Driven by the wave of digital and smart transformation, China's industrial goods procurement market is undergoing a profound structural shift. Recent 618 procurement trend data for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) released by JD.com's (ASX: JD) hardware and industrial products platform reveals that technological upgrades, particularly "lithium-electrification" and "intelligentization," have become the core engines driving market growth. The surge in demand from non-traditional manufacturing sectors like construction and agricultural product processing, coupled with the accelerated penetration of digital industrial procurement into central-western and lower-tier markets, paints a diverse picture of industrial recovery and transformation.
Technological Forces Reshape the Market
Data indicates that technological iteration is reshaping the product category structure of industrial procurement at an unprecedented pace. Among these trends, "new energy/power" (represented by lithium batteries) has emerged as the most definitive trend, accounting for 36.2% of the total transaction value across five major trends and covering 49 categories. In areas like power tools, material handling/storage, and cleaning supplies, the penetration rate of lithium battery products has reached 93.7%, 98.4%, and 89.4%, respectively. This signals the near-completion of the replacement of traditional power tools and the market's entry into a phase of technology-driven incremental expansion. Lithium batteries have become the standard power source for electric tools.
Concurrently, "intelligentization/digital upgrade" exhibits the greatest growth potential, covering 80 categories with penetration rates ranging from 30% to 70%, indicating significant room for growth. Instrumentation leads this intelligent transformation with a penetration rate of 69.8%. Notably, intelligentization is spreading from high-end equipment to traditional, peripheral categories. The penetration rates for intelligent manual tools and electromechanical hardware have reached 30.9% and 42.9%, respectively, becoming significant growth points. For example, orders for smart wrenches with torque monitoring and Bluetooth transmission capabilities among small and medium-sized hardware processing enterprises increased by 220% year-on-year, highlighting SMEs' urgent need for tools that reduce costs and improve efficiency.
Additionally, trends like wireless technology, integration, and energy efficiency/environmental protection work synergistically with intelligentization to drive industrial upgrades. For instance, industrial control automation is the only core category simultaneously driven by the three trends of intelligence, wireless technology, and integration. Industrial lighting, driven by both integration (40.9%) and energy efficiency (46.9%), is transitioning from single-product sales to systematic solutions.
Dual-Path Category Growth
If technological trends are the "weather vane" for industrial procurement, then the comprehensive expansion of the product category matrix is the "ballast stone" supporting this trend. The 618 SME procurement data shows the market exhibits a healthy dual-cycle pattern: "emerging categories making strong breakthroughs, with traditional categories providing steady support."
On one hand, core components representing new productive forces are experiencing explosive growth. Transaction value for industrial robots and key modules increased over 10 times year-on-year. Core components like chips, sensors, and development boards saw transaction value grow over 5 times year-on-year, with sub-categories like AR/VR modules and GPU-image processors achieving staggering increases of over 10 times. This data directly reflects how digital platforms are efficiently meeting the intense demand for core underlying hardware as Chinese manufacturing advances towards higher-end and intelligent production.
On the other hand, traditional hardware categories, which form the foundation of the national economy, also demonstrate strong resilience and steady growth. Over a dozen traditional core categories, including HVAC, small hardware, tools, wires and cables, and power supply/protection equipment, grew over 100% year-on-year. Sub-categories like lubrication equipment, tool sets, and general hardware saw growth exceeding 10 times. This "dual flight of old and new" category structure confirms both the powerful pull of emerging industries on cutting-edge technology and the persistent, stable, and substantial demand from traditional manufacturing and frontline professional workers for basic production tools.
Through supply chain innovations like "whole-axis warehousing" and "self-operated fastener warehousing," the platform has significantly improved the circulation efficiency of traditional bulk industrial goods. It has successfully transformed the scale advantage of traditional categories into digital growth momentum, providing the most solid foundational support for the prosperity of the entire industrial goods market.
Shifting Demand Patterns
From an industry perspective, industrial procurement demand is spreading from traditional manufacturing to broader fields. During the 618 period, top-tier industries by procurement value growth included construction (177%), public administration/social security/social organizations (166%), and agriculture/forestry/animal husbandry/fishery (163%), indicating a strong recovery momentum in infrastructure construction and livelihood-related sectors. In construction, for example, demand for lithium-powered tools and intelligent security equipment in engineering maintenance scenarios has surged, driven by policies like "replacing old with new" and increased infrastructure investment.
