Sep 14, 2020| JD Retail

JDer Lab #2 with Alexander Kremer: Rolling-up His Sleeves on the Frontlines to Get the Job Done

Ling Cao

by Kelly Dawson

JD.com’s more than 280,000 employees range from warehouse workers to world-renowned doctors, with a wide range of backgrounds and areas of expertise. In the next installment of our JDer Lab series, we speak to another JDer about what it’s really like to work for China’s largest retailer.

As a director in JD’s FMCFG Omnichannel division, Alexander Kremer manages special projects for category growth, profitability improvements and operations, primarily in the beer category.

One might expect that he would spend most of his time behind a desk—but as Kremer told us, he first got a taste of the company’s hands-on work culture when he was sent to Suqian, a Chinese city in northern Jiangsu province, to man a customer call center, an experience that really drove home how much the company values customers and high-quality service, he said. Unlike other companies, JD does not outsource customer service.

In his two years with the company Kremer has also served on some of JD’s other frontlines, as part of the company’s tradition of inviting “white collar” workers to support logistics and “last mile” delivery services during the annual 618 Grand Promotion and Singles Day (November 11^th) periods. “That’s exciting, because it’s a really important part of our business,” Kremer said. “I think it’s something that could only happen here [at JD].”

That tradition is just one of the many ways in which the team comes together to pull off the 618 (June 18) mid-year shopping festival, which this year grossed 269.2 billion yuan for the company. Kremer’s team put in extensive preparation and thought into making the promotion enjoyable and exciting for consumers, working closely with sales partners and celebrating with them as the promotion proved successful, he said.

These days Kremer is most excited about tackling omnichannel integration in JD’s supermarket division. As the company has expanded into different formats, including offline, multi-channel and online, customers can now expect even faster delivery—even within half an hour of purchase in some cases. As always, the goal is to ensure the customer receives their order as quickly as possible at reasonable cost, he said.

(kellydawson@jd.com)

Aug 5, 2021| JD Retail

JD Big Data Reveals Peak Hours of China’s Online Consumption

Siyi Zhao

by Siyi Zhao

China’s e-commerce platforms are witnessing a stampede of consumers rushing to place more orders from 8 to 11 pm, indicating a new shopping habit of the society, revealed by JD Big Data Research Institute.

According to JD’s big data, China’s online sales from 8 to 11pm, May 1 to July 1, had increased over 100% year-on-year. The main spike comes from the healthcare industry, in which there is a quintuple increase in medicine and a triple increase in fitness equipment. The waist machine, yoga resistance belt, and sit-up board are all among the highest selling products at night, suggesting that work-outs from home are becoming the routine for many people, especially white-collar workers.

Apart from the necessities, it is also revealed that people are spending their money for pastimes at night. Sales in alcohols, skincare and beauty products, as well as pet services have also surged by 100%.

Besides, it is surprising to find that the sharpest rise comes from the digital product branch, in which the sales have climbed by more than 500%, accounting for over half of the transactions of the whole day, which shows people tend to place orders of expensive digital products at night after a day of rational and meticulous shopping.

Summer has always been the peak period for annual travelling. With the tickets of those popular scenery sites becoming the best sellers at night time, the latest data from JD also shows the nascent development of the country’s tourism industry in traveling or visiting attractions.

The data also tells that the post 85’s are the bulk of the online night shoppers, contributing 40% of the total sales, and they place 51% of their orders at night. And the sales from white-collar workers takes up over 31% of the total volume, followed by sales from residents in small towns and college students, indicating that the high-income group is playing an active role in the nighttime economy.

In addition, having been upgraded constantly, Chinese online platforms currently empower the one-hour delivery service for consumers, even at night time. And data from JD Daojia (JDDJ) shows the 10 highest sales increase actually spread across the low-tier cities, suggesting the potential of the consuming power in small-scale cities and the popularization of the service is comprehensive in China.

(zhaosiyi5@jd.com)

Aug 2, 2021| JD Retail

JD Big Data: Five Consumption Trends in China’s E-Sports

Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD Big Data institute released a set of e-sports consumption data on July 30^th in conjunction with China’s largest gaming event ChinaJoy 2021. Five trends emerged from the latest data, reflecting Chinese consumers’ fast-growing interests in this market.

Strong growth across all categories

According to JD’s big data, China’s e-sports and gaming hardware products achieved over 50% sales growth in the first half of 2021 compared with the same period last year, with strong growth momentum seen in all key categories across gaming laptops, PCs and mobile phones.

Gaming laptops outshined the others in terms of market demand. The top 5 best-selling gaming laptop brands are Lenovo, ASUS, HP, MECHREVO and DELL; and the fastest growing brands in this category are Xiaomi, MACHENIK, Razer and Alienware, reaching quadruple growth rate in some cases.

Preferences of different age groups

Nintendo holds firm as China’s best-selling game consoles, whereas Sony’s PS5 topped the ranks in terms of transaction volume.

Playstation and Xbox continue to lead the mainstream of family computers. Switch and PSP take the lead in the handheld console market, while Chinese brands like Xiao Ba Wang, CoolBaby, PowKiddy are dominating the middle and low-end market.

JD’s survey also observed that consumers under 26 years old showed the strongest preference for Nintendo Switch. This age group has a preference score 1.5 and 3 times higher than people age between 26-35 and 36-46 respectively. Xbox wins more hearts of people older than 35 years old, and Playstation has a more evenly distributed preference among different age groups, with higher tendency from people between 30-35.

Female Gamers on the Rise

There’s a clear gender inclination in gaming products. JD’s data showed that 80% of PlayStation and Xbox are bought by male users. In comparison, Nintendo draws more female users as it offers more games for family fun. About 40% of Nintendo consoles are bought by women, and many men also claimed that they bought them as gifts for their girlfriends.

As more and more women are plugging in and turning onto games, Nintendo has introduced a variety of tailored products for female gamers, such as Dancing Dreamer, Ring Fit Adventure, and its neon pink and neon green editions.

Market Penetration

On the aspect of geographical distribution, gaming laptops are gaining wide popularity across the country, with customers from central China areas like Zhengzhou, Changsha, Chongqing, etc., emerging with strong demand.

People from Beijing, Wuhan and cities in east China purchased the most high-end gaming PCs. People from coastal regions in east China are also buying more gaming phones. Meanwhile, data shows that orders from consumers living in lower-tier markets in central and western regions for professional e-sports electronics such as computer mouse, keyboards and earphones are quickly increasing.

At the same time, gears of superstar e-sports teams are driving the sales and fashion of gaming products. During the recent game season, many equipment displayed during the game season are actively sought after, including JDG team’s gaming chairs and aseaT, FPX team’s Sensei Ten mouse and (G) PRO X7.1 earphone, and VG team’s (CHERRY)MX8.0 mechanical keyboards and HONOR HUNTER V700 gaming laptops and more.

Single Vs Married Game Shoppers

It’s not surprising to find that single men bought more gaming products than those who have tied the knot. As explained above, most PlayStation and Xbox are ordered by single men, while Switch users showed a more balanced marriage status.

Comparing to single men who buy gaming products, married men spent much less in this category.

A closer look of the expenditures split between the purposes of family use and self-use among married people who ever bought gaming products, the ratio is 50-50 for women and 40-60 for men. The good sign in this perhaps is that more and more women are buying things for themselves, and married men have manifested stronger family responsibility, not necessarily indicating that they cannot afford to spend more on games.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)