Meituan continues to challenge JD.com’s core e-commerce business with its first-mover advantage in the food delivery business, while JD.com chooses to enter the food delivery market strongly, driving the low-frequency e-commerce business with high-frequency food delivery business, and trying to fight back through this strategy. This article will provide an in-depth analysis of JD.com’s strategic intentions and specific ways of entering the food delivery market, and explore how it can challenge Meituan’s market position and open up new growth space for itself through merchant, rider and user strategies.
Meituan uses high-frequency takeaways, which average more than 90 million orders per day, as a springboard to strongly enter the 3C digital field. In 2024, Meituan’s flash sale business will cover 2,800 counties and cities, with more than 30,000 flash warehouses, and its 3C digital orders will grow by more than 300% annually, directly threatening JD.com’s core hinterland and forcing it to launch a strategic counterattack of “offense instead of defense” – entering the takeaway market. This is not only the expansion of the business, but also a profound interpretation of the underlying logic of Internet competition.
1. High-frequency attack and defense: Meituan’s surprise attack, JD.com makes a move
Relying on its huge takeaway user base and mature local life service ecology, Meituan has quietly extended its tentacles to JD.com’s core area – 3C Digital.
During this year’s 618, Meituan’s flash sale in the 3C category achieved remarkable results.
According to public information, in the first week of Meituan’s flash sale of 618, the turnover of mobile phones, computers, smart devices, electronic education, small household appliances, kitchen and bathroom appliances and other products increased by more than 1 times compared with the same period last year, of which smart devices increased by more than 8 times, electronic education products increased by more than 5 times, and computers increased by more than 3 times.
The turnover of brands such as Huawei, Honor, Philips, and Joyoung increased by more than 2 times compared with the same period last year; The turnover of brands such as Xiaomi and Supor doubled compared with the same period last year. Meituan has shown strong growth momentum in the 3C field through high-frequency takeaway traffic entrances and user habit cultivation. Meituan is gradually eroding JD.com’s market share in the 3C digital field with high-frequency demand driving low-frequency consumption, which undoubtedly touches JD.com’s core interests and forces JD.com to make a strategic response: instead of passive defense, it is better to take the initiative to counter Meituan’s core business with high-frequency takeaway, and build a strategic depth of offensive and defensive integration.
2. High frequency band and low frequency: the traffic password behind the takeaway battlefield
Users ordering takeaway is a high-frequency behavior [an average of 3-5 times a week, and singles even reach 1-2 times a day], which can be completed with a touch of fingers; Buying 3C products is a low-frequency decision [usually around 18 months], which requires careful consideration. JD.com’s core goal is to continue to activate users and improve the open rate and stickiness of the platform with the help of the daily high-frequency scene of takeaway.
To achieve these three challenges, product managers will only continue to appreciate
Good product managers are very scarce, and product managers who understand users, business, and data are still in demand when they go out of the Internet. On the contrary, if you only do simple communication, inefficient execution, and shallow thinking, I am afraid that you will not be able to go through the torrent of the next 3-5 years.
View details >
When users are accustomed to taking food through JD.com, the path to purchase low-frequency and high-value products such as mobile phones and computers is naturally shortened, achieving a traffic leap of “high frequency band and low frequency”.
According to QuestMobile data, JD.com App has 136 million daily active users, of which the takeaway business contributed more than 20 million new daily active users, accounting for about 15%; The average number of daily opens of JD.com apps by takeaway users is 2.3 times higher than that of non-takeaway users, because takeaway has the characteristics of high-frequency consumption, and users will open the JD.com app more frequently to order takeaway, which in turn increases the overall activity of the app.
On the afternoon of June 18, the 2025 JD 618 Media Open Day with the theme of “JD 618, Good and Cheap” was held on JD.com, according to the data released by JD.com, takeaway drove the growth of JD supermarkets and daily necessities and other cross-category consumption, driving more than 400,000 new registrations of PLUS members in a single month, and the takeaway repurchase rate of JD PLUS members was twice that of non-members.
The day before 618, Liu Qiangdong, chairman of the board of directors of JD.com, also said at an internal sharing meeting that 40% of consumers who come to JD.com to consume takeaway will cross over to buy JD.com’s e-commerce products. After the takeaway entrance is placed on the homepage of JD.com, users’ demand spills over when purchasing takeaways, and cross-category consumption is also carried out, which has had a significant positive effect on JD.com’s supermarket life service category consumption, and also allowed some low-frequency consumer products such as 3C, home appliances, clothing, etc. of JD.com to gain more traffic exposure. This kind of high-frequency service is like a traffic engine, continuously delivering users and attention to the low-frequency core business, and its strategic value is still immeasurable even in the face of losses.
3. Strategic investment: the mental competition behind the loss
Internet giants deploy high-frequency businesses, often beyond short-term profit considerations.
After Meituan’s acquisition of Mobike, the bicycle business continued to lose money, but it deeply embedded the “Meituan” brand into users’ daily scenes, forming a strong mental association of “life services = Meituan”. Users open the Meituan App to order food and ride every day, which virtually consolidates the platform’s presence and prevents users from forgetting the platform due to low-frequency demand, which is the deep logic of “high-frequency anti-unloading”.
Meituan’s annual trading users increased from 300 million in 2017 to 400 million in 2018, with Mobike contributing about 4000-50 million active users. Meituan further enhances user stickiness through account integration and entrance integration (such as directly using Mobike services in the Meituan app), and more than 30% of Meituan bicycle users will use takeaway or in-store services at the same time, forming a closed loop of “cycling-consumption”. In addition, cycling data (such as heat maps) helps Meituan optimize delivery routes and merchant recommendations, indirectly improving user experience and app usage time.
