A Study on the Profitability of China’s E-commerce Platforms in the Post-epidemic Era

Abstract

As one of the products of the global economic development in the new era, E-commerce is now tending to the stage of rapid development, and it plays a vital role in the economic development of China and even the whole world. Especially after the COVID-19, the development of online retailing has entered a new climax. But the problem is that the existing research and data is mainly based on the effect of the world economic environment and the influence of changes in supply and demand of the entire retail industry, but very few cases take the analysis of the typical electric business platform’s financial statements, to analyze the epidemic situation in China, which is a particular economy. Therefore, our research can help consumers better understand the factors that affect the profitability of E-commerce business in the post-epidemic era, and put forward reasonable suggestions to improve or fix the corresponding problems. We mainly adopted three methods, which are Literature analysis, Case Study, and Comparative analysis (vertical). After adopting the above three methods to analyze JD.com, Inc.'s financial statement, we find some problems in its profitability. For example, there are some problems in cost control, asset arrangement and planning, and even in the strategic choice and brand building of the enterprise. To solve these problems, we provide measures such as market positioning, intangible asset management, personalized service, supplier relationship, and business expansion to help enterprises of the same type better adapt to the impact of the post-epidemic era. This study should benefit a series of E-commerce platforms in the post-epidemic era, especially on the issues related to profitability development of online retail platforms in the specific economy of China.