JD.com’s Joybuy marketplace has expanded into the UK and five other European markets, intensifying scrutiny over whether its rapid growth reflects fair competition.

Joybuy is offering same-day delivery in the UK and a subscription service priced below Amazon Prime, while building its own delivery network rather than relying on third-party couriers. The expansion also covers Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

According to its backers, the UK service already reaches millions of households through JoyExpress, a fleet of vans, trucks and cargo bikes. Orders placed before 11am qualify for same-day delivery under Joybuy’s “Double 11” guarantee.

The speed of the launch has drawn attention because large-scale retail logistics networks in Europe usually take years to build. Joybuy has entered with a broad geographic footprint, a direct delivery operation and a low-cost subscription model, increasing pressure on established retailers already competing on convenience and price.

Regulatory focus

That pressure comes as European regulators examine JD.com’s acquisition of a majority stake in German electronics retailer Ceconomy. The European Commission is investigating whether state subsidies supported JD.com’s USD $2.5 billion bid, a question that has become central to the wider debate over the group’s expansion in Europe.

The Ceconomy deal gives JD.com immediate access to an existing store network in Europe, adding a physical retail base to its online marketplace and logistics operations. For competitors, the combination creates a model spanning warehousing, fulfilment, delivery and stores.

JD.com explored other routes into the UK retail market before building its current footprint directly. It held talks to acquire Currys and considered a deal involving Sainsbury’s Argos business, but neither resulted in a transaction.

That history suggests JD.com’s interest in the UK has remained consistent even as its approach changed. Rather than acquiring an established domestic retailer outright, it has moved to build a vertically integrated operation with its own infrastructure.

Manhattan Associates, which advises retailers on supply chain operations, said the central issue is not only service quality but whether rivals could realistically match the same pace of expansion under similar conditions.

“Sandy Xu, CEO of JD.com, is not shy about her ambitions for Europe. Consumers, she says, are ‘entitled to better service.’ It is a compelling message and, on the surface, Joybuy’s UK proposition supports it: same-day delivery, human customer service, free appliance installation and a Trustpilot score that puts Amazon to shame.

“But ambition and fair practice are not always the same thing. It is worth asking whether the conditions that have enabled JD.com to expand at this pace are ones any European retailer could legitimately replicate.

“The European Commission has already opened an investigation into whether JD.com benefited from state subsidies in its $2.5 billion bid for Ceconomy, and that investigation is ongoing. While Xu has dismissed suggestions that the Chinese government would subsidise a private company to expand overseas, regulators on both sides of the Atlantic regard the issue as serious enough to require a thorough answer.

“UK retailers operate within strict regulatory frameworks, pay their taxes and have built logistics and service capabilities through years of investment. If JD.com has done the same, competition is healthy and consumers will benefit. If it has not, then the market is being shaped by forces that have nothing to do with service excellence or consumer value.

“Joybuy’s arrival may raise standards across the industry. But knowing whether it is competing fairly is not a matter of protectionism; it is a matter of principle and good business sense,” said Pieter Van den Broecke, EMEA Leader, Supply Chain Strategies, Manhattan Associates.

Retail response

For UK retailers, the immediate challenge is operational rather than legal. Consumer expectations on delivery speed, subscription pricing and customer service can shift faster than regulatory investigations conclude, leaving incumbents little time to respond.

Retailers facing Joybuy’s offer are likely to focus on the parts of the supply chain they can control. That means improving stock visibility, reducing delays in fulfilment decisions and limiting inventory gaps that can lead to missed sales or slower delivery promises.

Established chains have spent years building distribution systems within UK and European regulatory frameworks while managing tax, labour and compliance costs that affect margins. A rival entering the market with aggressive pricing and direct logistics changes the benchmark they must meet.

The challenge is particularly acute for businesses that depend on a mix of physical stores, third-party carriers and legacy inventory systems. Those retailers may find it harder to match a model built around direct fulfilment and a tightly controlled delivery network.

Joybuy’s arrival also raises a broader question for the sector about how competition should be assessed in fast-moving retail markets. Price and service are visible to consumers, but the financing and structural conditions behind a rapid rollout are less so and can shape market dynamics just as strongly.

As regulators continue to examine JD.com’s European expansion, UK retailers are being forced to react in real time to a new standard in convenience retail. The competitive impact is already being felt, regardless of when the investigation concludes.

