(Yicai) Aug. 23 -- JD.Com, China’s second-biggest online retailer, has for the first time lowered the minimum spend needed on products it sells to qualify for free shipping, slashing the amount by 40 percent.

Except for books, orders of products sold by JD worth CNY59 (USD8.20) or more will be delivered free of charge from today, down from CNY99, the Beijing-based company said. For books, the minimum remains CNY49, while JD Plus members will continue to enjoy unlimited free deliveries without using coupons.

JD has adopted a low-price strategy this year. In March, it launched the 10 Billion Yuan shopping channel, offering subsidies on products to better compete with Pinduoduo, a group-buying platform famous for price discounts. JD has also started accepting price match claims, refunding the difference if customers find the same product at a lower price elsewhere.

“Not only e-commerce platforms, but the whole retail business has been focusing on low prices from the beginning, so JD.Com views cost efficiency and user experience as the core business philosophy,” Chief Executive Officer Sandy Xu said on the firm’s recent second-quarter earnings conference call.

“JD.Com hopes more users will make cross-platform price comparisons before purchasing products because we are very confident in the low cost and high-quality service of our supply chain capabilities and scale advantages,” Xu added.

JD had revenue of CNY287.9 billion (USD39.5 billion) in the second quarter, up 7.6 percent from a year earlier. Net profit jumped 50 percent to CNY6.6 billion (USD905 million).

Editor: Futura Costaglione