What is the confidence behind JD.com's big moves at the start of the year?

Seller/LinkedMall

Today, major e-commerce platforms are increasingly focusing on merchant resources. As China’s largest brand e-commerce platform, JD.com provides credibility for merchants, giving them a significant advantage in growing their businesses. To further support merchants, reduce entry barriers, and lower full-cycle operational costs, JD.com launched the “Chunxiao Plan” in 2023, aimed at high-quality development for merchants.

On March 11, JD.com’s bulletin announced a major upgrade to the Chunxiao Plan, fully supporting high-potential quality merchants and further promoting mutual benefits among the platform, merchants, and consumers to create a positive feedback loop.

01

JD’s “Chunxiao Plan” to be upgraded again in 2026

Addressing core pain points for new merchants—“difficult startup,” “lack of management experience,” and “uncertain profitability”—the 2026 “Chunxiao Plan” introduces three major initiatives: financial relief to reduce costs, free AI tools to improve efficiency, and a billion-yuan advertising subsidy to boost growth. These provide comprehensive support from onboarding, promotion, to operations, ensuring a full-chain, predictable experience. The new measures mainly aim to lower store opening and operational costs, attract more traffic, and improve efficiency in market trend analysis, product selection, and launching, helping newcomers get on track faster.

According to the “2024 China Physical Retail Digital Development Report” by the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, digital penetration in China’s retail industry has reached 67.8%, but digitalization among small and medium-sized physical stores remains below 30%. This gap presents both challenges and opportunities. Over 40 million small and micro enterprises operate in China, with retail stores accounting for about one-third. These businesses face systemic challenges in digital transformation: technical barriers, online operation experience, and capital investment, creating significant gaps in achieving integrated O2O (online-to-offline) operations.

To encourage more merchants to go online, JD.com continues to deepen its zero-cost trial operation policy. Merchants can open a store within one minute by searching “Open Store” on the JD app. New merchants can start trial operations without paying a deposit; after the trial, they can enjoy the upgraded “full insurance deposit” policy, where successful insurance coverage exempts them from paying 100% cash deposit, enabling seamless transition to full operation at zero cost.

To address high past operating costs, the Chunxiao Plan 2026 significantly reduces merchant deposits. Starting March 1, over 3,000 categories in enterprise stores will participate in fee reductions, with nearly 90% of first-tier deposits lowered to 500 yuan, covering categories like fashion, 3C electronics, home appliances, health, automotive, and industrial products. Additionally, new merchants can benefit from a “zero deduction” incentive, with transaction targets earning up to one year of 100% commission rebates, allowing merchants to start with zero burden.

In the wave of AI empowering the real economy, JD.com announced that 14 “Jingmai” AI tools are now fully free, further lowering online business barriers. From the 2025 launch of the “AI Business Opportunity Intelligence” tool to assist with product selection and pricing, to the upcoming 2026 launch of “AI Smart Order” and “Delayed Shipment Reporting” tools for backend fulfillment, AI capabilities continue to evolve. Meanwhile, the Jingmai service marketplace offers over 30 essential store-opening tools, all free for new merchants—including the original 60,000 yuan “Jingxiao Zhi 5.0” customer service tool and the 30,000 yuan official digital human live-streaming tool, with up to one year of free use. From onboarding, product management, marketing, to after-sales service, AI technology is deeply integrated into the entire operation process, reducing barriers for beginners and expected to boost overall efficiency by 50%.

In recent years, rising traffic costs and uncertain advertising effectiveness have become common pain points for merchants. JD.com will increase advertising subsidies from billions to hundreds of billions yuan. New merchants will receive a 200 yuan no-threshold red envelope upon entry, with total incentives up to 5,500 yuan. Additionally, the platform introduces a new advertising spend incentive: after reaching certain expenditure targets during campaigns, merchants can earn up to 12% rebate on incremental cash spend, making advertising more confident and sustainable.

02

100% ROI Guarantee—What Gives JD.com Confidence?

The most eye-catching feature of the 2026 upgraded Chunxiao Plan is the “Profit Guarantee Program.” If a merchant’s promotional ROI (Return on Investment) target is not met, JD.com will compensate 100% of the shortfall, allowing merchants to advertise with greater peace of mind.

This is the industry’s first “100% ROI Guarantee,” making the “Profit Guarantee Program” a strong safeguard for merchant operations on JD.com.

