JD's inspection robot "Wali" is exhibited at an expo held in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, Oct 11, 2018. Wali can carry detection and communication equipment while inspecting warehouses. [Photo/IC]

The online retailer JD said it has invested more money than before in technology research and development.

In the third-quarter, JD's investment in technology surged 96 percent year-on-year to 3.45 billion yuan. During the double 11 shopping spree, the firm's AI platform NeuHub provided 16.3 million times smart customer services to buyers, and its sales totaled 159.8 billion yuan between Nov 1 and 11, up 25.7 percent year-on-year, and beating the figure recorded in 2017, 127.1 billion yuan.

By the end of September, JD held more than 550 bulk warehouses in the global with the total area nearly 11.9 million square meters, and created 1,800 offline stores including convenience store, unmanned store and electronic devices store.

Moreover, the firm's gross merchandise volume (GMV) rose to 394.8 billion yuan in the third-quarter, up 30 percent from a year earlier.