JD.com launches new online procurement platforms

JD.com Inc, China's largest direct sales e-commerce company, launched three new platforms to better help enterprise customers with online purchasing on Wednesday.

Lan Ye, chief marketing officer for JD.com, said in the press conference in Beijing that as China's leading online direct sales company, JD, can help companies by providing them platforms with one-stop solutions.

The three new platforms, named Zhicai, Huicai and Yuncai aim to help enterprise buyers improve efficiency and cut down costs during the procurement process.

JD.com owns and operates various supply chain resources and has its own delivery team,

The move marks JD's first attempt into the business-to-business sector. The Nasdaq-listed company said the online corporate procurement market could be valued as high as 1 trillion yuan ($162 billion).

"Many of the companies in China still use the traditional way to do procurement whether for office supplies or computers, which means they spend a lot of resources to manage suppliers, logistics companies and others," said Lan.

According to JD, more than 82 percent of the companies in Western countries do their procurement online while only 20 percent of Chinese companies purchase their supplies online.