Author：Wall Street CN
Author | Huang Yu
In recent years, the consumer electronics and retail industries have undergone dramatic changes. Many players thrived during the boom periods of mobile internet and traditional e-commerce. However, in stark contrast to the industry's past rapid growth, established players in the smart terminal sector are now finding it increasingly difficult to make money simply by piling on hardware and selling goods through traditional channels.
The golden age of "going it alone" is long gone, and the benefits of the traditional shallow cooperation model of "supply-sales" are gradually disappearing.
In this AI era full of challenges and opportunities, smart terminal companies and e-commerce platforms are looking for ways to break through the current situation through deeper cooperation.
On April 2, Honor and JD.com signed a strategic cooperation agreement, officially establishing a comprehensive strategic partnership, committed to helping Honor achieve a cumulative sales target of over 100 billion yuan across all JD.com channels in the next three years.
Zhuang Shuai, a retail e-commerce industry expert and founder of Bailian Consulting, told Wall Street Insights that Honor has been facing challenges in the past two years, including a decline in its high-end offerings and pressure on its market share. The past cooperation model between the brand and e-commerce platforms is no longer sufficient to meet demand, and relying solely on sales is not enough to support growth.
"This collaboration marks a shift in the relationship between Honor and JD.com from simple traffic monetization to a symbiotic relationship across the entire value chain, which is a very correct strategic adjustment. For Honor, this is the only way to maintain market share and return to a high-growth trajectory; for JD.com, it is a powerful tool to consolidate its 3C core business and enrich its AI and IoT ecosystem."
Therefore, for Honor and JD.com, this cooperation is not a typical channel procurement agreement.
The ambition of "full-chain" cooperation
In the past few years, both mobile phone manufacturers and e-commerce platforms have inevitably hit the ceiling of a zero-sum game in the global market. To find growth within the existing market, it is necessary to break down the existing boundaries of cooperation.
The three-year, 100 billion yuan target set by Honor and JD.com has transcended the simple stage of listing and selling on JD.com, and extends its reach to the entire life cycle of products in various fields such as mobile phones, all scenarios, AIoT, and robots.
It is understood that Honor and JD.com will not only promote the cooperation in launching strategic new products, but also jointly carry out IP and C2M customization projects based on their respective advantages.
For example, the two parties will co-create products targeting specific user groups such as food delivery riders, couriers, and gamers, leveraging Honor's software and hardware customization capabilities and JD.com's user insights to create more product highlights based on real-world scenarios.
This reveals two key pieces of information: first, Honor may launch more terminal devices in more niche markets in the future; and second, JD.com will provide more market data support for Honor's product development.
Beyond products, at the user level, Honor and JD.com will integrate their full-chain marketing capabilities and resources to further enhance user experience through joint membership operations and precise audience targeting. At the same time, the two parties will cooperate in core scenarios such as e-sports and sports and health, mainly to explore more possibilities in data empowerment and advertising.
All of these collaborations are essentially aimed at boosting Honor's sales.
It is worth noting that after reaching this strategic cooperation, Honor will deeply integrate its edge-side big model capabilities with JD.com's AI services, JoyAI big model, and JoyInside AI ecosystem to jointly create innovative experiences for scenarios such as product guidance, lifestyle services, and financial management.
Meanwhile, Honor and JD.com have also collaborated on the robotics and smart hardware ecosystem. For example, JD.com's offline stores will pilot the deployment of Honor robots for customer acquisition and sales guidance.
The two parties also collaborate on instant retail, a hot topic in the current e-commerce industry competition, and will deepen omnichannel and O2O cooperation to jointly enhance instant retail business.
Furthermore, according to Wall Street Insights, with overseas expansion becoming a major trend, Honor's terminal products will further expand their market share through JD.com's Joybuy platform. The two parties will also further strengthen cooperation in domestic and international logistics and warehousing, technology, finance, and insurance.
From online to offline, from domestic to overseas markets, from hardware competition to large-scale model collaboration, the partnership between Honor and JD.com has permeated every capillary of the retail and technology ecosystem.
Giants seek to "join forces for mutual support"
As both the consumer electronics and e-commerce industries enter an era of fierce competition for existing market share, the alliance between Honor and JD.com is a crucial strategy for Honor to break through this competitive landscape.
For Honor, in an extremely competitive market, its intention is to break through inherent limitations and bottlenecks by partnering with JD.com in key business areas.
It's important to understand that as Huawei strives for backward compatibility and upward breakthroughs, Honor, which once emerged as a "Huawei alternative," finds itself in a particularly awkward position.
Since becoming independent, Honor has inherited a large amount of legacy in terms of channels and R&D. However, after Huawei's full return to 5G, the lack of a brand moat has caused its user base to quickly flow back to its parent company.
Coupled with the departure of CEO Zhao Ming at the end of 2024 and the intensive reshuffling of senior management, in the zero-sum game of existing players, it ultimately could not withstand the impact of the return of the industry leader. According to IDC data, in the whole of last year, Honor's market share in the Chinese smartphone market fell out of the top five, becoming "Others".
Against this backdrop, Honor undoubtedly hopes to solve its development challenges by leveraging deep cooperation with partners such as JD.com. Previously, at the Mobile World Congress 2026 (MWC 2026), Honor also launched its first consumer-grade humanoid robot.
Through this massive three-year order worth 100 billion yuan, the outside world can also see JD.com's grand ecosystem strategy in the entire electronics and related fields.
In recent years, JD.com has leveraged its supply chain advantages to continuously deepen its strategic cooperation with brands.
A review of JD.com's strategic moves in recent years reveals that its core approach has completely abandoned traditional superficial cooperation, instead establishing deeply integrated strategic partnerships with various industry giants, focusing on sales targets of hundreds of billions and tens of billions of yuan, and deepening core elements such as C2M reverse customization and AI ecosystem collaboration.
In the field of mobile smart terminals, JD.com's alliance network has covered almost all mainstream brands in China.
For example, in 2024, JD.com and Xiaomi signed a three-year agreement with each other to achieve a total sales target of 200 billion yuan across all channels. This year, JD.com has also signed agreements with OPPO and vivo to achieve total sales of over 100 billion yuan across all channels within the next three years.
This alliance is not limited to the mobile phone sector, but extends to PCs, AI smart hardware, and even the automotive supply chain.
In 2024, JD.com also reached a cooperation agreement with PC giant Lenovo, clearly stating that Lenovo's sales on JD.com's omnichannel platform will reach 120 billion yuan in the next three years. At the same time, they will become each other's first AI PC pioneer partners, jointly build an AI terminal industry ecosystem, and accelerate the implementation of AI PCs and other AI devices.
In the field of major home appliances, this year, JD.com signed strategic cooperation agreements with four leading home appliance giants: Midea, Haier, Hisense, and TCL. All parties are aiming for a total annual sales volume of 180 billion yuan across all channels and are deeply involved in reverse customization of products and the launch of high-end new products.
With the changing global trade and technology landscape, an industry consensus has emerged: the era of simply relying on low-price competition is over, and it has been replaced by a value-driven competition that places greater emphasis on reverse customization of products, omnichannel integration, and service experience upgrades.
JD.com's deepening cooperation with brands, setting clear sales targets of hundreds of billions of yuan, deepening the C2M cooperation model, highlighting AI ecosystem synergy, and upgrading the full life cycle service system reflect the ongoing restructuring of the retail ecosystem.
For smart terminal giants, embracing this deep strategic co-creation is the only way to resist market fluctuations and achieve high-quality growth.
