JD.ID’s logistics arm JDL Express Indonesia will stop services on January 22, 2023, the company announced on its website on Thursday. Since January 1, the company has stopped accepting registration of new customers.
The announcement comes amid reports of JD exiting Indonesia this year, possibly by the first quarter.
JDL Express Indonesia is the sole logistics partner for JD.ID in the country. Before the closure, JDL Express Indonesia was said to have 11 warehouses, more than 250 drop points, and more than 3,000 in-house couriers to serve more than 500 cities.
JD.ID also has nine offline stores called JD Hubs in the Greater Jakarta area. However, it is unclear whether the firm will close its offline stores soon.
DealStreetAsia has reached out to JD.ID for comment.
In December, the company laid off 30% of its workforce, or close to 200 employees as a “necessary measure to respond to the current challenges and rapid changes in business”. In May, JD.ID also fired about 90 employees.
In Indonesia, JD.ID was launched in 2015 as a JV between JD.com and Singapore-based investment firm Provident Capital.
Indonesia’s e-commerce market is highly competitive. While JD has a strong logistics know-how in China, its ability to compete with larger marketplace platforms [such as Shopee and Lazada, for instance] that also invest in logistics is a question mark.
The platform has been struggling to capture market share in the country as it was ranked only 10th among the most visited e-commerce sites in Indonesia in the second quarter of 2022, according to iPrice. JD.ID is estimated to only have about 2.3 million monthly web visits – a far cry from homegrown player Tokopedia which recorded more than 158.3 million monthly web visits, and Shopee with approximately 131.2 million visits.
JD reportedly will exit Thailand’s business as well. In November, the Chinese e-commerce giant let go of a significant portion of staff in its Thailand office.