The sales value of seafood on Chinese online retailer JD.com increased 104 percent year-on-year during China’s recent May Day holiday, which took place 1 to 5 May.
The top-selling products were black tiger shrimp from Vietnam, and crayfish, a spokesperson told SeafoodSource. Meanwhile, the platform’s sales of salmon rose 300 percent year-on-year for the year ending in April, according to the company, and the sales value of seafood sold on JD.com in April increased 94 percent year-on-year.
In a separate announcement on 15 May, JD Fresh, JD.com’s fresh food unit, said it had partnered with the Norwegian Seafood Council (NSC) to launch an online seafood shopping festival featuring more than 500 SKUs of fresh seafood from Norway, including salmon, cod, and shrimp. As part of the festival, Norway Seafoods has agreed to sell cod and salmon for the first time in China via JD.com.
“I’m glad to see such a diversity of Norwegian seafood products in this online shopping festival,” NSC China Director Victoria Braathen said. “I hope customers and their families in China can enjoy them.”
Largely due to the coronavirus crisis and subsequent nationwide lockdown in China, JD.com has seen a dramatic rise in its seafood sales as customers avoided in-person shopping at wet markets and bricks-and-mortar retailers. For example, sales of Norwegian seafood products via both online and offline channels of JD.com have increased over 200 percent so far this year. Sales for seafood on JD.com increased 150 percent in February year-on-year as Chinese citizens stayed home. In terms of sales volume, the year-on-year growth rate in February was 256 percent.
Last month, JD.com announced its omnichannel supermarket chain, 7FRESH, had formed a partnership with Fook, a convenience store chain based in Fujian Province. As part of the deal, 7FRESH will open its fresh food supply chain to Fook to assist the retailer in expanding its product offerings while digitizing its operations, the company said.
Photo courtesy of Sundry Photography/Shutterstock
