JD Xintonglu (新通路), the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) online B2B arm of Chinese e-commerce giant JD, has reached a partnership with China’s top telecom carrier China Mobile, local media is reporting.
Under the deal, China Mobile will support JD franchise convenience stores and retailers that are using JD’s B2B ordering platform Zhangguibao with premium traffic packages and broadband services. At the same time, China Mobile will roll out custom services for JD convenience store customers and launch joint marketing campaigns with the e-commerce tycoon.
The second-ranking e-commerce company is expanding aggressively in line with China’s new retail boom. Company founder and CEO Liu Qiangdong said earlier this year that the company plans to add JD 1,000 stores every day by the year-end.
JD’s current partnership comes shortly after a similar tie-up with China Unicom, another state-backed telco giant in the country.
The FMCG B2B market is a booming sector in China’s tech space as a new force to create a unified channel for brand owners and suppliers to reach China’s segmented offline retailers. JD have ventured into this business with Xintonglu and Alibaba with LST (零售通). Targeting traditional trade retail stores, this sector will grow to RMB 330 billion (US$48 billion) in 2018 from RMB 40 billion in 2016, according to Kantar Retail.
As China moves into a mobile-first or even mobile-only era, Chinese tech firms are speeding up their cooperation with telecom carriers to enhance user experience. Last year, Tencent has released with China Unicom King Card, which gives unlimited data usage on Tencent’s ecosystem of apps encompassing everything one needs in daily life—from messaging, payments and news to music, video streaming, and gaming.