(Bloomberg) — JD.com Inc.’s quarterly revenue rose 5.1%, suggesting Chinese consumers are cautiously spending again as Beijing tries to revitalize the economy.
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Sales for the three months ended September rose to 260.4 billion yuan ($36 billion), versus an average estimate for 259.7 billion yuan. Net income jumped 48% to 11.7 billion yuan.
The better-than-anticipated results, while off a low year-ago base, suggest an initial recovery in segments of the Chinese consumer economy such as electronics. In the longest on-record Singles Day shopping season that wrapped this week, Beijing-based JD reported robust sales, though it avoided reporting actual transactions.
E-commerce pioneers JD.com and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. are bellwethers for Chinese consumption, which has struggled to recover since the country emerged from nearly three years of Covid curbs. On Wednesday, Tencent Holdings Ltd. described tentative signs of a bounce-back after Beijing unveiled a plethora of stimulus measures, but warned that a fuller recovery will take time.
Investors remain keen for clues to the trajectory of the world’s No. 2 economy.
In the longest on-record Singles Day shopping season that wrapped this week, Beijing-based JD reported robust sales, though it avoided reporting actual transactions. The number of shoppers increased by more than 20% and live-streaming orders rose 3.8 times compared with last year’s event, though analysts said it’s still too early to call a recovery.
Still, a spike in home appliance sales, coupled with the boost provided by recent government stimulus, should allow the retailer to pursue promotions in the year ahead, analysts at Benchmark said.
“We expect JD to leverage improving consumer sentiment and pursue growth more aggressively, evidenced by the early launch of its Double 11 promotion,” Benchmark analyst Fawne Jiang wrote. “While this may limit earnings upside in Q4, it positions the company well for accelerated growth.”
Longer-term, the company continues to wrestle biggest rival Alibaba and newer competitors such as Temu-owner PDD Holdings Inc. and ByteDance Ltd in e-commerce. Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall likely gained market share from JD.com during the annual shopping bonanza, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
