Walmart and JD.com Launch New Offerings to Expand Choices for China’s Online Consumers

BEIJING, Oct. 20, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Three months after entering into a strategic alliance to expand the breadth and convenience of online shopping options for Chinese consumers, Walmart (NYSE:WMT), the world’s largest retailer, and JD.com (Nasdaq:JD), China's largest e-commerce company by revenue, today announced a series of exciting new ways for customers to access high-quality products from around the world.

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon and JD.com CEO Richard Liu meeting at JD's Beijing offices to launch a series of initiatives connecting Chinese consumers with imported products More than 188 million Chinese consumers will have access to the new Sam's Club store on JD.com Walmart's cross-border store on JD Worldwide will give Chinese consumers easy access to a wide range of imported products

Photos accompanying this announcement are available at

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/23a477df-8273-463c-a386-ed6a6c9e1cbb

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/cbed24f9-9ddb-47f4-9f90-679ce17e0232

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7e536ff7-18ed-458e-958f-f3f2dd473af2

The efforts, which are part of the original strategic alliance announced in June, are officially launching during the run up to Singles Day on November 11. They will improve logistics and supply chain functions, cross-border e-commerce and online-to-offline (O2O) e-commerce services for consumers across the country.

As part of the growing alliance, Walmart and JD.com are launching three new joint initiatives:

• Exclusive Sam’s Club Flagship Store on JD.com: An exclusive Sam’s Club flagship store will officially launch tomorrow and provide hundreds of millions of consumers access to Sam’s Club’s premium, quality products with JD.com’s same- and next- day delivery service. Walmart will leverage JD.com’s nationwide logistics network and stock Sam’s Club merchandise in JD’s warehouses, which will enable Walmart to reach a vast untapped market, complementing its commitment to open 20 more Sam’s Clubs locations by 2019. As part of a campaign to bring world-famous Sam’s Club products to new consumers, all JD.com users will be able to buy Sam’s Club products at membership prices during a 10-day introduction period following the official launch.
  
  
• Walmart Global Imports Store on JD.com: In addition, the companies launched a Walmart Global store on JD Worldwide, JD.com’s cross-border platform. The new store provides Chinese consumers access to a wide variety of high-quality products imported by Walmart from around the world. Walmart plans to continue expanding and adding new categories of products as it connects more items from its assortment in other markets to China, which JD’s last-mile logistics network will deliver to customers through its speedy home delivery service.
   
• Two-Hour Delivery from Walmart Stores in Select Cities: A two-hour delivery service for customers ordering on JD Daojia, the grocery and fresh goods business of the New Dada joint venture with JD.com, also launched today. The service will provide two-hour delivery from more than 20 Walmart stores. The number of stores is expected to double by the end of the year. This exclusive cooperation follows the merger of Dada and JD Daojia, JD.com’s O2O business unit founded in June 2015. The two merged in April 2016, forming an independent joint venture, “New Dada,” which is China’s largest crowdsourced logistics platform.

“Walmart and JD.com share a vision of providing consumers the best products, quality and service, at highly competitive prices,” said JD.com CEO Richard Liu. “The three areas of cooperation that we are launching exemplify the rapid pace with which our strategic alliance with Walmart is progressing. Combining the strengths of Walmart, as the world’s largest retailer, and JD’s unparalleled same-day delivery network and reputation for authentic products is a potent force for providing Chinese consumers the best shopping experience.”

Walmart CEO Doug McMillon added, “Today's news is the culmination of months of hard work and collaboration with the JD team. Our new services will leverage our combined strengths to give Chinese consumers access to quality products from around the world.”

The series of initiatives will greatly expand the number of products available to Chinese consumers, as well as the number of consumers who have access to some of the products already in the Chinese market. Walmart and JD will continue to explore additional areas of collaboration to provide superior products at fair prices to hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers, with same- and next-day delivery speeds.  

About JD.com, Inc.

JD.com, Inc. is China’s leading online direct sales company and the country’s largest Internet company by revenue. The company strives to offer consumers the best online shopping experience. Through its content-rich and user-friendly website jd.com and mobile applications, JD.com offers a wide selection of authentic products at competitive prices and delivers products in a speedy and reliable manner. The company believes it has the largest fulfillment infrastructure of any e-commerce company in China. As of June 30, 2016, JD.com operated 7 fulfillment centers and 234 warehouses, and in total of 6,756 delivery stations and pickup stations in 2,639 counties and districts across China, staffed by its own employees. JD.com is a member of the NASDAQ100 and a Fortune Global 500 company.

About Walmart

Walmart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) helps people around the world save money and live better – anytime and anywhere – in retail stores, online, and through their mobile devices. Each week, nearly 260 million customers and members visit our 11,539 stores under 63 banners in 28 countries and e-commerce websites in 11 countries. With fiscal year 2016 revenue of $482 billion, Walmart employs more than 2.3 million associates worldwide. Walmart continues to be a leader in sustainability, corporate philanthropy and employment opportunity. Additional information about Walmart can be found by visiting http://corporate.walmart.com on Facebook at http://facebook.com/walmart and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/walmart. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com and http://www.samsclub.com.

Contacts:

Media

Josh Gartner, JD.com
+86 (10) 8911-6155 (China)
+1 (718) 928-4345 (US)
Press@JD.com

Jo Warner, Walmart International
+1(479) 802 9588 (US)
Jo.warner@walmart.com

Investor Relations

Ruiyu Li, JD.com
+86 (10) 8912-6805
IR@JD.com

Steve Schmitt, Walmart
+1-479-258-7172
Steve.schmitt@walmart.com

Safe Harbor Statement

This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confident" and similar statements. Among other things, the business outlook and quotations from management in this announcement, as well as the companies' strategic and operational plans, contain forward-looking statements. The companies may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in their respective periodic reports to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), in their annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by their officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about the companies' beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, which are often beyond the companies' control. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in the companies’ filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and the companies undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.

The photo is also available via AP PhotoExpress.