For merchants, the main challenges in online operations include:

1. High traffic costs and difficulty achieving ROI—this is a core pain point and one reason JD launched the “Profit Guarantee Program.”

2. High return rates. Categories like apparel, bags, and footwear often see high return rates, which increase logistics and packaging costs and can lower search rankings due to poor store scores.

The “Profit Guarantee Program” directly addresses these issues. It aims to reduce merchants’ trial-and-error risks in advertising through platform-backed guarantees, encouraging them to explore online store opening and solving operational difficulties.

JD.com’s confidence in offering a “100% ROI Guarantee” stems from its underlying “profit-optimized” logic built through advanced technology, algorithms, and support mechanisms.

Specifically, JD’s confidence mainly comes from three sources:

1. AI tools enhance merchant efficiency. The upgrade includes 14 free AI tools such as AI product launching and dispute resolution; plus tools like Jingxiao Zhi 5.0 and digital human live-streaming. These help reduce labor costs and improve operational efficiency across store opening, product listing, live streaming, and customer service.

2. The combined “billion-yuan advertising subsidy” and “ad spend incentive” policies form a “double insurance.” The subsidies increase from billions to hundreds of billions yuan, with new merchants receiving a 200 yuan no-threshold red envelope and up to 5,500 yuan in total incentives. The ad spend policy rewards merchants who meet expenditure targets with up to 12% rebate on incremental cash, boosting confidence and growth potential.

3. Building an ecosystem loop to support merchant growth and create long-term value. The core goal of the Chunxiao Plan is to attract new merchants and help them grow. Data shows that in the past year, millions of new merchants joined, with SME orders nearly doubling year-over-year. For the platform, merchant retention and GMV growth are more valuable than short-term costs. The “100% ROI Guarantee” reduces merchant concerns and attracts more to join.

JD.com’s willingness to launch the “Profit Guarantee Program” stems from transforming “uncertainty” into “certainty.” Through AI efficiency gains, billion-yuan subsidies, and ecosystem traffic, it rebuilds trust with merchants via “certainty guarantees,” ultimately achieving a win-win situation.

03

Quality E-commerce Builds Stronger Merchant Trust

Under the new e-commerce logic, the traditional zero-sum game of “traffic monetization and winner-takes-all” is no longer sustainable. The core of a thriving ecosystem must shift from “big stores bullying customers” to “internal symbiosis”—forming a “community of shared destiny” between platform and merchants to cultivate sustainable growth. This requires platforms to evolve from “rule makers” to “service enablers,” leveraging technology, data sharing, and traffic benefits to lower entry barriers and reduce uncertainty for SMEs.

When merchants gain predictable growth opportunities, they are more willing to invest in innovation and user experience, which in turn enriches the platform’s offerings. This “mutual growth and coexistence” cycle can withstand external competition and ensure long-term ecosystem health and vitality.

JD.com’s 2026 “Chunxiao Plan” support for merchants goes beyond visible cost reductions; it is backed by JD’s core advantages in “brand trust” and “efficient logistics.” These unique strengths provide SMEs with a clear path from “traffic” to “retention.”

For merchants lacking brand recognition, joining JD.com means gaining the platform’s “quality endorsement.” JD’s high-spending, high-repeat customer base trusts the platform, and this trust transfers to merchants, reducing customer acquisition costs and trust-building time.

Additionally, JD’s strong brand perception helps high-quality but less-known merchants be discovered more quickly by consumers, fostering sustainable loyalty and significantly lowering the initial “discovery and recognition” costs.

In JD’s “more, faster, better, cheaper” consumer mindset, “quality” is central. Operating on JD.com, merchants are naturally perceived as “quality merchants,” helping them escape price wars and achieve brand premiums. Long-standing logistics standards, like “211 Timely Delivery,” greatly enhance shopping experience, reduce logistics-related returns and damages, and protect merchant profits.

Under the “Chunxiao Plan,” merchants can transition from “selling products” to “building brands.” The platform’s high-quality user base results in higher conversion rates (CVR) and average order values (AOV), making profitability easier.

Within JD’s ecosystem, merchants are no longer just “sellers,” but trusted “quality e-commerce” providers, benefiting from long-term stable growth. The 2026 “Chunxiao Plan” enhances “trust” and “efficiency,” and this unique model enables more POP merchants to grow into “quality e-commerce” at lower costs and faster speeds, achieving genuine sustainable development.