JD.com Opens Joybuy to European Sellers

China’s JD.com did something the other Chinese entrants into Europe did not do: it moved the warehouses first. Before it invited a single third-party seller, it built the infrastructure. Now it is opening that infrastructure up, and for the European operator this is a rare event that reads two ways at once. It is a new place to sell, and it is a new competitor for your shelf space, arriving in the same announcement.

Here is the news. JD.com is turning Joybuy, the online store it launched in Europe on March 16, 2026, into a marketplace. A company spokesperson said Joybuy is “working with trusted brands to test a curated marketplace in the second half of 2026,” open to selected third-party sellers from both Europe and China. We want to be precise about that from the first line, because the difference between a curated test and an open door is the difference between an accurate story and a misleading one.

What Joybuy already is

Joybuy launched in Europe on March 16, 2026, across six countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. It did not launch quietly in terms of scale. At launch the catalog carried more than 100,000 products, and JD.com stood it up on top of roughly 60 European warehouses, its own last-mile delivery fleet, and same-day delivery via a service called JoyExpress.

Read those numbers slowly, because they are the whole story. Roughly 60 warehouses on European soil. An owned last-mile fleet, not a rented one. Same-day delivery. This is physical logistics infrastructure sitting inside the European Union, already running, before the marketplace question was even asked.

JD.com has also shown it intends to fight on Amazon’s calendar rather than around it. Joybuy ran its first “Summer Black Friday” from June 15 to June 30, 2026, positioned directly against Amazon’s Prime Day, which ran June 23 to June 26. Running a headline sales event on top of a competitor’s is not a coincidence of timing. It is a statement of where JD.com believes the demand is, and who it believes it is taking that demand from.

What actually changed

The new development, reported around June 11, 2026, is that JD.com is opening Joybuy to third-party sellers. According to a company spokesperson, Joybuy is “working with trusted brands to test a curated marketplace in the second half of 2026,” and that marketplace is intended to be open to selected third-party sellers from both Europe and China. Sellers on the marketplace will be able to store inventory in Joybuy’s warehouses or ship directly themselves.

We are attributing that carefully on purpose. The “curated marketplace in the second half of 2026” line is JD.com’s own characterization of its own plan. It is a stated intention, not a shipped product. As of this writing the marketplace is not open, it is not live, and it is not accepting seller applications. It is a curated test, by invitation, with brands, planned for H2 2026. If you are reading this hoping for a signup link, there is not one yet, and anyone telling you otherwise is inventing it.

What is not a stated intention, and what tells us the recruitment is real rather than a press release, is the hiring. JD.com is recruiting a cross-border marketplace chief to drive Chinese export sellers onto the platform, plus marketplace chiefs in the United Kingdom, France and Germany. You do not staff country-level marketplace leadership for a plan you are not going to execute. The org chart is the tell.

Why this one is not Temu, and not Shein

This is the distinction we most want a European seller to take away, because it separates JD.com from every other Chinese platform story you have read this year, including the one sitting next to this piece in our coverage this week.

Temu and Shein are asset-light. Their model was cross-border direct-ship: goods sit in China, an order comes in, a parcel flies to a European doorstep. That model is precisely what the European Union just made more expensive. As of July 1, 2026, the EU abolished the duty-free exemption on low-value consignments and replaced it with a flat customs duty charged per item, a charge the direct-ship platforms now have to absorb or pass on. We cover that rule change in full in our companion piece this week, and the two stories are best read together.

JD.com is asset-heavy. It built roughly 60 warehouses on European soil, it runs its own last-mile fleet, and it offers same-day delivery. Its inventory is already inside the wall. And here is the consequence that makes this story matter: the new EU de minimis duty does not punish JD.com the way it punishes Temu and Shein, because there is no cross-border parcel to tax. The goods are already in Europe when the order is placed.

So put the two developments of this week side by side and you get the real shape of what is happening. The EU just made cross-border direct-ship more expensive, and the best-capitalized Chinese entrant is the one that already moved its inventory inside the border before the rule landed. The competitive front for European sellers is no longer at a customs checkpoint. It is at home, in a warehouse down the road, running same-day delivery.

What it means for a European seller

A well-capitalized Chinese Amazon rival with real European logistics is now preparing to recruit European sellers onto its platform in the second half of 2026. That is a new sales channel and a new competitive threat at the same time, and the duality is the point. We would resist reading it as only one or the other.

As a channel, the offer is genuinely interesting. You would be able to put inventory into roughly 60 European warehouses with same-day last-mile delivery attached, on a platform that is actively spending to buy share against Amazon. Early sellers on a hungry marketplace have historically enjoyed disproportionate visibility, because the platform needs supply and rewards the sellers who provide it.

As a threat, the same infrastructure cuts the other way. Those warehouses also serve JD.com’s own catalog of 100,000-plus products and the Chinese export sellers it is recruiting in parallel through that new cross-border marketplace chief. Whatever visibility advantage you gain by joining, your Chinese competitors are being recruited onto the very same shelf, fulfilled from the very same buildings. This is not a channel where you get to be early and alone. You get to be early alongside the sellers JD.com most wants.

The caveat to hold honestly is the one we opened with. “Curated marketplace.” “Selected third-party sellers.” “Test in the second half of 2026.” This is not an open marketplace you can join today. It is a test, by invitation, starting with brands. Commission rates, seller fees, onboarding terms and the application route are not public, and we are not going to guess at them, because guessing at a fee schedule is how a reader gets burned. What you can do today is watch it, model it, and be ready. What you cannot do today is sign up.

What to watch next

Three signals will tell you whether this becomes a channel you should take seriously. The first is whether the H2 2026 curated test opens beyond “trusted brands” to the wider seller base, and on what terms. The second is whether JD.com publishes actual marketplace economics, the commission and fee structure it has so far kept private. The third is whether it repeats and scales calendar events like the June “Summer Black Friday,” because a platform that keeps buying attention against Prime Day is committed to the fight, not testing the water.

For now, the story stands on what is confirmed. JD.com launched Joybuy across six European countries on March 16, 2026, on the back of roughly 60 warehouses, an owned last-mile fleet and same-day delivery. It stocked more than 100,000 products, ran a sales event straight against Prime Day, and is hiring the leadership to recruit third-party sellers from Europe and China into a curated marketplace test in H2 2026. The asset-heavy, EU-warehoused model is the reason the new de minimis duty does not touch it. The rest is a plan, and we will hold it to that word until JD.com ships it.

Sources

• Anchor: Ecommerce News Europe, “Joybuy opens up to European and Chinese sellers” (June 11, 2026), https://ecommercenews.eu/joybuy-opens-up-to-european-and-chinese-sellers/
• Corroboration: The Grocer; CNBC (the March 16 European launch); Forbes; JD Corporate Blog (JoyExpress). Five distinct outlets.