Russia’s E-commerce: After Alibaba’s Expansion, Now China’s JD.com Enters The Market

“Chinese online retailer JD.com (Jingdong Mall) has chosen Russia as the first overseas market for its expansion, said company’s official Victor Xu. The firm aims to become an e-commerce leader in the Russian market within five years,” RT reports.

JD.com Logo

“At the beginning we plan to provide Russian consumers with the best Chinese goods. And later we want to present Russian goods to the Chinese and other markets, which we will gradually conquer,�? Victor Xu, CEO of International Business Group for JD.com told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.

The RT also reads the following:

“The Russian market is a good prospect according to Xu with internet use reaching 70 percent. E-commerce represents 2-3 percent of the consumer space in Russia, he said.

Cross-border e-commerce reached $4 billion in Russia last year. More than 65 percent of e-commerce is coming from cross-border sales with China according to JD.com estimates.“

Also Alibaba has announced plans to sell Russian goods in the Chinese market through its online store AliExpress and opened an office in Russia this month.

Globally the number of active customers using Alibaba Group services totaled 350 million people in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2015. Alibaba Group’s revenue for the period reached $12.2 billion with net profit of $3.9 billion.

Alibaba conducted the world’s largest-ever IPO in September last year, raising almost $25 billion. The capitalization of the company as of June 1 amounted to $222.9 billion.

China’s e-commerce model has been very successful so far and the retail market is expected to be worth $10.3 trillion by 2018, compared to the $5 trillion in sales projected for North America.