Feb 25, 2020|

Book Sellers Get a Boon from JD during Coronavirus

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by Ella Kidron and Rachel Liu

Book sellers are getting a boost amid the coronavirus in China, thanks to JD.com. As announced on Feb. 24, the company has leveraged its e-commerce and logistics strengths to help not only publishers, but also authors and offline bookstores get back on their feet. Importantly, the moves JD has made are not exclusive to the coronavirus period, and are positioned to drive overall change in the industry once the epidemic passes.

 

Livestreaming Becomes the New Book Signing

If 2019 can be thought of as the testing phase for using livestreaming to market books, then 2020 is considered the year where this technology has started to make a big impact. That said, there are some challenges with it.

To help partners quickly make the most of livestreaming, on Feb. 24th, JD Books released its “Live Stream Star Plan 2.0 – Merchant Star Anchor Creation Plan” which is focused on providing different advantages and incentive measures for merchants getting up and running with livestreaming, such as traffic advantages. JD also provides courses for merchants to get acquainted with livestream software, and will continue to add more advanced courses in the future.

Beginning in March, JD Books will provide first-party merchants several subsidies and coupons for their livestream studios. In accordance with JD Live’s special policy, for any sale that occurs during the livestream by third party merchants, JD will take just a 1% commission.

In addition, this year, JD Books will work to launch an audio and video program called “The Scholar Says”, and partner with different platforms to increase exposure and promote new books. During the coronavirus, the program will guide authors to film their own videos, and become an important new book release and sales channel.

 

Support for Offline Bookstore Industry

JD’s supply chain and logistics advantages have provided several options to brick and mortar bookstores who struggle to maintain consumer traffic given that people are hesitant to go outside unnecessarily. For one, through JD’s supply chain innovation program, offline bookstores can open a store on JD’s first party platform. When a customer places an order, the system will determine the closest offline bookstore to the customer’s location, and JD Logistics will support last mile delivery from the offline store to the customer.

Bookstores can also opt to register with Dada-JD Daojia. When a customer places an order, the bookstore can select a logistics company to complete the delivery. This gives the brand more exposure.

JD Books has also worked with education and tutoring book sellers whose offline businesses are suffering as a result of the coronavirus. Offline book sellers may work with agents and come onto the JD platform, where JD can divert online traffic to those agents, and orders are distributed to the agents based on geographic proximity and then handled accordingly. Offline bookstores can operate their own online store through JD’s third party platform. So far several dozens bookstores have reached out to JD with their intention to join the platform. JD will provide a fast-track for them to start business online in a timely manner.

 

TC Solves Distribution Woes for Publishers

Due to the impact of the epidemic, many publishers have found that their existing logistics partners have been unable to transport books to JD’s warehouses, not only impacting publishers’ businesses but also readers’ access to books.

JD Logistics Transfer Center (TC) service resolves this supply chain predicament, helping partners get books out of their warehouses. With TC, JD can pick up the goods from the partner’s warehouse, and bring it to JD’s transfer center, where books enjoy top-priority to be unloaded immediately and are distributed to many warehouses across the country at once, saving hassle for partners and ensuring books arrive on time.

 

(ellla@jd.com; liuchang61@jd.com)

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