Jun 19, 2023|
JD.com’s 2023 618 Grand Promotion: Surpassing Expectations and Setting New Records
by Vivian Yang
JD.com announced the successful conclusion of JD.com’s 2023 618 Grand Promotion today, which concluded at 23:59 on June 18. The event surpassed all growth expectations, delivering remarkable results for brand merchants and cementing JD.com’s position as an industry leader.
Sandy Xu, CEO of JD.com, emphasized during a ceremony in celebration of JD.com’s 20th anniversary on the same day that “diverse selections, fast delivery, high quality, and cost savings remain at the forefront of JD’s mission to serve our valued users.”
More: Diverse Selections
This year’s JD618 saw an unprecedented level of participation from online brand merchants, accompanied by a substantial increase in the number of offline physical stores joining the event. Tens of thousands of JD offline stores, millions of cooperating offline stores connected through JD’s extensive supply chains, and JDDJ’s collaboration with over 380,000 offline stores—a staggering 80% year-over-year increase in participating stores—joined forces to provide one-hour delivery service to a wider user base. In a further demonstration of JD.com’s commitment to variety, the company introduced over 1,200 new trending categories, expanding and diversifying the range of products, brands, and merchants on its platform.
Faster: Speedy Delivery
During the peak period of the 618 event, starting at 8 pm on June 17, more than 95% of counties across China enjoyed same or next-day delivery, setting new industry benchmarks for convenience and efficiency. The JD Shop Now program, featuring a one-hour on-demand shopping service, delighted over 2,000 county-level consumers. Additionally, nearly 1,000 counties received their orders within a mere ten minutes of the event’s commencement. Leveraging the DaDa delivery service upgrade, JDDJ further enhanced its delivery speed by an average of six minutes, ensuring lightning-fast fulfillment for customers.
Better: High-Quality Service
This year’s 618 event showcased over 200 services designed to enhance the overall shopping experience, alongside over 80 industry-first or unique offerings. Powered by advanced AI technology, JD’s virtual hosts and smart customer service played a pivotal role in boosting merchants’ branding and marketing efforts throughout the event. JD’s Yanxi virtual host contributed to a staggering 246% increase in merchants’ transaction volume compared to last year’s Single’s Day Grand Promotion. Additionally, JD’s Yanxi smart chatbot provided 24/7 seamless and personalized customer service support.
Cheaper: Cost Saving
This year’s 618 featured over ten times the number of participating products in the billion-yuan discount program compared to March 2023. Users clicked the “One-Click Price Protection” option over 660 million times during the event, guaranteeing affordable and quality products. JD.com’s pioneering “price protection” service, established in 2008, has cumulatively saved its consumers nearly RMB 8 billion yuan.
On June 18, CEO Sandy Xu also revealed JD.com’s “35711 Vision” for the next two decades. The ambitious plan includes establishing three businesses with over RMB 1 trillion in revenue and RMB 70 billion in net profits, having five JD enterprises listed on the Fortune Global 500, and bringing seven publicly listed companies that started from zero to obtain a market value of RMB 100 billion. JD.com also aims to contribute RMB 100 billion in taxes and create over 1 million jobs, further driving economic growth and prosperity.
Apr 29, 2024|
JD.com Teams Up with Brands to Launch “Trade-in Alliance for Household Appliances and Home Goods”
JD.com recently announced the “Trade-in Alliance for Household Appliances and Home Goods” in collaboration with over 100 renowned brands. This initiative, unveiled on April 27, aims to expand and enhance trade-in services across China and has already been successfully implemented in 20 provinces and cities.
The Trade-in Alliance allows consumers to access JD’s trade-in services for an extensive range of products, covering over 200 subcategories including TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and more. The initiative caters to a growing demand, with more than 16 million users leveraging JD’s platform since 2023 to exchange their old household items for new ones. This represents a 200 percent increase in first-time users year-on-year.
To further enhance the customer experience, JD.com has introduced the “Three Free & Four Unlimited” trade-in service. This service includes complimentary door-to-door pickup, disassembly, and handling of old goods. Additionally, it places no restrictions on the trade-in items regarding their original purchase channel, brand, age, or condition. With just four simple clicks on the JD app, users can receive generous discounts from their old goods and enjoy the convenience of JD’s one-stop trade-in services.
JD.com also utilizes its logistical strengths to extend these services to even the most remote areas of China. For instance, customers living in Tibet at an elevation of 4,300 meters can now easily access JD’s trade-in options, including doorstep delivery and recycling of old appliances.
The Trade-in Alliance is built on six foundational pillars: service capabilities, brand support, marketing initiatives, industry chain synergies, omni-channel development, and category cooperation. By fostering closer partnerships with leading brands in the household appliance and home goods sectors, JD.com is setting a new standard for hassle-free trade-in services, offering unparalleled convenience and value to consumers nationwide.
