Chinese B2C company JD.com announced that it will be selling Continental tires to e-commerce consumers as it made a strategic deal with the German tire manufacturer.
According to the agreement, Continental will supply tires directly to JD instead of trading through a multi-level resale model.
An exclusive supply chain will also be established by the two cooperating companies. The chain will offer JD consumers more exclusive deals and new products.
The financial details of the agreement have not been made public.
Continental was established in 1871. In 2006, the auto company officially came into the Chinese market, offering tires for passenger cars and light trucks.
Ten years after entering China, the company made further expansion in its Chinese manufacturing base. Continental had more than 50,000 workers across the globe and made EUR 10.7 billion sales by the end of 2016.
With the developments, the company is looking forward to an increase in the production capacity of its passenger cars, reaching 14 million in 2019.
According to Continental’s general manager in mainland China Dalibor Kalina, the significance of e-commerce in the automobile market becomes increasingly apparent.
Through the cooperation with JD.com, Continental will have the capacity to provide Chinese consumers with better shopping experiences. Improvements include shorter product delivery time, broader sales network coverage in the country and increased consumer’s confidence in the products’ authenticity, Kalina added.
Tang Yishen, JD’s general manager for automotive supplies department of home and lifestyle business unit, said that a retail model upgrade that combines the Internet and service awaits the tire category and the rest of the automotive supplies sector.
As one of the leading Chinese e-commerce companies, JD is dedicated to making more possibilities happen for the industry and consumers, Tang said.
JD.com and Continental hope that the cooperation will help them further expand and provide a better service to e-commerce consumers.