects in cross-border e-commerce business,” Carol Fung Yi, FMCG BU president and corporate vice-president at JD.com Inc, said in Hong Kong on Thursday.

    “We believe Hong Kong, as a world trading center with low taxes, a free market and rule of law, can help us develop a global supply chain. With longterm relationships with local businesses, we will bring more high quality goods back home and help our partners build up new channelsto reach out to Chinese consumers,” she said.

    According to iResearch, JD.com has dominated China’s B2C (business to customer) community in revenue terms, with a market share of 54.3 percent last year. It’s also the world’s third-largest online retailer measured by net revenue recorded at US$18.5 billion last year.

    At the end of the second quarter this year, JD.com reported 118 million active consumer accounts with 40.2 million different kinds of merchandise and has 166 warehouses in 44 mainland cities. Its self-operated delivery system claims to cover 2,034 counties and districts across the mainland, or 85 percent of the country.

    Sa Sa — Hong Kong’s leading cosmetics retailer — signed up on Thursday to open its online fashion store on JD Worldwide, the cross border e-commerce branch of JD.com.

    “The new store we’ve launched on the JD platform would mean huge opportunities for us. We will leverage JD’s efficient delivery services and expand our customer reach on the mainland. Sa Sa and JD.com will complement each other in delivering premium online services to Chinese customers,” said Guy Look, chief financial officer and executive director at Sa Sa International Holdings Ltd.

    “Mainland netizens have a unique online purchasing habit. Learning from the Chinese e-commerce leader can help us adapt to the market more swiftly,” Look said, adding that the company will maintain its online operations in markets other than the mainland.

    “In the early stages, we’ll focus on fast-moving consumer goods, such as cosmetic products, maternal and baby products and food,” said Tony Qiu Huang, director of JD Worldwide.

    “Compared with general trade, cross-border e-commerce enjoys a lot of convenient arrangements in terms of customs clearance. There’s no need to set up a mainland entity to sell products of overseas companies to Chinese consumers online,” he said.

    Meanwhile, JD.com and China COSCO Logistics Co., a member company of the State-owned COSCO Group, have also struck up a partnership on global logistics operations, with warehouses covering the United States, Japan and South Korean markets.(SD-Agencies)