How JD Central Revamped Its Merchant Backend in Record Time

JD Central, a joint venture between JD.com and Thailand’s Central Group, launched its e‑commerce platform in September 2018 and quickly grew to cover electronics, fashion, home appliances, books, music, and fast‑moving consumer goods.

In July 2019 the Thai site completed a component‑based refactor that enabled a single codebase to support multiple markets. Building on that, the B2B merchant center redesign project started on 24 September 2019, aiming to deliver two versions before the major sales events on 11.11 and 12.12.

The legacy merchant backend was built on a mixed self‑operated and POP architecture, resulting in an inconsistent technical stack, complex menu structures, and poor usability. Merchant surveys highlighted high learning costs and low satisfaction. Product directors from the Thai and Mainland platforms decided to decouple the merchant front‑end from the self‑operated system and initiate a full redesign.

Project leader Victor (Victor Ge) assembled a joint development team with members in Beijing and Bangkok. The team first conducted detailed merchant research, then applied user‑experience five‑element analysis to create a unified redesign plan. Despite severe resource constraints, the team received strong support from senior leaders in the platform ecosystem and the development department.

Development proceeded in a “closed‑door” sprint mode. Front‑end engineers and testers worked long hours, including weekends, achieving a record of more than 40 consecutive days without rest. Two versions were released on schedule, meeting the aggressive deadline and demonstrating that a seemingly impossible task could be completed.

Post‑launch feedback from Thai and cross‑border merchants was overwhelmingly positive. Sellers reported revolutionary improvements in store‑management efficiency and a much simpler, more intuitive operation experience.

The success of the JD Central Seller Center v2.0 project is presented as a key example of rapid overseas team formation, component‑based development, and effective cross‑department coordination. Senior leaders highlighted the model’s potential for reuse in other markets, positioning the merchant system as a testbed for future innovations.