JD.com’s entry into takeaway is also a strategic investment – not to seek profit from the takeaway business itself, but to focus on brand exposure, user habit cultivation and collaborative activation of core retail business. Since its official launch on February 11, JD Takeaway has covered 126 cities across the country, including Beijing, Shenzhen, and Guangzhou.
In the process of expanding the market, JD.com has invested a lot of resources to gradually get users used to ordering takeaway on the JD.com platform, thereby improving the overall activity of the JD.com platform and bringing potential user traffic to its core retail business such as 3C digital. Liu Qiangdong also said at an internal sharing meeting that subsidizing the money for takeaway is more cost-effective than going to Douyin and Tencent to buy traffic.
JD.com’s entry into takeaway is not only a competition for the minds of C-end users, but also the best choice to cut into the supply chain of the catering industry. After merchants settle in JD Takeaway, they can also use the takeaway entrance to provide merchants with the necessary ingredients needed for catering business. For example, ingredients and seasonings: oil, noodles, vinegar, sauce, wine, fresh ingredients, etc.; catering equipment: pots and pans, refrigerators, ovens; Packaging consumables: takeaway lunch boxes, tableware, thermal bags, label paper, etc. At the same time, it can also provide credit loan services for merchants when purchasing ingredients on the JD.com platform, which not only solves the turnover of merchants’ funds but also brings growth to JD.com’s financial business, so as to achieve a win-win situation.
Fourth, JD.com’s takeaway surprise: differentiated three-board axe
In the face of the red sea of takeaways, JD.com showed a differentiated combination:
1. Merchants have zero commission blades: Directly hit the pain points of Meituan’s high commissions (generally 16 – 25%), and quickly attract high-quality merchants to settle in with the “0 commission” strategy, which is especially tempting for small and medium-sized merchants. On the first day of launch, 5,000 merchants were attracted to settle in, with a target of 100,000 merchants in three months.
2. Build barriers for riders’ rights and interests: Breaking the general outsourcing model in the industry, JD.com has built its own full-time rider team, fully paying five insurances and one housing fund, and in this way to create a stable and high-quality delivery team.
The food delivery industry generally adopts an outsourcing model, and the protection of riders’ rights and interests is frequent, and JD.com breaks this convention, builds its own full-time rider team, and pays five insurances and one housing fund in full.
Since March 1, JD.com has rapidly promoted the payment of five insurances and one housing fund for full-time riders in various places, and all costs, including the part that individuals need to pay, are borne by JD.com. Up to now, JD.com has signed formal labor contracts with more than 10,000 full-time riders, and continues to promote this work in the future.
This initiative has been effective and has played a significant role in attracting and retaining riders. According to relevant surveys, the sense of professional belonging of JD.com food delivery riders has increased significantly, and the turnover rate is about 30% lower than the industry average.
In terms of delivery services, due to the increased stability of the rider team, the delivery overtime rate has been reduced by about 20%, and the consumer complaint rate has also decreased by about 15%. At the same time, JD.com’s move has established a good image as a “responsible platform” and won many praises in the society, in stark contrast to the controversy over rider protection on platforms such as Meituan, which has greatly enhanced its brand competitiveness.
3. Users strongly subsidize drainage: Launched aggressive subsidy strategies such as “10 billion subsidies”, “overtime full compensation”, and “new customer gift packages” to quickly attract new users in a short period of time and cultivate user habits. Through these subsidies, JD.com is trying to quickly attract the attention of users in the highly competitive takeaway market and let more users try to use JD.com’s takeaway services.
During the event, the prices of many meals dropped sharply, attracting a large number of price-sensitive users. For example, after many beverage shops participated in the 10 billion subsidy, consumers could purchase drinks that originally cost about 15 yuan for only 5-8 yuan after the subsidy, and sales surged several times in a short period of time.
“Overtime full compensation” solves users’ concerns about the timeliness of takeaway delivery, as long as the delivery time reaches the specified time, users can receive corresponding compensation, which makes users more inclined to JD.com when choosing a takeaway platform. Data shows that after the implementation of this policy, the churn rate due to delivery overtime has been reduced by about 25%.
The “New Customer Gift Package” is also very attractive, new users register and log in to JD Takeaway, you can get a number of full discount coupons, free delivery coupons, etc., after using the coupons in the new customer gift package, the actual payment amount of the first takeaway is 10 to 15 yuan cheaper than on other platforms.
With these subsidy strategies, JD Takeaway has exceeded 10 million orders on April 22 since the launch of the “10 billion subsidy” activity on April 11, quickly seizing a place in the highly competitive takeaway market and successfully cultivating a group of loyal users.
Conclusion: Offense and defense change the situation, and the high-frequency battlefield determines the world
JD.com’s takeaway raid is a well-thought-out high-frequency offensive and defensive battle. On the surface, it is business expansion, but in fact it is a life-and-death game between the user’s mind and the traffic entrance. Meituan threatens the hinterland of JD.com with high frequency cutting and low frequency, and JD.com counterattacks the core of Meituan with the same logic, and this giant showdown around “high frequency band and low frequency” will redefine the boundary between local life and e-commerce. No matter how the final pattern evolves, this battle profoundly reveals: in the era of stock competition,High-frequency services are not only traffic entrances, but also strategic shields and offensive blades to protect core businesses。 Whoever can achieve the resonance of high and low frequencies more efficiently will be invincible in the user’s mind and business map.
