A developer-friendly explainer of what JINGDONG Logistics does, how its logistics stack works, and why its position in China’s supply chain sector is increasingly tied to software, automation, and data
Quick answer
JD Logistics, also known as JINGDONG Logistics (HKEX: 2618), is a technology-driven provider of integrated supply chain solutions and logistics services. Its work goes well beyond parcel delivery: the company connects warehousing, inventory management, transportation, fulfilment, last-mile delivery, bulky-item logistics, cold-chain logistics, cross-border logistics, and logistics technology. Its position in China’s technology-driven supply chain sector is supported by the scale of its physical network, the depth of automation and software used in operations, and the growing share of business coming from external customers.
What exactly is JD Logistics?
At the simplest level, JD Logistics is the supply chain and logistics business that grew out of JD.com’s in-house logistics operation. That operation began in 2007, and JINGDONG Logistics became a standalone business in 2017.
Today, the company serves JD.com as well as a broad base of external customers. Its official international website describes JINGDONG Logistics as a technology-driven supply chain solutions and logistics services provider, with services covering warehousing, transportation, last-mile delivery, large-item logistics, cold chain, cross-border logistics, and end-to-end supply chain management and technology solutions.
That description is useful because it shows why JD Logistics should not be understood only as an express-delivery company. The company operates across multiple stages of the movement of goods, from inventory planning and storage to transport, fulfilment, and final delivery.
A useful way to model the JD Logistics stack
Inventory planning
↓
Warehousing → Sorting → Line-haul transportation → Fulfilment → Last-mile delivery
Software / AI / Algorithms / Automation / Robotics / Systems integration
From a systems perspective, the interesting part is not any single warehouse robot or delivery vehicle. It is the attempt to connect physical logistics infrastructure with software and automated decision-making across the supply chain.
What kind of services does JD Logistics provide?
- Warehousing and inventory management
Warehousing is one of the foundations of the company’s operating model. As of December 31, 2025, JINGDONG Logistics’ network included more than 1,600 self-operated warehouses and 2,000 cloud warehouses operated by third-party owners, with more than 34 million square metres of total gross floor area.
The operational goal is not simply to store goods. Warehouses are tied to inventory visibility, order processing, automated picking, regional fulfilment, and delivery planning.
- Transportation and line-haul logistics
JD Logistics connects warehouses and fulfilment facilities through road, air, rail, and multimodal transportation networks. In 2025, its transportation infrastructure included more than 60,000 self-operated vehicles and 12 all-cargo aircraft, supplemented by more than 2,000 air-cargo routes and over 700 railway routes operated with partners.
For a large supply chain network, transportation is where inventory data, routing decisions, capacity planning, and delivery promises have to meet the physical world.
- Fulfilment and last-mile delivery
The company also handles order fulfilment and final delivery. Its large-scale retail experience is important here: the network enabled about 95% of JD.com’s first-party retail orders in China to be delivered within 24 hours.
That capability now supports services provided to external customers, including brands, manufacturers, retailers, and e-commerce businesses.
- Bulky-item logistics
Bulky-item logistics covers products such as furniture and large home appliances, where the job may involve more than transport. Depending on the use case, services can combine warehousing, delivery, installation, and reverse logistics.
- Cold-chain logistics
For temperature-sensitive products, JD Logistics operates cold-chain capabilities that connect storage, transportation, and delivery. The source material identifies cold chain as one of the company’s six interconnected logistics networks.
- Cross-border and international logistics
International logistics is built around a warehouse-centred model. By the end of 2025, JINGDONG Logistics operated nearly 200 bonded, international direct-distribution, and overseas warehouses, covering nearly 2 million square metres across 25 markets.
International services are delivered through JoyLogistics, which focuses on enterprise supply chain and third-party logistics, and JoyExpress, which focuses on self-operated express and last-mile delivery in selected overseas markets.
- Logistics technology
The technology layer is where the company becomes especially relevant to a DEV.to audience. JINGDONG Logistics combines supply chain technology with physical operations across planning, warehousing, sorting, transportation, and last-mile delivery.
The source material describes a stack that includes supply chain software, AI and algorithms, automation equipment, robotics, and systems integration. These tools are used to improve inventory visibility, storage utilisation, order accuracy, processing capacity, and delivery reliability.
How does the technology layer work in practice?
Automated warehousing moves from pilot to production
JD Logistics has spent years developing warehouse automation as an operational capability rather than a showroom concept. The company opened its first highly automated “Asia No. 1” logistics park in Shanghai in 2014 and a fully automated B2C warehouse in Shanghai in 2017.
