Chinese e-commerce giant JD said on Watch FriendsThursday that it boasts 1.5 times the number of participating merchants for this year’s Singles Day consumer event compared with a year earlier, while products featuring in JD’s “10 Billion Yuan Discount” program have doubled compared to the mid-year shopping bonanza 618. The company says it is committed to offering “genuinely low prices” to customers, with a RMB 50 discount for every 299 spent. JD is set to kick off its participation in the country’s biggest online shopping festival at 8 p.m. on Oct. 23 without a pre-sale period, a method that has been the standard approach for major Chinese online retailers such as Taobao for the past few years. Beijing-based JD also noted that many best-selling products from famous brands including Apple’s new iPhone lineup have been stocked up in advance. [JD, in Chinese]