Apr 22, 2024|
JD.com Debuts AI Digital Representative of Founder Richard Liu During Livestream, Drawing 20 Million Views in Under One Hour
During a livestream on April 16th, JD.com introduced an AI digital representative of its founder, Richard Liu (Qiangdong Liu), nicknamed “procurement and sales manager Brother Dong (采销东哥).” Liu appeared in both JD Home Appliances and JD Supermarket’s livestreaming rooms, attracting over 20 million views within the first hour and generating RMB 50 million in sales throughout the entire livestream.
The digital representative almost perfectly replicates Liu’s facial expressions, body language, gestures, and voice, capturing even the subtlest movements of his fingers. Behind this technology is JD Cloud’s ChatRhino, an advanced large language model (LLM) that brings the avatar to life.
Behind the Technology
The LLM precisely mirrors Liu’s distinctive expressions and movements, naturally weaving in his occasional finger twiddles while he speaks, accentuating points with hand gestures, and adding nods at just the right moments for emphasis, creating a natural and authentic representation. Perfecting the voice proved to be a greater challenge. Those who have heard Liu speak are well-acquainted with the distinct inflections of his Suqian accent—a characteristic touch from his small-town roots in Jiangsu province. Observers will note the brisk pace of his speech, lighter enunciation, and his tendency to meld words in a seamless flow. His “sh” sounds carry a nasal quality, and he often addresses people as “brothers” to boost morale.
While programming the standard Mandarin dialect is relatively straightforward, teaching the AI to adopt the nuances of the Suqian dialect and Liu’s unique vocal patterns required a precise level of customization from the ChatRhino LLM. For example, the LLM had to provide accurate judgments on when to introduce the nasal tonality or the specific moments to merge words, ensuring the AI’s linguistic output mirrored Liu’s signature speaking style authentically.
Beyond replicating vocal characteristics, the AI’s voice must also be suitable for the casual, dynamic atmosphere of e-commerce livestreaming, such as adopting colloquialisms like “xiong di men” — a phrase comparable to “folks” or “guys” in English — to create a friendly rapport with the audience. JD Cloud’s ChatRhino team fine-tuned the model to focus on sociable nuances. The initial dataset for the LLM consisted predominantly of Liu’s formal speeches—spirited and compelling, yet too ceremonious for the interactive world of livestreaming. To cultivate a more congenial and approachable persona, the team utilized Liu’s recent casual conversations as the primary source material, rich with personal anecdotes and travel tales. This approach shaped the AI’s voice into one that is that is not only natural and approachable but also genuinely engaging for the end user.
As a fully self-developed technology product of JD Cloud, the ChatRhino Digital Representative solution has already served over 4,000 brand merchants, contributing to a 30% increase in order conversion rate during idle hours and helping merchants reduce livestreaming costs, enhance operational efficiency, and optimize user experience. Equipped with 50,000 hours of voice data, this technology enables digital representatives to intelligently adapt to various livestreaming styles dynamically.
The AI is also adept at managing 70% of routine live chat inquiries autonomously without any manual intervention, while also optimizing its responses with a self-improving algorithm. For instance, digital representatives can autonomously fields questions using product details and scripts, and post-livestream, and assimilate new information. Mirroring the acumen of seasoned sales professionals, it boasts a 90% accuracy rate in offering tailored product recommendations when solicited by customers.
The recent introduction of a cutting-edge livestream control console serves as the “brain” for the digital representative solution. It diligently monitors real-time inventory, adjusting the showcased products in the livestream and tailoring the script to ensure relevance—sidestepping items that are out of stock and spotlighting those in high demand. It also gauges and fine-tunes the frequency and style of interactions based on live audience engagement. With this advanced platform, businesses managing multiple livestreams can effortlessly operate thousands of sessions concurrently via cloud services, bypassing the need for intricate local setups. This innovation yields a substantial cost reduction of 30%.
Human-Machine Synergy
The intention behind digital avatars is not to outshine or compete with human talent but to harness the potential of technology to work in concert with livestreamers, maximizing overall growth. Essentially, the digital representative solution serves as a tool for brands and merchants to leverage long-tail traffic once real livestreamers conclude their broadcasts. JD’s analytics indicate this strategy can boost order conversion rates by 30% during off-peak hours, such as late into the night.
Digital representatives also excel in specific product categories that require detailed explanations, such as health products like nursing beds, electric wheelchairs, and oxygen concentrators. The solution can provide constant, round-the-clock guidance, adding substantial value to livestreams when traffic is typically lower.
Last week, JD.com announced an investment of one billion yuan into video content creation. This investment underscores JD’s commitment to leveraging the power of short videos and livestreams to transform the online shopping experience for its users and create new growth avenues for brand merchants.
JD.com Announces “35711 Vision” for the Next Twenty Years
