Aug 12, 2020|
JD Eyes 20 E-space, 300 Flagship and 5000 Township Stores by 2025
by Martin Li
JD.com plans to open 20 JD E-Space experience stores in first tier cities by 2025, Yan Xiaobing, Senior Vice President of JD.com and President of JD Electronics and Home Appliance, announced at the press conference on Aug.12th.
The press conference was held to mark JD’s official ownership of home appliance chain store 5Star. JD completed the acquisition of the remaining 54% of equity in 5STAR.combining with the previous 46% stake, this acquisition makes 5Star a wholly-owned subsidiary of JD.com.
“JD will also open 300 home appliance flagship stores in second and third tier cities on a one-city-one-store basis and 5,000 stores in towns and villages by 2025,” said Yan.
“All of these new stores, combined with the existing 15,000 JD Home Appliance Stores, will create a new offline JD (in terms of electronics and home appliance business),” he added. The 15,000 stores have covered 25,000 townships and 600,000 villages.
Yan Xiaobing speaks at the ceremony on Aug.12th.
The 20 new E-Space stores will be 50,000 and 100,000 square meters in size. JD’s E-Space, which made its debut on Singles Day (November 11th) 2019 in Chongqing, enables consumers to try virtually anything within the store, and provides experiences from driving go-karts, to taking baking classes and even taking washing machines for a spin with real clothes.
Each of the 300 offline home appliance stores will be 10,000 to 20,000 square meters in size. These stores are expected to complete the offline network of JD’s direct-to-consumer home appliance business.
The acquisition of the remaining shares of 5Star is expected to further optimize JD’s electronics and home appliances supply chain, and improve its omnichannel capabilities.
5Star will be renamed JD 5STAR Group Limited and maintain independent operation.
5Star’s subsidiary stores will gradually carry the new name and undergo digital upgrade to function as product demonstration, customer experience and membership service centers.
5Star was established in 1998 and has annual sales over RMB 18 billion yuan. It is the third largest home appliance chain-store in China, only after Suning and Gome. The company owns more than 1,000 stores.
All 5Star stores have primarily achieved integration of offline and online products. 40% of the sales at stores come from online traffic, according to Pan Yiqing, president of the new company.
JD led in omnichannel sales of home appliances in China in the first half of this year, according to the report by China Electronics and Information Industry Development Research Institute.
“The COVID-19 pandemic took its toll on the home appliance industry in the first of this year. JD’s acquisition of 5Star could play a key role in driving the industry’s transformation,” said Jiang Feng, director of China Household Electrical Appliances Association.
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.
ExxonMobil Introduced “China VI” Standard Products on JD’s “Super Brand Day”
