JD Logistics secures Japan's trillion-yen giant, reshaping the supply chain landscape

JD Logistics recently made a deal with the parent company of Uniqlo — Japan's Fast Retailing Group.

Many people's first reaction to this news might be 'JD is delivering packages for Uniqlo.' But in fact, the scope of this collaboration goes far beyond simple delivery.

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Who is Fast Retailing?

Let's first talk about the scale of Fast Retailing Group. The company was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 2014, and its market value has exceeded HK$1.2 trillion. It owns brands such as Uniqlo, GU, and Theory, with stores across multiple markets including Asia, North America, and Europe.

As the business grows, so do the problems. Apparel retail has a characteristic: an extremely large number of SKUs. An ordinary T-shirt, when broken down by color and size, quickly turns into a long list of inventory codes. When seasons change or fashion trends shift, unsold items have to be discounted. Frequent transfers are also needed between stores and warehouses.

What's more troublesome is that consumers in different markets have different size and style preferences. If goods are placed in the wrong locations, popular stores run out of sizes and stock, while less popular warehouses accumulate excess inventory. If summer clothing arrives a few weeks late, the season's business is wasted.

Fast Retailing opens stores globally. If it relied on building its own warehouses and fleets in every country, costs would be high and speed would be slow. What it needs is a ready-made network that can provide real-time visibility into global inventory and enable rapid stock allocation.

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Why Is JD Up to the Task?

JD Logistics has a solid global warehousing footprint. By the end of 2025, its business scope has expanded to 25 countries and regions, with nearly 200 warehouses of various types and a total warehousing area of nearly 2 million square meters.

In Europe, JD Logistics already operates more than 60 warehouses and delivery stations. In February this year, JD's self-operated express delivery brand JoyExpress launched across multiple European countries including the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and France, achieving same-day and next-day delivery in major local cities.

In March this year, JD launched its own online retail platform Joybuy in Europe, initially entering six countries: the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Joybuy's '211' delivery service covers more than 30 major cities and over 40 million people — orders placed before 11 a.m. can be delivered before 11 p.m. the same day.

Behind this experience is a solid heavy-asset investment. Goods are stocked in local warehouses in advance, and after a consumer places an order, items are shipped from the nearest warehouse. This is what makes same-day and next-day delivery possible.

In addition to warehousing and delivery, JD Logistics' technological accumulation has also come into play. Taking the UK as an example, JD Logistics' first overseas Zhiwolf warehouse was put into operation in the fourth quarter of 2025, deploying nearly 200 Zhiwolf robots, improving picking and outbound efficiency by about 4 times compared with traditional models. This set of automation and digital capabilities precisely matches Fast Retailing's needs for inventory management and intelligent scheduling.

Image source: Internet

Ten Years of Connection

Speaking of which, the connection between JD and Uniqlo has lasted for more than ten years. In April 2015, Uniqlo joined JD with great fanfare. Liu Qiangdong personally showed support, and JD opened a dedicated warehouse of over 10,000 square meters for Uniqlo. But that collaboration ended after just over three months.

Ten years later, in September 2025, Uniqlo returned to JD through a mini-program. Now, the collaboration has upgraded from online sales in the Chinese market to co-building a supply chain covering the globe.

From opening stores on the front stage to managing goods behind the scenes, trust has been built order by order.

JD Logistics signing this deal with Fast Retailing Group may look like a brand deal on the surface, but in reality it is a test of capability — JD has built warehouses and delivery networks overseas. Whether it can serve global-level major clients needs to be verified through actual orders. Whether it can go from 'selling goods overseas' to 'letting global brands bring their business in' — we will leave that to time to verify.