JD.com CFO Dan Su: JD Retail's long-term target of high single-digit profit margin remains unchanged

JD Group (09618.HK) CEO Xu Ran and CFO Shan Su attended an analyst conference call yesterday (5th). Shan Su stated that from a long-term perspective, the group is confident about the prospects of the Chinese market and its own business development. Based on the judgment of business opportunities, the group insists on laying out long-term businesses, including international business, lower-tier markets, and instant retail, while firmly investing in technology research and development, continuously improving technological capabilities, broadening service boundaries, and opening new growth spaces to inject new momentum into the group's long-term growth.

Shan Su revealed that JD Retail's long-term target of high single-digit profit margins remains unchanged, and core retail profits will achieve healthy growth by 2026. The drivers of this target include improvements in gross margin driven by enhanced self-operated capabilities; strong growth in high-margin revenue such as advertising; continuous optimization of profit margins in categories like supermarkets; ongoing release of scale effects in retail business; and further enhancement of operational efficiency through the application of technologies such as artificial intelligence.

Regarding investments in emerging businesses, Shan Su stated that this year the group will continue to promote healthy growth in the scale of its food delivery business, releasing synergistic value with core retail. If industry competition returns to rationality, investments in the food delivery business will decrease compared to 2025.

In addition, Shan Su indicated that international business investments will gradually increase at a controlled pace, with the company adhering to strict investment discipline. Investments in the Jingxi business will slightly increase by 2026, with the unit economic model continuously optimized to achieve healthy and sustainable growth.

Regarding overseas business, Shan Su mentioned that the Ceconomy acquisition is still in the regulatory approval stage, and the company will keep the market updated on the latest developments. JD's all-category e-commerce retail platform JOYBUY in Europe will officially launch in March, and the construction of overseas supply chain capabilities is a long-term process that requires continuous time and investment. From the trial operation situation, user experience feedback for JOYBUY has been positive, especially in the fulfillment aspect, where logistics experience will become its core differentiated advantage. JD is building its own logistics fulfillment network in Europe, and JD Europe Logistics (Joy Express) has been launched, achieving same-day and next-day delivery in major cities in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and providing home delivery services. (jl/)