JD.com's Super Supply Chain Ambition

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Author | Wang Xiaojuan

Editor | Huang Yu

In the stock-competition e-commerce market, JD.com is attempting a strategic gamble to find a balance between short-term growth and long-term capabilities building.

On November 13, JD.com Group delivered a quarterly report with revenue of 299.1 billion yuan, a year-over-year increase of 14.9%, marking four consecutive quarters of double-digit growth.

Behind this surface-level growth, JD.com is undergoing a painful period of deep strategic transformation — net profit fell 54.7% year-over-year, the largest drop in recent years.

This contradictory report reflects JD.com's strategic choice in the era of stock competition in China's e-commerce: sacrificing short-term profit for long-term capability building, all revolving around one core — JD.com wants to connect all its businesses through a "super supply chain," forming an ecosystem that will serve as a moat for the future.

However, between short-term performance fluctuations and long-term barrier creation, JD.com still needs to be closely watched by the market.

Revenue up 14.9%, but large investments made

JD.com's financial report for the third quarter of 2025 shows a typical "revenue growth without profit growth" pattern, which means it is currently in a high-investment phase.

The report shows JD.com achieved revenue of 299.1 billion yuan this quarter, a year-over-year increase of 14.9%, exceeding market expectations. This is also the fourth consecutive quarter of revenue growth above 10%.

However, while revenue sustained robust growth, net profit dropped by 54.7% to 5.3 billion yuan. Non-GAAP net profit was 5.8 billion yuan, also a sharp decline from last year's 13.2 billion.

The divergence between growth and profit mainly stems from JD.com's strategic investment in new businesses, especially food delivery. In Q3, new businesses including food delivery posted an operating loss of 15.7 billion yuan, a steep increase from last year's 0.6 billion yuan loss.

Notably, although the loss amount is large, the operating loss rate for new businesses was 100.9%, an improvement from Q2's 106.7%, indicating its unit economics are gradually being optimized.

Looking at business segments, JD Retail remains the "ballast stone." In Q3, JD Retail revenue was 250.6 billion yuan, up 11.4% year-over-year; operating profit was 14.8 billion yuan, up 27.6%; operating profit margin rose to 5.9% (5.2% a year ago), showing core retail business efficiency is continually improving.

JD Logistics also delivered a strong performance with Q3 revenue of 55.1 billion yuan (up 24.1%), maintaining double growth in both revenue and profit.

The new business segment was the focus of this season's financial report. Despite revenue surging 213.7% year-over-year to 15.6 billion yuan, Xu Ran emphasized during the earnings call: "This year we rolled out a commission-free policy for merchants, so commission income is relatively small. Also, new businesses have just started to generate limited advertising income." This means future new business revenue has considerable growth potential.

The drop in profits also relates to changes in cost structure.

In Q3, JD.com’s marketing expenses increased 110.5% year-over-year to 21.1 billion yuan, and marketing expense rate leapt from 3.8% to 7.0%. The report pointed out expense growth is mainly from increased spending on new business promotions.

Meanwhile, fulfillment expenses rose 35.2% to 22 billion yuan, with fulfillment cost ratio rising from 6.3% to 7.4%. R&D expenses increased 28.4% to 5.6 billion yuan, showing JD maintains a firm hand on technology investment.

The strategy of investing for growth is reflected in user data.

Xu Ran noted that in October 2025, JD’s annual active users surpassed 700 million, setting a new milestone. More importantly, shopping frequency kept strong growth — quarterly active users rose more than 40% year-over-year, with shopping frequency also up more than 40%.

Food delivery’s role in user acquisition is becoming increasingly evident.

According to management on the earnings call, food delivery brought in new users with conversion rates rising month by month, and the earliest batch of food delivery users have nearly a 50% conversion rate to other services. This indicates food delivery is gradually producing synergy as expected.

Service income was also a quarterly highlight. In Q3, JD.com’s service revenue grew 30.8% year-over-year, a two-year high, with revenue ratio rising further to an all-time high of 24.4%.

Cash-wise, as of September 30, 2025, JD.com’s cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and short-term investments total 210.5 billion yuan, maintaining a healthy cash flow.

Connecting all businesses through the "super supply chain"?

This year, JD.com is viewed as the biggest variable among major Internet companies, frequently venturing into new fields and launching new initiatives.

From a traditional financial analysis perspective, investments in new business cause JD's third-quarter results to show significant short-term pressure. Plummeting net profit, rising marketing spending, and huge losses in new business are focal points for capital markets.

However, from a strategic planning view, JD.com is using ongoing investment in new businesses to secure long-term growth space. The scale and activity of users, the increase in service income ratio, and the initial synergy of new businesses all lay a foundation for future growth.

Liu Qiangdong has his own reasoning about this. He has repeatedly emphasized: "JD.com does all its businesses for the supply chain." This sentence reveals the deep logic behind JD's layout in all its businesses.

The supply chain isn't a line, it’s a network. JD.com's supply chain abilities have long permeated warehousing, delivery, inventory management, and data forecasting.

And these capabilities are not only for standardized products.

High-frequency, short-chain, instant delivery food delivery scenarios can hone last-mile efficiency; hotel and flight booking systems, service delivery, dynamic pricing — all these are actually "non-physical goods" supply chain management.

Financial data shows since JD's full tech transformation in 2017, by Q3 2025, JD's supply chain infrastructure assets total 174.3 billion yuan.

Technology is also key in today's super supply chain. This year, JD.com's investments in AI and robotics have been substantial. During this year's Double 11, the JoyAI model, logistics super-brain, and other large models have been fully integrated with the supply chain.

The most watched instant retail sector is also the latest testing ground for super supply chain capabilities; these high-frequency, frequent-need scenarios can drive active platform usage – exactly what JD seeks.

JD.com's self-operated food delivery brand "Qixian Kitchen" is in expansion phase. During Double 11’s first week, Qixian Kitchen store search volume rose more than 350% week-on-week, with order volume up more than 400%.

Xu Ran stressed on the earnings call that food delivery is a long-term strategy for JD: "Ultimately, food delivery is a stand-alone business, and more importantly, JD’s delivery business will be deeply embedded into JD's whole business ecosystem."

In addition, Qixian Supermarket is also speeding up expansion this year. JD Qixian uses the "1 central store + N satellite stores" collaborative model, using supply chain innovation to balance the instant retail “impossible triangle” of quality, speed, and price.

Central stores act as regional supply chain hubs, handling product display, hot food processing, and user experience; satellite stores build an instant fulfillment network within a 3 km radius, focusing on high-frequency product fulfillment.

Global expansion is another key direction for the super supply chain. With strong supply chain and international logistics, JD Global Direct Mail now covers 36 countries. In Europe, JD’s online retail business Joybuy is in trial operation in key markets like the UK, France, and Germany.

Looking at JD's third-quarter results, the market sees an e-commerce giant in deep strategic transition. On one hand, there are worries about continued falling profits and high external investments; on the other, the long-term value of the super supply chain is still not fully revealed in financial reports.

JD.com's strategic perseverance is being tested over time. As Liu Qiangdong said: "We can't just do it for three or five years, it may have to be ten or twenty years."

In today’s business environment that craves instant payoff, this long-termism might be JD.com’s biggest risk — and possibly the key to building a truly unreplicable moat.

Risk Warning and DisclaimerThe market has risks, investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice, nor does it take into account individual users’ specific investment objectives, financial situation, or needs. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article suit their particular situation. Any investment based on this is at your own risk. ```