Chinese online retailer JD.com has grown strongly in 2017: turnover grew nearly 50 % and it was profitable again. The company also expects to exceed a 30 % growth pace in 2018’s first quarter.
Higher costs do not pressure profit
JD.com’s 2017 turnover reached 362.3 billion yuan (46.4 billion euro), which is a 40.3 % increase compared to the year before. Consumer sales spiked 39.5 % and JD.com’s other services performed even better, with a 49.9 % growth.
The company’s costs also shot up, to accompany that strong growth: it spent an additional 39.4 % on logistics and 46.9 % on marketing. Nevertheless, the company still made a profit in 2017, unlike in 2016 when it had a 2 billion yuan loss. In 2017, it generated a 116.8 billion yuan (15 billion euro) net profit.
“Our unmatched online shopping experience continued to reshape Chinese e-commerce, win over consumers and drive robust growth in 2017,” said Richard Liu, Chairman and CEO of JD.com. “Looking ahead, we will remain focused on using technology, AI and big-data to revolutionize e-commerce while leveraging JD’s established infrastructure to empower our partners.”
