Jan 16, 2024|
Harbin’s Rising Popularity as a Winter Destination in China Sparks Surge in Travel and Retail Sales
This winter, the “ice city” Harbin, capital of northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, has emerged as a magnet for tourists from all corners of the country. Harbin’s hospitality has warmed the hearts of these visitors. Their shared online experiences have further fueled the city’s tourism and consumption growth.
According to data from JD.com, searches for Harbin travel have skyrocketed, with a year-on-year growth exceeding 100 times in the past week alone. Harbin’s specialties have also been favored by tourists. JD.com’s data also reveals a substantial rise in the volume of Harbin specialty shipments since December. The Harbin Red Sausage, a beloved local delicacy, has emerged as the top souvenir choice for out-of-towners, seeing an average daily shipment volume in early January that is nearly fourfold higher than in December.
To support this influx of tourists, JD Logistics has strategically established service points at key locations, including Harbin Airport. These hubs ensure comprehensive delivery services, enhancing the overall visitor experience.
This Harbin tourism boom has also spurred a surge in sales of winter apparel. JD.com’s data indicates a rapid growth in the sales of warm clothing items such as down jackets, snow boots, and thermal underwear between January 1st and 7th. The sales growth is especially pronounced in southern provinces and cities such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan, and Shanghai. Notably, tall snow boots registered a 206% year-on-year increase in transactions, while padded cotton caps and thickened long down jackets soared by 158% and 134%, respectively. Beyond clothing, travel gear has also seen a considerable uptick, with a 98% year-on-year growth in transactions for large suitcases and travel backpacks in these southern regions.
To further cater to the needs of consumers gearing up for their Harbin adventures, JD.com launched a “Northbound Warmth Guide” on January 10th, offering a curated selection of warm clothing, shoes, children’s wear, and accessories, and enabling more consumers to purchase thermal equipment in a one-stop shop.
Jun 1, 2023|
JD.com’s 618 Grand Promotion Kicks Off, Record Number of Brands Reach 100 Million Yuan in Sales within the First Ten Minutes
by Yuchuan Wang and Vivian Yang
On the evening of May 31, 2023, JD.com officially launched the 618 Grand Promotion, the largest mid-year shopping festival in China. In a phenomenal display of consumer enthusiasm, over 23% more brands achieved the RMB 100-million-yuan sales milestone within the first ten minutes compared to the previous year. Additionally, an impressive 60% of newly onboarded merchants soared past their daily average sales volume for May, and 50% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) reported their sales skyrocketing by more than 200%.
This year’s JD 618 Grand Promotion marks the 20th birthday for JD.com and offers more than ten times the number of items as those featured during the 10-billion-yuan discount program, which launched in March. The vast selection comprises over 200 of the most in-demand items and nearly ten thousand best-selling products spanning a diverse range of categories.
Upon the event’s opening, consumers in over 300 cities across the country received their pre-ordered parcels within a matter of minutes. JD.com’s dedication to excellent service, through its proprietary logistics network built since 2007, ensures the delivery of the same or next-day orders nationwide, affirming its “place an order in the morning and receive it in the afternoon” commitment. Today, the unmatched service covers 10 million products and to consumers nationwide.
JD’s on-demand retail service also showcased its advantages immediately. Within the first ten minutes of the promotion’s launch, customers in over 700 counties and cities throughout the country received their orders. The first on-demand delivery through JD Shop Now arrived at a customer’s doorstep in Changsha city within just nine minutes.
Data highlights from the shopping festival collected between 8:00 PM and 8:10 PM on May 31, 2023 include the following:
- A 23% year-on-year increase of brands surpassing a transaction volume of over RMB 100 million within the first ten minutes of the 618 promotion
- Apple’s transaction volume surpassed RMB 100 million in just one second
- Nearly 50% of small and medium-sized merchants have seen their transaction volume increase by over 200% year-on-year
- Transaction volume for home appliances and home furnishings exceeded RMB 5 billion
- Transaction volume for durian increased by more than three times year-on-year
- Transaction volume for men’s and women’s apparel increased by over 120% year-on-year
- Transaction volume for road bikes and cycling apparel increased by over 100% year-on-year
- Transaction volume for new energy vehicle tires increased by nine times year-on-year
- Within five minutes, transaction volume of JD’s cross-border platform JD Worldwide exceeded the total sales of the first two hours from last year
- A near 400% year-on-year increase in merchant usage of JD Cloud’s Yanxi Digital Human livestreaming service compared with the same period from last year’s Single’s Day promotion
- A 100% year-on-year increase in transaction volumes for 150 skincare and beauty brands, including prestigious names like YSL, Helena Rubinstein, Shu Uemura, Proya, and Lancome
- Transaction volume of luxury brands including Bulgari, Tiffany & Co., Bottega Veneta, and Givenchy increased threefold year-on-year.
