Why did the JD Takeaway subsidy change upset coffee merchants?

JD Takeaway adjusted its 10 Billion Subsidy campaign, moving from full platform funding to a 50-50 split with merchants. Participating businesses reported squeezed margins, pressure to join campaigns, traffic downgrading for non-participants, and some orders with negative revenue. Grid Coffee manager Chen Ziyu publicly criticized the move, pushing the dispute into wider public debate.

When the campaign launched on April 11, discounts such as spend 8 save 7 were fully covered by JD Takeaway. A week later, merchants had to bear 30% to 50% of costs on promotions like spend 11 save 10, and the latest rules set the merchant share at 50%. A notice said merchants skipping subsidies would be banned from the platform ranking and traffic system starting April 21.

Recently, JD Takeaway adjusted the cost-sharing method for its "10 Billion Subsidy" campaign, changing it from being fully borne by the platform to splitting it equally with merchants, sparking strong backlash among many participating businesses. Many merchants reported that the new rules not only drastically squeezed their profit margins but also subjected them to pressures such as mandatory participation and traffic downgrading, with some orders even resulting in negative revenue. Chen Ziyu, the manager of the chain coffee brand Grid Coffee, publicly called out, "Stop it, Ah Dong," pushing the conflict into the spotlight of public opinion. As the incident continues to escalate, the trust relationship between merchants and the platform is facing a severe test.

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Recently, JD Takeaway made a major change to its subsidy policy, shifting from a model where the platform fully bore the subsidies to "the platform and merchants each bearing half," a move that has left many already-enrolled merchants quite dissatisfied. The manager of a chain coffee brand publicly spoke out on social media regarding the matter: "Stop it, Ah Dong."

On April 11, JD Takeaway launched its "10 Billion Subsidy" campaign. According to some merchants, when the campaign first went live, the subsidy costs for discounts like "spend 8, save 7" were entirely covered by JD Takeaway. But just a week later, JD Takeaway scrapped this practice and shifted the subsidy costs onto merchants. For example, in campaigns like "spend 11, save 10," "spend 15, save 14," and "spend 40, save 20," merchants had to bear 30% to 50% of the costs. Under the latest rules, the proportion borne by merchants has been uniformly raised to 50%.

According to screenshots circulating online, in addition to sharing the campaign subsidy costs, merchants were also forced by the platform to participate in a "2.7 yuan shipping fee reduction" campaign. The notice also specifically emphasized: "On April 21, the JD platform will launch a new ranking and scoring system, and merchants who do not participate in subsidies will be permanently banned from the platform's ranking and traffic promotion system."

As more and more merchants reported various issues during JD Takeaway's "10 Billion Subsidy" period, on April 25, the topic #JDTakeaway10BillionSubsidyRequiresMerchantsToBear50%# trended on Weibo.

Facing overwhelming skepticism, JD Takeaway issued a statement on the afternoon of April 25 in response, claiming the news was malicious rumor-mongering. "Since the launch of JD Takeaway's 10 Billion Subsidy campaign, it has received active participation and welcome from a vast number of users and merchants. The 10 Billion Subsidy invites merchant partners through open and transparent policies to choose participation based on their own business plans. The platform will not set mandatory sharing ratios, and all cooperation is based on consensus reached through two-way communication."

However, this response was quickly "slapped in the face" collectively by merchants. After the official rumor-denial information was released, many merchants posted screenshots in the comments section and on social media to "expose" the truth, confirming that participation in the campaign was not voluntary, the subsidy sharing ratio was indeed around 50%, and that if they did not participate, store traffic would decline, leaving merchants in a dilemma.

In addition, some merchants discovered that during the campaign, their back-end was locked by JD Takeaway, and food and beverage product prices could not be restored to their original levels after being reduced. Some even posted screenshots exposing that they were forcibly enrolled in subsidy campaigns by the platform without their knowledge, and could not find an entry point to remove coupons or exit the campaign, even resulting in "negative revenue orders" where customers paid 15.56 yuan but merchants actually received -3.14 yuan. Merchants believe that the operating efficiency of their stores is completely unprotected.

In response, as one of the chain coffee brands enrolled on JD Takeaway, Grid Coffee's manager Chen Ziyu posted a comment on the Jike platform. He said: "The platform pays to make all merchants' products break price, then the platform says it won't pay as much in subsidies now, and the merchants should pay this money—if you don't pay, the orders are gone."

Public information shows that Grid Coffee is a coffee brand incubated by Yuanfudao, founded in 2022, and Chen Ziyu is the brand's manager. According to the content on his Jike account, Chen Ziyu has recently expressed opinions multiple times on JD Takeaway's subsidy policy. On April 21, Chen Ziyu posted: "Platform wars may benefit users, but they will inevitably drain merchants dry. Stop it, Ah Dong."

Additionally, some merchants admitted that JD Takeaway's approach left them very disappointed. "When JD Takeaway first launched the '10 Billion Subsidy' campaign, we all thought it was a great opportunity to leverage the platform's power to sell more. But we didn't expect the platform's policies to change so quickly—we simply couldn't keep up. Now, we not only have to bear half the subsidy costs but also face various restrictions and penalties. With a platform like this, we really dare not trust it anymore."

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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.