JD sets up online channels to promote local products

An advertisement for e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc in Shanghai. [Photo/China Daily]

JD.com Inc, China's largest online direct sales company, officially launched an online platform on Monday to help rural governments sell traditional goods across the country.

Suqian Mall will promote "local specialties" from Suqian city in East China's Jiangsu province via e-commerce. Suqian city, which is the hometown of JD's CEO Liu Qiangdong, is among 200 local governments that have showcased traditional goods, such as fruits or liquors, via JD's online platforms.

As part of its "going rural" strategy, the United States-listed company has helped rural residents buy whatever they want via JD's e-commerce platform.

"By further cooperation with local governments, we'd like to help more farmers sell their products across the country. This will help them increase their incomes," Lan Ye, chief marketing officer of JD, said.

Ever since its test run in February, the "local specialty" business has helped local governments report sales of around 20 million yuan ($3.22 million), JD said.

"You need to have proactive government partners, which are determined to make sure that all the local specialties are in line with the high quality products we sell on our site," Jerome Ma, vice-president of JD, said. "It is not an easy thing to do."