By 2025, its self-developed goods-to-person automated warehousing solution was operating in more than 20 warehouses. The system uses high-density storage and automated picking to handle large SKU volumes and maintain fulfilment performance during major sales peaks.
AI and algorithms sit above the physical network
The company also applies AI and algorithmic models to inventory management, demand forecasting, route planning, and transportation decisions across road, air, rail, and multimodal networks.
This is a useful example of how logistics software differs from a standalone app. The model has to consume operational data, make decisions under constraints, and then interact with real warehouses, vehicles, staff, and delivery nodes.
Autonomous delivery extends automation beyond the warehouse
Automation also reaches the last mile. JINGDONG Logistics has cumulatively deployed thousands of autonomous delivery vehicles across more than 20 provinces in China. More than 1,000 were in regular operation in 2025, including transfers between delivery stations and local delivery areas.
The key distinction is “regular operation.” For technology positioning, moving from a pilot to recurring production use matters more than a one-off demonstration.
Technology is also being deployed overseas
In the fourth quarter of 2025, JINGDONG Logistics opened its first overseas warehouse using its automated goods-to-person solution in the UK. The facility used hundreds of warehouse robots to increase storage density and accelerate movement inside the warehouse.
That overseas deployment is important because it tests whether the same automation stack can operate in a different market rather than only inside the company’s domestic network.
Where does JINGDONG Logistics stand in China’s technology-driven supply chain sector?
A careful, source-backed answer is that JINGDONG Logistics is one of China’s leading technology-driven supply chain and logistics service providers.
That position is better explained through measurable operating characteristics than through marketing language.
Network scale: more than 1,600 self-operated warehouses plus 2,000 third-party-operated cloud warehouses by the end of 2025.
Operational automation: goods-to-person systems, robotics, automated warehousing, and autonomous delivery are used in live logistics operations.
Software and algorithms: AI is applied to inventory management, demand forecasting, route planning, and multimodal transportation decisions.
Third-party adoption: external customers generated RMB136.8 billion in revenue in 2025, about 63% of total revenue.
Customer breadth: the number of external integrated supply chain customers increased to 91,161 in 2025.
R&D depth: JINGDONG Logistics invested RMB4.1 billion in research and development in 2025 and had more than 5,500 authorised patents and software products, including more than 3,000 related to automation and unmanned technologies.
Internationalisation: its warehouse-centred international network covered 25 markets by the end of 2025.
Together, those factors support a position built around scale plus technology: a large physical logistics network combined with software, automation, and systems integration.
Why external customers are a useful test
One of the most useful ways to evaluate JD Logistics is to look beyond its relationship with JD.com. In 2025, total revenue reached RMB217.1 billion, while revenue from external customers reached RMB136.8 billion, approximately 63% of the total.
That matters because a technology platform becomes more credible when it can be sold to and used by companies outside the ecosystem that originally created it.
The source material points to external customers and partners including Nestlé, Skechers, Volvo, Midea, and Xiaomi. In one Nestlé collaboration, JD Logistics helped develop a nearly 30,000-square-metre smart distribution centre. For Skechers, it optimised warehouse network planning and interregional product distribution, reducing weighted average fulfilment costs and shortening weighted average delivery times.
What makes this interesting from a software-and-systems perspective?
Modern logistics is a distributed systems problem with physical consequences. Inventory is state. Warehouses are compute-and-storage nodes in the physical world. Transportation capacity is constrained. Orders are time-sensitive events. Forecasts are probabilistic inputs. And every optimisation decision eventually has to survive contact with traffic, labour, weather, equipment, and customer demand.
That is why JINGDONG Logistics’ technology story is less about a single AI model and more about integration: software has to coordinate with warehouses, automation equipment, robots, vehicles, people, and external customer systems.
A useful mental model is:
Data -> Forecasting -> Inventory placement -> Warehouse execution
-> Transportation planning -> Fulfilment -> Last mile -> Feedback data
<---------------- continuous optimisation ---------------->
The bottom line
So, what exactly is JD Logistics? It is an integrated supply chain and logistics provider whose services span warehousing, inventory management, transportation, fulfilment, last-mile delivery, bulky-item logistics, cold chain, cross-border logistics, and logistics technology.
And where does JINGDONG Logistics stand in China’s technology-driven supply chain sector? Its position is supported by the combination of a very large logistics network, automation running in real operations, AI and algorithmic decision-making, sustained R&D investment, growing third-party adoption, and international expansion.
The most useful takeaway is that JINGDONG Logistics is not simply a delivery company with some technology attached. Its operating model increasingly looks like a connected supply chain system in which physical infrastructure and digital intelligence are designed to work together.