- Fifteen watch brands, including Longines, Tissot, and Mido, doubled their sales year-on-year
- Entrepreneur and internet celebrity Luo Yonghao joined JD Livestreaming and sold an apartment at 61.8% of the full price, saving over RMB 1.2 million for the consumer
- Electronic product services saw a transaction volume boost of 160% year-on-year
- Trade-in services for home appliances and home furnishing products experienced a transaction volume surge of over 120% year-on-year
Nov 12, 2022|
In-depth: Eight Categories of Value Revealed in 2022 Singles’ Day Consumption Trends in China
by Vivian Yang and Doris Liu
JD.com reported a new record in transactions during the 2022 Singles’ Day Grand Promotion (SDGP), which ended at midnight on Friday, November 11. The 11-day shopping festival was participated in by an increased number of users and achieved higher-than-industry growth rate, manifesting the vitality and big potential of China’s consumption market.
“The ongoing trend of a consumption upgrade is mainly reflected in people’s consumption structure and improvement in industrial efficiency,” said Hui Liu, director of JD’s Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute, at the 2022 SDGP media open day on November 11.
Hui Liu at media open day of JD.com’s 2022 Singles’ Day Grand Promotion
Liu stated that the next phase of China’s consumption growth will be driven by deeper connections between merchants and consumers, and among all participants along the industrial chain, including online and offline sellers, industrial belts, farmers and more. JD’s sales data revealed that they are collectively generating value in the following eight dimensions:
1. Time value: the long-termism of consumption
Consumers have cooled down on spur-of-the-moment purchases, instead enthusiastically investing in products that can bring high-value and long-term returns, such as products for health, fitness and education, as well as services that help save their own time.
JD Health’s SDGP data showed that more than 1,600 nutrition brands doubled their YoY transaction volume, and online consultations with JD Pet Health increased 3.3 times. Over the past five years, service consumption has been expanding from family needs, to sports, health, pet care and more scenarios. Sales of life-related services increased 30 times, that of car maintenance grew 20 times, and bookings for health services were up by 7 times.
Noticeably, JD’s 30-day price guarantee program, which promises price difference return upon request in order to free users from the hassles of comparing prices and snapping coupons, was accessed more than 500 million times in JD’s App during this year’s SDGP.
JD Pharmacy enables convenient health products delivery from offline drug stores
2. Environmental value: rising consciousness of responsible consumption
Keyword searches of “energy-saving,” “green,” “low-carbon,” “organic” and others alike surged dramatically on JD.com. This May, JD launched the “Green Impact Initiative,” which made nearly a million kinds of products on its platform more identifiable with environmentally-friendly labels.
JD Home Appliances’ highly welcomed trade-in services reached seven-fold YoY growth in number of orders. It also means that during this SDGP, every 2 out of 10 home appliances orders on JD.com enjoyed this service. Many users traded in their old washing machines or fridges in exchange for upgraded appliances, or even cross-category choices, primarily smart phones or watches.
JD Logistics estimated that during this SDGP, its green supply chain operations reduced a total of 200,000 tons of carbon, which involves 9 million uses of recyclable packages – avoiding approximately 80,000 tons of one-off packaging waste. One hundred million product packages were delivered with their original packaging boxes from the factories in collaboration with more than 20,000 brand partners. The company also engaged its end-users to raise awareness of green logistics throughout the SDGP.
A JD courier is delivering products with a recyclable “Green Stream Box”
3. Cultural value: “China-chic” inspired by traditional culture
The phenomenon of “China-chic” has been a booming trend among Chinese Gen-Z. According to JD’s data, over the past four years, merchants featuring “China-chic“ increased 240 percent, the amount of products increased 99 percent and new brands under this category grew by 68 percent. On the consumer’s side, shoppers of these products increased 90 percent, and sales were up by 284 percent.
SDGP data shows that sales of products with “China-chic” elements increased 124 percent YoY. On the super day of J Shop during SDGP, JD’s omni-channel fashion and lifestyle business, the transaction volume of wristwatches with Chinese art designs rose more than five times YoY.
In the cosmetics category, 299 brands achieved transaction growth of more than 10 times YoY, and 952 brands more than doubled their transactions, of which 239 are domestic brands.
The J Shop in Xi’an
4. Emotional value: shopping in pursuit of positive feelings
Products and services that can serve as sources of comfort, exquisiteness, pleasure and similar good feelings are well received in the Chinese market.
Take rocking chairs and lazy sofas as examples. They maintained annual growth rates at 77 and 56 percent respectively over the past five years. Meanwhile, sleep-inducing products such as scented candles and aromatherapy steam eye masks have wooed many young customers.
