Feb 3, 2021| JD Retail

“Adding Color to Holiday Memories”: JD FMCG Omnichannel President

Kelly Dawson

by Kelly Dawson

Amid a recent uptick in COVID-19 cases, many Chinese are preparing to stay in the cities where they work during the upcoming Chinese New Year holiday. For those who are yearning for the tastes of home, JD’s omnichannel through its JD Super and SEVEN FRESH is providing not only fresh ingredients but a wide range of Chinese New Year-ready meals for customers, including ready-to-cook meal gift boxes and meal packages.

“This Chinese New Year will be a special experience for many Chinese people and we hope that JD’s service can add color to their holiday memories,” said Carol Fung, president of JD’s FMCG Omnichannel division, which encompasses JD’s online supermarket JD Super and offline supermarket chain SEVEN FRESH.

JD’s ready-to-cook, ready-to-eat foods and fresh products will make celebration preparations “faster and easier,” Fung said. “Customers can receive their products even on the first day of the holiday, thanks to the nonstop delivery of JD Logistics. [They] can receive the products they need, even on the eve of Chinese New Year in as fast as 30 minutes.”

JD Super collaborates with many local supermarkets and chain stores including Walmart to make this instant delivery service possible. SEVEN FRESH will also provide delivery services, with delivery provided by JD Express for customers who purchase in stores.

SEVEN FRESH, as one of JD’s key omnichannel retail initiatives, was launched in 2018 and has positioned itself as a high-end offline retail supermarket. Each offline store has thousands of products covering food, fresh, FMCG and more.

(kellydawson@jd.com)

Mar 17, 2023| JD Retail

JD.com’s Spring Dawn Initiative Boosts Revenue for Individual Shop Owners

Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

In January, JD.com unveiled the “Spring Dawn” initiative, which makes it easier for different types of merchants, including start-ups, self-employed businesses, and enterprises to launch stores on the platform. In just over two months, college students, farmers, veterans, designers, craftsmen and others have taken advantage of this feature to launch their business on JD.

Liang, a college student from Xiamen, Fujian province, is a young entrepreneur who creates self-designed teaching aids such as cell models for biology courses. Seeking to the growth of his business, Liang joined the initiative and opened a store on JD.com. Sales in early March have already increased by over 200 percent compared to the previous month.

The initiative features 12 supportive measures that are aimed at lowering costs and increasing sales for merchants. JD streamlines the store-launch process for individual owners, and it now takes as little as 10 minutes to complete. In addition, JD offers no-cost trial operations and gift packages for newly opened stores, among resources.

Simon Han, vice president of JD.com and head of JD Retail Marketplace Ecology said that JD.com is delivering on its commitment to create a fair, efficient, and easy-to-use ecosystem for merchants. JD will continue to expand marketplace business models, reduce merchants’ operational costs, increase their efficiency, provide end-to-end services to micro, small and medium-sized merchants, and help them achieve long-term stable growth.

In 2022, there was a 34 percent increase year-over-year of new merchants launching on JD.com. As of Q4 2022, the number of third-party merchants on JD.com has grown by more than 20 percent year-over-year for eight consecutive quarters.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Mar 15, 2023| JD Retail

JD.com Brings the Best of Colombian Coffee to Chinese Consumers

Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

On March 10, JD.com joined representatives from the Colombian Embassy to China and Colombia Coffee Grower Federation (FNC) to host a coffee-tasting salon at JD’s headquarters in Beijing to promote some of the world’s finest coffee to Chinese consumers.

“One out of every ten green coffee beans imported by China comes from Colombia,” said Natalia Tobon, the Commercial Counselor of the Embassy and Director of ProColombia China in her speech We are confident that with JD’s support, this number will continue to grow.” Tobon’s remarks referred to Colombia’s coffee exports to China in 2022, which were valued at $78.4 million, representing a 66 percent increase from the previous year.

Natalia Tobon (middle), Commercial Counselor of the Embassy and Director of ProColombia China

Tao Ren, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD FMCG marketplace, highlighted the rapid growth of Chinese consumers’ appetite for the best coffee from different countries. He also emphasized the significant market opportunity for Colombian coffee – the world’s only arabica proudly branded after a country’s name.

Tao Ren, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD FMCG marketplace

JD.com is currently utilizing a variety of channels to introduce more Colombian coffee products to the Chinese market. These include its market platform, first-party sales, as well as through its pavilion of Latin America and the Caribbean Countries. The national pavilion program is an innovative online sales window on JD.com that is endorsed by embassies to provide diversified authentic imported products from their respective origin countries.

Jiahang Wu, FNC’s Chief Representative for Greater China, highlighted the unique features of Colombia as the world’s third-largest coffee-producing country, ranging from its weather and land advantages, hand-picking harvest and processing technics, colorful aromas and tastes, to its growers’ federation and worldwide branding efforts.

Jiahang Wu, Chief Representative for Greater China, Colombian Coffee Growers Federation

Participants at the event had the opportunity to try four varieties of Colombian coffee, including Pink Bourbon, Geisha, Castillo, and Sidra, which opened up new senses and flavors for tasters, allowing them to explore coffee in ways they never knew existed.

Mian Li, Founder of S.O.E Coffee who provided brewing service for the event, shared his observation on China’s coffee consumption trend. Li noted that the specialty coffee market is experiencing considerable growth, and emerging types of coffee, such as freeze-dried coffee, drip coffee and many other new products are well received by the young generation of consumers. Li’s company’s sales data showed that the highest consumption demand for specialty coffee comes from the second- and sixth-tier cities as it is generally believed that young consumers living in lower-tier cities have more dispensable income and a stronger passion for trendy products, which further demonstrated the widespread and high demand for great coffee among Chinese consumers.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)