What:  JD.com is the latest e-commerce giant to enter a competition already dominated by Alibaba and Tencent

Why it is important:  Chinese customers are starting to be accustomed to “instant” delivery services (1 hour or so). What will be their expectations when travelling, once international tourism opens up again?

JD.Com has launched its new initiative “shop now”, a new instant delivery retail brand, guaranteeing a delivery within 1 hours for every customer in a radius of 3 km from physical stores.

The goal is to compete with Alibaba and Meituan (Tencent). Alibaba launched a similar service back in 2015 with its supermarkets Hema.

JD.com opens ‘instant delivery’ retail service