Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of WPIC Marketing + Technologies, an e-commerce consulting firm based in Beijing, said the subsidy programme was an aggressive investment aimed at increasing users.
“JD.com’s subsidy campaign will attract more users to the platform and boost sales in the short-term,” he said. “However, it will hurt JD.com’s margins and possibly weaken the platform’s image. While PDD markets itself as a budget shopping platform, JD.com has built a strong reputation among first-tier city consumers as a marketplace for higher-end goods.”