What’s new: JD.com Inc.’s global sales unit and Visa Inc. signed an agreement to jointly launch an online merchant subsidies program, targeting consumers in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas markets.
By using Visa’s token technology, JD.com’s overseas users will be able to connect their Visa cards with their JD.com accounts and make mobile payments with one click, the Chinese e-commerce giant said.
The cooperation will go beyond traditional promotion and will focus on the construction of new infrastructure for cross-border e-commerce and the improvement of the consumer payment experience, a person from Visa told Caixin. In the next step, the two companies will strengthen cooperation with small and medium-sized merchants on JD.com’s platform and provide capacity-building training for them, the person said.
The background: The global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the cross-border e-commerce industry. Exporting suppliers using cross-border e-commerce platforms often face problems such as cancellations or delays of orders, difficulty in signing new orders and poor logistics amid lockdown measures.
Meanwhile, global online shopping demand has soared. Since January 2020, the number of Visa cards used in e-ecommerce transactions (excluding travel-related transactions) has grown 14% globally and doubled in emerging markets, according to Visa.
In 2020, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports grew 31% to 1.69 trillion yuan ($258 billion), among which exports grew 40% to 1.12 trillion yuan, data from the General Administration of Customs shows.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com)
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