During SDGP, more than 200 trending categories that satisfy such needs achieved more than 100 percent sales growth YoY, including ready-to-cook food, hi-tech kitchenware, warm-protection outfit, regimen products, chic skiing equipment, e-sports gears, and more.
JD’s 24/7 Service Centre is in full operation for 2022 SDGP
5. Exploratory value: hidden skills unlocked by consumption
Consumers, instead of simply following the latest trends or updates, tend to try new products to satisfy their curiosity and explore more possibilities from purchases. For instance, the rise of home organizing explores the reasonable use of limited space, while the popularity of ready-to-cook food inspires consumers to explore cooking and food appreciation.
New products are a key driving force for overall consumption, with 79 percent of consumers expressing strong interest in them, according to JD’s data. Notably, the transaction volume growth of new products is always faster than the overall increase of the category to which the product belongs. The new product transaction volume of mobile phones, computers and digital products accounted for more than 70 percent, and the categories of food and lifestyle also saw a significant increase in new product transactions.
The proportion of new product orders from JD Little Rubik’s Cube, a marketing channel to promote new products, in the overall orders went up 3.3 times in 2022 SDGP, with the conversion rate of new product orders up 3.7 times compared with last year, which is 26 percent higher than the overall conversion rate.
Fresh supply from JD’s soilless “vegetable factory” to 7Fresh supermarket
6. Value of a positive circle: quality improvement + agriculture promotion in rural revitalization
Premium products with geographic indications (GIs) from all over China have not only upgraded consumers’ dining quality, but have also effectively raised farmers’ income. With the advantages of supply chain, JD.com has built a model of direct sourcing from the origin to reduce cost and improve efficiency, creating a positive cycle formed by high-quality agricultural products from the supply side and consumption upgrade from the demand side.
JD’s data shows that the continuous infrastructure improvement in rural areas and the development of technology have bolstered the share of online sales of GI products to over 10 percent of the overall agricultural products in transaction volume, indicating an obvious consumption trend and a sustainable path for high-quality agricultural products.
During this year’s SDGP, nearly 10,000 kinds of agricultural products exceeded RMB 100,000 yuan in transaction volume, and about 30 percent of grain, oil, tea and other primary processing agricultural products achieved more than 100 percent growth.
Livestreaming onsite in a coffee beans farm in Yunnan province supported by JD.com
7. Value for integration: Omni-channel reshaping retail industry
By merging the borders of online and offline shopping, the omni-channel retailing model extensively integrates physical and digital channels, resources and capabilities to bring the ultimate experience to consumers while stimulating greater consumer potential.
At the moment, tens of thousands of physical stores are under JD’s management, including 15,000 JD home appliance stores and other new businesses, such as the J Shop, which focuses on fashion and lifestyle. JD’s supply chain has been connected to 3.67 million offline stores in China, with its on-demand retail covering nearly 400 cities nationwide, substantially enhancing the digitalization and fulfillment capability of brick-and-mortar stores.
Additionally, JD Malls, JD Super Experience Stores and JD home appliance flagship stores, which offer traditional electronic categories as well as home, furniture and products, saw transaction volume jump up by 140 percent YOY. Meanwhile, sales at JD’s physical lifestyle stores increased by 4 times during the 2022 SDGP.
A JD Mall in Shenyang of Liaoning province powered by Dada Now’s on-demand delivery services
8. Value for inclusiveness: continuing to boost the real economy
While ensuring the stability and efficiency of JD’s own supply chain, the company is opening up its capabilities to external partners to share universal value in a larger industrial ecosystem and help traditional industries upgrade digitally.
It has partnered with more than 2,000 brands for C2M (customer to manufacturer). Furthermore, 620,000 smart decisions were made by JD’s intelligent supply chain system covering replenishment and allocation to fulfillment and more during JD’s 618 Grand Promotion this year, realizing an intelligent supply chain collaboration with suppliers of 81.2 percent of self-operated stores.
JD is bringing Jingdezhen ceramics and porcelain with new demand and development opportunities
As a new type of real economy-based enterprise, JD.com will continue to provide solid and stable supply chain technology and services to its partners in the real economy, promoting rural revitalization, manufacturing upgrade and offline retail development to create concrete value for all industries.
Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Retail elaborated on the company’s role in the real economy
As JD Retail’s CEO Lijun Xin said in the beginning of SDGP this year, “JD.com has real economy DNA, by virtue of our people, warehouses and products across the world. JD.com will always be an integral part along with our partners in building value for the growth of the real economy.”
Celebrating the Heartwarming Bond Between Humans and Pets: JD Pet’s Inaugural Ceremony
