Takehome:

• Both Tmall and JD are regulating the scope of health food and health related food products sold on their platforms. Both companies have stopped several specific types of health foods from being sold on their platform.

China’s two ecommerce giants Tmall[1] and JD.com[2] have both taken measures to curtail the retail of certain types of health foods. JD has halted expansion in the scope of health foods sold on its own shop, citing that it has no brand expansion plan for now. Tmall halted expansion in retail of unregistered/unfiled healthcare products whose main ingredients are L-carnitine, papaya and maca. The reasons have not been specified, but we assume much of this was triggered by the 100-day crackdown[3] on illegal practice involving health related products and redirection of responsibility away from the government and towards enterprises & platforms.

Read More