JD unveils new mobile strategy

Leading Chinese e-commerce company JD.com Inc (JD) outlined its pivotal strategy on mobile devices Thursday, a rare show for JD in public while undergoing a quiet period under the IPO listing rules.

Xu Xinquan, senior vice president in charge of international business group, pictured its recent joint action with Tencent Holdings, one of China's largest Internet companies, as a central business strategy.

"By integrating jd.com with WeChat and mobile devices, we believe we are well positioned to change the way Chinese consumers shop," said Xu during the 2014 Mobile Asia Expo in Shanghai.

Fancying the potential to generate more revenue by tapping into the huge traffic on mobile Internet, JD launched its direct shopping mobile portal late last month on WeChat, a mobile messaging application offered by Tencent. This portal allows WeChat users to be directed to JD's online site by clicking on a menu option called "Shopping." Previously, this service was part of "WeChat Wallet."

JD said on its official Weibo account that the sales volumes on the latest WeChat shopping portal had grown to as much as eight times the previous version by early June, about a week after the launch, but the company did not elaborate on the exact figure.

Transforming consumer habits from online shopping on desktop computers to mobile devices has become a main concern for e-commerce companies, even though the penetration rate of mobile shopping has reached 20 percent in China, Lu Zhenwang, an e-commerce analyst, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

"The core value of JD's WeChat shopping is not moving what has already been on desktop to mobile, but of promoting more products that have a long-tail effect, such as clothes or cosmetics, which are more suitable for consumer demand on mobile Internet," Lu noted.

The month of June has traditionally been the battlefield of e-commerce companies in China for boosting sales by various promotion measures as JD anticipates its anniversary on Wednesday.

Alibaba launched Tuesday its QR code strategy, or "mashangtao" in Chinese, to integrate the distribution of QR codes on products with the whole shopping experience. By swiping the code, users can get product information, place an order or even join an online game, which analysts said could expand the exposure rate of Taobao on mobile devices.