JD.com has been heavily criticised by e-commerce rival Suning after telling merchants not to use the latter’s courier delivery subsidiary and to use its five preferred partners instead.
On Monday, the Chinese e-commerce group recommended to merchants using its marketplaces to work with five couriers from the end of this month, various media reported. These are the company’s own subsidiary JD Express along with private companies SF Express, ZTO Express, Yunda Express and STO Express.
JD.com excluded Tiantian Express (TTK Express), claiming that this courier company “showed up as the worst among our feedback from customers”. According to the South China Morning Post, JD.com said the provider was ranked last in a comprehensive assessment of all players by service quality and customer satisfaction for the first half of the year.
But the move was heavily criticised by rival e-commerce firm Suning, which owns a 70% stake in Tiantian. Sun Weimin, vice chairman of Suning Commerce Group, alleged that Tiantian’s removal was due to the direct competition between JD.com and Suning.
In response, JD.com pointed out that Suning had removed Tiantian as a delivery option on its own platform, even after becoming the major shareholder, the SCMP article noted.
JD.com also excluded YTO Express and Best Express, which both work closely with Alibaba, from its list of preferred courier partners.
In response, YTO said JD.com’s move will have “limited impact” because JD.com’s parcels only account for about 2% of its volumes, the Shanghai Daily reported. But the delivery company emphasised: “We are against any hegemony in this business, and we hope the barriers in the delivery business for e-commerce companies can be broken.”
