JD’s second-hand market shuts down 4 months after its launch

Editor’s note: A version of this post first appeared on Yicai Global, the English-language financial news service of Shanghai Media Group. Yicai Global is one of just two dedicated Chinese news feeds connected to the Bloomberg terminal.

Kumai (Kumai.jd.com), the online second-hand goods market launched by China’s e-commerce giant JD (京东) only four months ago, will shut down due to a business transition, the company announced.

According to an announcement posted on the site’s homepage, due to a change in the business model, Kumai will discontinue e-commerce services from June 22, and after-sales service will also be suspended from Aug. 22 following a two-month transitional period.

Kumai went live last February as a marketplace for selling second-hand goods to corporate clients. The used products on sale on the website include cellphones, computers and office supplies, home appliances, maternal and infant care products, cosmetics, digital products, food and beverage and bags.

JD, also known as Jingdong, had done a test run of selling second-hand goods online before Kumai. Jingdong Youpin (2.jd.com) was launched last January as a second-hand market for retail consumers and is still in operation now. Kumai was an experiment carried out by Jingdong aimed at attracting corporate buyers of used products, an analyst pointed out, but the experiment did not go very well.