CHINESE e-commerce giant JD.com Inc. plans sweeping salary increases for its workforce next year, a major move for an e-commerce company struggling with intense competition. JD.com, which like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is grappling with hard-charging rivals ByteDance Ltd. and PDD Holdings Inc., will nearly double the fixed salaries it pays to procurement, sales and other “front-line staff” starting Jan. 1. JD retail staff will get 20%-plus pay hikes on average, the company said in a statement on its official WeChat account. JD.com and rival Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. have long been the leaders in China’s e-commerce arena, but have rapidly ceded ground to lower-priced rivals PDD Holding’s Pinduoduo and ByteDance’s Douyin as consumers hold tight to their purse strings. This month, JD.com founder Richard Liu urged staff to address deep-seated issues within the company, calling for changes in a response to an employee’s internal post. JD.com spent some 25.9 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) on human resource costs last quarter, according to company filings. It has adopted discounts and lower prices this year to try and entice consumers to spend during a China’s post-COVID economic recovery. (SD-Agencies) | 