JD.com, China’s second largest eCommerce player, has reported a 76 per cent increase in core GMV sales in the third quarter to RMB111.0 billion (US$17.5 billion).

Excluding Paipai.com – which the company is closing down by the end of this year – unique customers, annual active customer accounts increased by 62 per cent to 126.9 million year on year.

Net revenues for the quarter RMB44.1 billion (US$6.9 billion), an increase of 52 per cent from the third quarter of 2014.

The company fulfilled 329.7 million orders during the quarter, an increase of 85 per cent from the 178.2 million of the same period in 2014.

But JD.com still fininshed the three months with a loss of RMB530.8 million (US$83.5 million) and a net margin of negative 1.2 per cent.

“This was another quarter of strong growth, as JD.com increasingly becomes China’s source for fast, worry-free shopping online,” said Richard Liu, founder and CEO.

“Our partnership with Tencent’s dominant Weixin and Mobile QQ platforms puts JD.com at the fingertips of virtually every Chinese mobile online consumer, and continues to drive rapid user growth. Looking ahead, we will stay focused on enhancing user experience, deepening ties with leading brands and working to further expand JD.com’s leadership in mobile eCommerce.”

Sidney Huang, JD.com’s CFO, said third quarter results were “very healthy, with encouraging user growth and robust performance across all of our product categories”.

“As China’s direct B2C eCommerce leader, JD.com is benefitting from the industry-wide shift to direct-sales eCommerce as we continue to invest strategically in our core business and high-growth initiatives,” he said.

As at September 30, JD.com had approximately 90,000 merchants on its online marketplace and a total of 94,615 full-time employees.