JD opens first overseas unmanned store in Jakarta

Chinese online retail giant JD.com has launched an unmanned store in Jakarta, the first outlet of its kind in Indonesia.

This will also be a first for JD, which operates 20 such stores in China but Is venturing overseas for the first time, with the Jakarta store being its first ever cashless shop outside its home country.

The Jakarta facility will be 270 sq m and is located in a major shopping mall. JD uses technology to allow customers to pick up items, scan them and pay for them using the JD app.

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In addition, cameras are used in the store so customer traffic can be tracked for data analytics purposes. It also helps JD keep an inventory of what is in stock and which products should be recommended.

The company, which is Alibaba’s main rival in the ecommerce space, is set to expand across Southeast Asia. It would appear to be going from strength to strength, having received a $550mn investment from Google last month, as well as its spin-off JD Finance being expected to raise up to $2bn in its series B funding round. The finance arm is set to be valued at $20bn post funding.