On February 11, JD.com officially announced the launch of JD Delivery, initiating recruitment of "quality dine-in restaurant merchants" with an attractive condition: merchants registering before May 1, 2025, enjoy zero commission for the entire year, limited to "quality dine-in restaurants."
It's evident that JD.com has been strategically positioning itself in the instant retail sector for years, having launched JD Daojia as early as 2015.
Last year, JD.com integrated JD Hourly Delivery and JD Daojia into "Miaosong," placing it prominently on the JD App homepage to strengthen its instant retail presence.
As of now, Miaosong covers over 2,400 counties, districts, and cities, with more than 600,000 partner stores, and JD.com states that over 90% of the top 100 national retailers cooperate with JD Miaosong.
Leveraging the JD App's traffic entry point and Dada Group's delivery network, Miaosong has opened a new chapter in the instant retail market.
This strategic move not only marks JD.com's key step in completing local life services but also structurally impacts the instant retail industry from three dimensions: commission system, delivery efficiency, and ecosystem synergy.
Commission System Restructuring: From Price War to Value War
Entering the market with a "5% commission rate" as a selling point, although JD.com's actual rates are not significantly lower than other platforms, its phased "0 commission recruitment" policy will still have a substantial impact on the market.
Image source: JD Blackboard
Restaurants that are "quality dine-in" and register before May 2025 can enjoy zero commission for the entire year. This strategy directly addresses merchants' pain points—reducing operational costs and increasing profit margins.
In the JD Miaosong interface, it's noticeable that currently, there are relatively few merchants, and all are chain merchants, with no small independent businesses visible.
By precisely targeting chain brands, JD.com avoids the disadvantages of ground promotion and creates differentiated competition.
JD.com's commission rate is slightly lower than mainstream platforms, but it is not the lowest. Douyin Hourly Delivery charges a 2%-4% commission rate, lower than both major delivery giants and JD Delivery.
However, from the commission games among major instant retail platforms, it's clear that: platforms are shifting from traffic competition to service value competition.
Delivery Efficiency Leap: Minute-Level Delivery Reshapes Consumer Expectations
JD Delivery is not the first foray into the food delivery industry by internet companies. Previously, Baidu, Didi, and Douyin all attempted delivery services, but they remained lukewarm due to various reasons.
Since the end of last year, JD.com has partnered with Luckin Coffee, Cotti Coffee, and others to launch a "Coffee & Milk Tea" zone, offering "9.9 yuan free delivery" coffee and "fastest 9-minute delivery" service, which attracted considerable traffic at the time.
JD.com's "fastest 9-minute delivery" promise relies on Dada's network of 1.3 million active riders and intelligent dispatch systems. It also features a "On-Time Guarantee" compensation mechanism: if delivery is delayed, users receive compensation, greatly enhancing trust and satisfaction in the delivery service.
However, according to some consumer feedback, JD Delivery's delivery times are slightly longer than Meituan and Ele.me. Moreover, JD Miaosong currently exists only within the JD App, with a relatively deep entry point, while Meituan and Ele.me have standalone delivery apps, making them more convenient.
But from the actions of major platforms in recent years, delivery time competition is evolving from a single speed metric to a comprehensive capability contest involving coverage density and multi-scenario adaptation.
Last year, Meituan invested over 5 billion yuan in R&D, focusing on drone delivery, piloting 8-minute delivery in Shenzhen; Dada, through its "warehouse-integrated" model, connected fresh food storage with food delivery networks, reducing cross-category order delivery costs by 22%.
Platforms are continuously iterating to create better consumer experiences.
Ecosystem Synergy Effects: From Traffic Fission to Data Closed Loop
The strategic value of JD Delivery transcends the business itself; its essence is to activate the main site ecosystem through high-frequency delivery services.
Users of JD Delivery services open the JD App more frequently each month, increasing the likelihood of purchasing fresh produce and daily necessities. This ecosystem effect of "instant demand driving planned consumption" reduces JD's marginal customer acquisition cost for GMV.
Image source: Zhang Lian
Compared to Douyin Hourly Delivery's failure, JD's key success lies in its data closed loop: Dada's system has integrated data from 5.5 million retail terminals, enabling dynamic optimization of delivery routes and inventory management.
When a user orders milk tea on JD, the system can simultaneously recommend related products from nearby supermarkets, reconstructing the consumption chain as "instant demand—precise recommendation—secondary conversion."
Industry Landscape Evolution: From Duel to Multidimensional Competition
The duopoly of delivery giants has persisted for a long time.
Facing increasing competitors, the two giants will not sit idly by and easily give up market share.
However, although it's difficult to shake the "duopoly" position in the short term, JD's entry has triggered structural changes:
- Multi-platform operation by brand merchants has become the norm; the average number of platforms for leading chain restaurants increased from 2.4 to 3.1.
- The boundaries of instant retail continue to expand; the order share of categories like medicine and 3C rose from 12% to 19%.
From Douyin Hourly Delivery to JD Delivery, all are tearing cracks in the duopoly's dominance, marking the beginning of the battle for the trillion-yuan instant retail market.
Conclusion
According to the "Instant Retail Industry Development Report (2024)" released by the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, China's instant retail scale reached 650 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 28.89%, and is expected to exceed 2 trillion yuan by 2030.
JD Delivery's entry marks a new stage of "ecosystem warfare" in instant retail.
Many want to "share the cake," but to become a true "survivor," a fierce battle is inevitable.
As multidimensional competition in technology, capital, and data intertwines, the industry may undergo value reconstruction. Platforms that can deeply integrate supply chains, efficiently convert traffic, and continuously create surplus value for users will hold the power to define the rules in the trillion-yuan market.
Whether JD Delivery can stand out in this "race," time will tell.
【New Order · Symbiosis】 The 10th China FMCG Innovation Conference Date: March 17-19, 2025 Location: Chengdu, China