Within manufacturing, differentiation and upgrading coexist. Industries like waste resource comprehensive utilization (256%), chemical fiber manufacturing (210%), and agricultural and sideline food processing (200%) led in procurement growth, indicating that the green economy and upstream supply chains are accelerating their digital procurement processes. Procurement characteristics across different industries are becoming increasingly distinct, forming six major procurement types.
Regional Market Dynamics
If national data is the "barometer" of industrial procurement, then provincial consumption preferences are the "holographic projection" of China's regional industrial structure. The data shows the industrial procurement market exhibits distinct characteristics: "the east focusing on foundations, central-western regions experiencing explosive growth, with regional industrial clusters precisely mapped."
Macroscopically, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Beijing, and Sichuan remain the top five provinces by procurement value, highly consistent with their robust industrial bases and mature manufacturing systems. However, the more noteworthy incremental growth comes from the strong rise of central-western and lower-tier markets. Provinces like Tibet (996%), Guangxi (167%), and Gansu (134%) are at the forefront of national procurement growth. The explosive growth in cities like Sanming (2931%) and Lhasa (2354%) not only reveals the accelerated penetration of digital industrial procurement into remote areas but also confirms the macro-trend of major national infrastructure projects and the new energy industry shifting towards central-western regions.
Provincial procurement preferences are highly characteristic of local industries, forming a vivid "geographic map of Chinese industrial procurement." As the absolute heavyweight of the national electronics and information industry, Guangdong leads in the procurement share of core components like memory and display modules, directly reflecting the massive demand of the Pearl River Delta's smart hardware industrial cluster. Jiangxi, having consistently advanced its semiconductor and integrated circuit industry in recent years, holds a national advantage in procuring core components like microprocessors and digital-to-analog conversion chips, outlining the province's clear trajectory towards high-tech industries. Liaoning, as the republic's "eldest industrial son," retains a strong heavy-industry character. Its robust demand for security products, large fluid machinery, and heavy personal protective equipment is a vivid snapshot of equipment renewal and safety compliance in old industrial bases. Relying on characteristic industrial clusters like Yongkang hardware and Yueqing electrical equipment, Zhejiang shows high concentration in procuring sub-categories like power tools, pneumatic components, and low-voltage electrical appliances, demonstrating the vitality of traditional light industry clusters accelerating their online transition. Sichuan, leveraging its comprehensive manufacturing advantages in the western region, remains among the top five nationally in procurement value. Its dual-drive in consumer manufacturing and heavy equipment makes it a core hub supporting the central-western industrial landscape.
The Path Forward
Currently, Chinese manufacturing is at a critical juncture of transformation and upgrading. The digitalization of industrial procurement is not only an internal demand for enterprise cost reduction and efficiency improvement but also an inevitable choice for high-quality industrial development. The 618 data indicates that a new era of industrial procurement, driven by technology, diversified in demand, and enabled by platforms, has arrived.
Facing this profound transformation driven by both technology and demand, enterprises across the industrial chain need to proactively embrace the tide of the times. For manufacturing enterprises, digital procurement should be regarded as the cornerstone for building supply chain resilience. SMEs, which constitute over 95% of all enterprises and are the "capillaries" of the industrial chain, must break the invisible barriers of traditional "acquaintance-based relationships" and "price haggling," actively integrating into digital and intelligent supply chain systems. For procurement and supply chain service enterprises, future competition will no longer be solely about price wars but a comprehensive contest of supply chain integration capabilities, digital technology capabilities, and comprehensive service capabilities. Enterprises should continuously improve industry knowledge graphs and data foundations while deepening their presence in lower-tier markets and addressing long-tail demand, leveraging platforms like JD's hardware platform to bridge the "last mile" of fulfillment.
Addressing the pain points of SME procurement being "numerous, varied, scattered, and fragmented," the platform relies on JD's "super supply chain" infrastructure and digital capabilities to standardize and integrate vast quantities of non-standard industrial goods online, providing buyers with efficient, transparent, and trustworthy one-stop solutions. From promoting the adoption of trend categories like lithium and intelligent products, to meeting the long-tail demand of emerging industries like construction and agriculture, to serving customers in remote regions like Tibet and Gansu, the platform has effectively reduced the cost and barriers to industrial goods circulation through its nationwide logistics network.
Looking ahead, with the further evolution of integrated digital-physical industrial supply chain technology and service capabilities, and the deep integration of technologies like 5G, AI, and IoT, as China's largest industrial goods brand e-commerce platform and digital procurement service platform, it is poised to further advance the construction of digital and intelligent supply chains in the industrial sector, helping Chinese manufacturing seize new high ground in global competition.
Comments