Chinese E-Commerce Companies Suffer as Economy Sours

Chinese consumers are cutting back on discretionary purchases and becoming more thrifty as the country’s economic slowdown drags on, impeding the once-inexorable growth of the country’s e-commerce companies.

For the April-June quarter, Alibaba Group Holding posted its first revenue decline while JD.com saw its slowest growth, after lockdowns and other rigid Covid-19 control measures in China caused disruptions to supply chains. Executives and analysts expected better performance from Chinese e-commerce companies in the current quarter, but uncertainties linger as Beijing sticks to its stringent zero-Covid policy.