Gain Healthcare Ltd in Bicester is a care service that provides support to people in their homes who are elderly, sectioned under the mental health act, have disabilities, dementia, eating disorders, and substance misuse problems.

Inspectors found seven breaches of the legal regulations in relation to person-centered care, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, need for consent, and staffing.

The inspection found the service failed to ensure that medicines and treatments were safe or met people’s needs, capacities and preferences.

People were also not consistently involved in planning their medicines or in decisions about how their medicines were managed.

READ MORE: Beloved Bicester restaurant slams ‘unfair’ low food hygiene rating

The service provides care to people in and around Bicester (Image: Ed Nix)

Relatives told inspectors they did not feel confident that all staff were trained to administer their loved one’s medicines safely and sometimes chose to administer medicines themselves to reduce the risk of errors.

They did not consistently inform people of their rights, nor did they respect or lawfully apply these rights when delivering care and treatment.

The service was visited by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) between February and March this year, following concerns raised by relatives of people receiving care,

At the time of the inspection only one person was receiving care from the service.

The service was immediately placed into special measures.

Gain Healthcare Ltd has been approached for comment.

SOFIAH NICHOLE SALIVIO

News Editor

Kiko Milano nearly matched Charlotte Tilbury in a new UK beauty influencer marketing ranking, despite working with far fewer creators.

Analysis by Kolsquare showed Kiko achieved almost the same result with a much smaller creator roster.

Maybelline topped the ranking with Earned Media Value of GBP £3,451,247. Charlotte Tilbury placed second with GBP £2,789,041, while Kiko ranked third on GBP £2,671,435.

Kiko’s performance stood out because it worked with 298 creators, compared with 1,221 for Charlotte Tilbury. That 76% gap was accompanied by a much higher engagement rate for Kiko, at 17.3%, versus 2.5% for Charlotte Tilbury.

The figures point to a shift in how beauty brands approach influencer marketing on Instagram. Rather than relying on the largest possible creator rosters, several brands in the ranking appeared to achieve stronger results through more selective partnerships.

Space NK and L’Oréal Paris completed the top five. The broader table also highlighted lower-ranked brands that posted strong engagement rates despite using smaller creator groups.

Refy Beauty, which ranked tenth overall, recorded a 14.4% engagement rate. Armani Beauty reached 15.5%, again while working with fewer creators than many brands above it.

Bellami surge

Bellami Hair provided one of the clearest examples of that pattern. The hair brand generated more than GBP £718,522 in Earned Media Value from just five creators and posted a 30.8% engagement rate, the highest among the leading brands covered by the analysis.

That performance lifted Bellami Hair 342 places to 34th in the ranking. Marc Jacobs Beauty climbed 298 places, Unicorn Cosmetics rose 254 places, Spectrum Collections gained 183 places, St. Tropez moved up 169 places and Yepoda advanced 96 places.

Alicia Van Der Meer, UK marketing manager at Kolsquare, commented on the broader trend in the latest figures.

“For years, influencer marketing has often been treated as a numbers game, with brands believing the more creators they worked with, the greater the impact. These rankings suggest that approach is changing.

“The brands seeing the strongest results are becoming much more strategic about who they partner with. Relevance, authenticity and audience engagement are increasingly proving more valuable than simply recruiting the biggest creator network.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly selective about the creators they trust. Brands that invest time in finding creators with highly engaged, loyal communities are often generating better commercial outcomes than those simply chasing reach,” Van Der Meer said.

Mixed fortunes

Not all brands moved in the same direction. Milk Makeup fell 57 places, while Olaplex, Benefit Cosmetics, e.l.f. Cosmetics and Lancôme also dropped in the standings.

The ranking suggests beauty brands face a crowded, fast-moving social media market, where performance can shift quickly as attention moves between creators and campaigns.

The study was based on 92,991 Instagram posts published by 47,675 creators mentioning more than 2,400 beauty brands over one month.

Earned Media Value estimates the value generated through influencer engagement and is commonly used by brands to compare creator marketing performance across campaigns and competitors.

Kiko’s rise was one of the biggest among the leading brands, with the Italian cosmetics group climbing 12 places while almost drawing level with a rival that used more than four times as many creators.