by Vivian Yang

During JD.com’s Chinese New Year (CNY) Grand Promotion in the past two weeks, ambassadors and diplomats to China from 15 countries including Malaysia, Pakistan, South Africa, Uruguay and others sent their best wishes through videos and livestreaming to consumers at JD.com, while they enthusiastically recommended their countries’ specialties as Chinese people engage in the Spring Festival shopping.

It is a tradition for Chinese people to make special purchases – food in particular, ahead of the Spring Festival(CNY’s Day) with the highlight of a multi-course family dinner on the eve of the new year, which will fall on January 22 this year， ushering in the Chinese lunar new year of the rabbit.

A Chinese meal with imported food and wine

Ambassadors from Thailand, Moldova and Denmark visited SEVEN FRESH, the omni-channel grocery store under JD.com to personally experience the festival preparation atmosphere with local Beijing residents, and enjoyed a special Chinese-style banquet, on January 10, 2023.

Designed by William Wu, the star chef of SEVEN FRESH, the menu manifested the fusion of Chinese tastes with a variety of imported ingredients from countries the ambassadors represent, including black tiger prawns and rice from Thailand, pork from Denmark and wines from Moldova.

Moldovan ambassador to China H.E. Dumitru Braghis was delighted to invite all guests to appreciate the color and flavor of the wines and explained Moldova’s well-established wine industry and long history that offers classic quality wines for Chinese consumers’ choices.

“It’s simply astonishing what you can buy online here in China,” marveled H.E. Dorthe Lange, ambassador-rank Deputy Head of Mission of Embassy of the Kingdom of Denmark at the variety of products from all over the world that are available for Chinese customers. Besides the famous Danish butter cookies, Ms. Lange also recommended Danish seafood, pork products and beers as good choices for new year grocery shopping.

Thai ambassador H.E. Atthayut Srisamoot and his wife Mrs.Kamoltip Srisamoot showed more familiarity with Chinese cuisine and the trend of ready-to-eat food. They recommended all kinds of Thai curries, Tom Yum Kung and other prepared cooking products with which customers can easily make delicious Thai dishes at home.

National pavilions and imported live lobsters 

With the development of international cold-chain logistics, JD.com has been enhancing efforts in importing more fresh products globally to meet the increasing demand from Chinese consumers. During this year’s CNY sales, the transaction volume of frozen products directly procured by JD Fresh saw strong growth compared with the sales data from last year’s shopping festival, such as black tiger prawns from Thailand (up by 2 times), beef from Argentina (up by4 times), shrimps from Greenland of Denmark(up by 6 times), whereas the transaction volume of live lobsters jumped over 10 times compared with last month. These lobsters are harvested ashore from Canada and delivered to Chinese consumers in as soon as 17 hours through JD’s e-commerce platform, fresh and at a good price.

To facilitate more high-quality products to access the Chinese market, JD.com introduced the National Pavilions project which is supported by embassies, trade associations, and other official institutions, to serve as a window for products of each country to be more identifiable all in one portal and help merchants to test the water of the Chinese market. As of now, nearly 100 national pavilions are set up on JD.com, greatly enriching Chinese consumers’ shopping choices for the new year as strong sales are seen on Italian olive oil, Cyprus’ blue wine, South American mate drink and many more products.

This year marks the 11^th year in a row that JD Logistics commits to non-stop delivery service during the CNY holidays, as part of the company’s commitment to satisfy consumers whenever and wherever they need.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)