How JD.com Manages Order Fulfillment, Splitting, and Amount Allocation

The author uses JD.com as an example to detail the order fulfillment and order splitting systems and related processes.

Order fulfillment overview

Order fulfillment covers the entire lifecycle of a transaction, from order creation to completion. An order is essentially a contract between the consumer and the platform, containing information such as invoice type, freight, timeliness, appointment, and discounts.

JD.com promises delivery times like the "211" service (orders placed before 11 am are delivered before 11 pm the same day) and other options such as next‑day, next‑day‑plus, and the ultra‑fast "411" (3‑hour delivery).

The Order Fulfillment Center (OFC) connects the user’s order to the warehouse production system, handling the hand‑off from front‑end order placement to warehouse dispatch.

Appointments allow customers to select delivery time slots (up to three per day) and even night delivery in certain cities.

OFC is triggered when a user submits an order on the checkout page and continues until the order is sent to one of JD’s many warehouses.

Order splitting

Orders may be split when items belong to different warehouses, merchants, or payment types. JD.com distinguishes between virtual orders (e.g., digital goods, recharge cards) and physical orders (e.g., appliances, books) which require logistics handling.

Splitting dimensions include:

Warehouse : Different product categories (large appliances, books, IT, food, etc.) have specialized warehouses (temperature‑controlled, high‑capacity, etc.).

Merchant : JD’s self‑operated and POP merchants are separated so that each merchant’s items are delivered and settled independently.

Payment method : Pre‑payment (pay‑first‑ship‑later) and post‑payment (ship‑first‑pay‑later) orders are split at different stages.

Other rules also apply, but these three are the primary factors.

Amount splitting

Discounts, coupons, freight, and virtual assets (e.g., JD beans) are allocated to each SKU based on the SKU’s monetary proportion, rounding to the nearest yuan. For example, 1,000 JD beans used to offset ¥10 are distributed across the purchased SKUs proportionally.

The amount‑splitting system records the detailed allocation for each line item, including freight and special delivery fees for remote areas.

After calculation, the results are sent to a message queue, stored in a database, and made available to more than 30 downstream systems (after‑sale, invoicing, advertising, procurement, customer service, data warehouse, billing, etc.).

Source: https://www.sohu.com/a/332049800_114819