Vivian Yang and Yuchuan Wang

Xianfeng Wang and Danhua Nie are two JD.com employees in Tibet. When the company was looking for talent to break the ground for e-commerce development in the “roof of the world”, Wang and Nie immediately jumped on this opportunity with the mission to march onto the market and sow the seed of e-commerce to support the growth of partners and farmers there.

With an area of over 1.2 million square kilometers, Tibet is more than two times the size of France but its population, 3.5 million, is only about 1/20 of France. With longer days and strong UV rays at 4 km altitude on average, Tibet is the home to a lot of unique produce, such as Nyingchi apple, high-land barley, ganoderma (a type of fungi) and Yak meat.

“Challenging transportation infrastructure have made it hard to sell local agricultural products and deliver goods in,” said Wang. “Deliveries from other provinces to Tibet normally take at least 10 days.”

What’s more challenging is the physical impact of the harsh environmental conditions on Wang and Nie. They are originally from Hebei and Jiangxi provinces respectively in China’s plain areas and it is their first time to live in such a high altitude environment. “I felt a huge pressure in my chest and I wasn’t able to breathe freely. My head ached and felt like there was a swarm of bees stinging it,” said Nie. It wasn’t until the third day that the symptoms got weaker.

In Tibet, JD is leveraging its expertise in e-commerce and logistics to enable local people. Wang and Nie are the pioneers. They will focus on different work areas in Tibet based on their respective expertise.

Wang has rich experience in e-commerce operations and cross-team coordination at JD. His first role in the new post is to act as the chief organizer of the Nyingchi Peach Blossom Festival which lasts from Mar. 15 to Apr. 20 this year. To do this, he needed not only to manage all the exhibition and promotional activities offline in the local festival venues but also to pull together JD’s resources to do simultaneous online marketing activities.

Danhua Nie (third from the left) visited a local farm

Wang said that to prepare for the festival, he needed to get up at 5 a.m. to arrange exhibition logistics. He spent the daylight hours dashing around their booths and livestreaming spots, then continued to do product selection through midnight.

“Building up the fundamental infrastructure and operational capabilities for JD’s online pavilions for Tibetan specialties is the main goal of my current work here. And I’m eager to explore new models to help local produce to access the outside market,” said Wang.

Xianfeng Wang (left) talks with a local farmer

Nie’s mission is to first emphasize helping local farms to set up all relevant standards so as to supply reliable products on the e-commerce platform. As a veteran who has been working in the agricultural field for the past ten years, his know-how about products and their supply chain management helped him negotiate with local partners. It also requires tremendous passion and patience for him to explain the basics to different people he has been visiting non-stop at the local production bases.

“You need to have a healthy body, a strong mind and capable working skills to take on this job,” said Nie, knowing in heart that there are so many things awaiting him to do on the ground, ranging from products selection, system backend construction, logistics, marketing and operations. “JD’s good reputation and in supply chain and logistics have laid a solid foundation for us to communicate and work with the local people,” Nie added.

Guided by the goal of finding differentiated local products, Wang and Nie have been climbing up the mountains for wild saussurea involucrata (an herb also known as “snow lotus” that is used in Traditional Chinese Medicine), tasting special yogurt and peppers for the first time in their lives in small farms, or dressing in local costumes to feel the differences between textiles.

Xianfeng Wang (first from the right) is tasting fruits with his partners in Tibet

During this process, both of them also noticed that some commodity prices on the local market are much higher than those in big cities. Take potatoes as an example, the wholesale price can be as high as RMB 6 yuan/kg (compared with around RMB 2 yuan/kg in Beijing) as Nie pointed out. Transportation difficulty to remote areas, damages in the transportation process, and multi-layer transactions in the traditional sales model all contribute to the price markup.

“We hope that through our hard work and collaboration with local partners, we can help local people enjoy the benefits of e-commerce with better quality products, equal price and same or next-day delivery service,” Nie envisioned.

“I want to train some ‘apprentices’ here in the coming two years, letting more local young people carry forward this meaningful cause of using e-commerce to benefit the local economy,” Wang added.

Dreams are becoming realities. On Jan. 1, 2021, an integrated warehousing and distribution center was opened in Lhasa, the autonomous region’s capital, by JD Logistics. It will serve as an important logistics infrastructure to drive up supply chain efficiency for the local economy, with priority on the promotion of local agricultural products. Nyingchi apples can now reach the greater nationwide market by the same and next-day delivery provided by JD.

And for Nie, he has another important goal in serving in Tibet: “I also want to use my actions to tell my 7-year-old son that a man should create value for society.”

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com, yuchuan.wang@jd.com )

by Yuchuan Wang

JD Global Sales, JD.com’s outbound cross-border business, announced today it has launched consolidated shipping service in 16 markets including the U.S, Canada, Australia, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong and more, enabling customers to enjoy a more convenient cross-border shopping experience.

The consolidated shipping service will enable products purchased from both JD’s first-party business and third-party merchants to be shipped in the same parcel for the first time. Consumers’ orders will be transported by JD to the consolidated shipping warehouse in Chinese mainland first, and then combine into one package for cross-border fulfillment.

“Compared with the normal direct shipping model, the consolidated shipping service provides an even easier and economical solution for our global customers,” said Chris Cui, head of JD Global Sales.

To meet increasing demand from global consumers, JD Global Sales also created the “cross-border experiencer” project recently to invite customers to experience JD’s services including registration, searching, order placing, logistics, aftersales and more; giving participants the opportunity to propose suggestions and preferences to help JD Global Sales optimize the customer experience.

JD Global Sales has seen rapid growth of its business in the past year, with sales volume of orders placed by overseas Chinese on the platform having increased 251% YOY in 2020.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

JD will bring tailor-made fresh milk to customers via its in-house cold chain logistics spanning the whole fulfillment process, beginning on Apr. 22. The milk will be sold via JD’s omni-channel platforms, including its e-commerce platform and offline supermarket chain SEVEN FRESH, and others.

Created by JD Fresh and New Hope Dairy, the milk is a pasteurized version with a seven-day shelf life. Customers can be assured of freshness thanks to JD’s ability to send the milk to customers’ doorsteps the same day that it is produced.

“We saw more and more customers care about a healthy lifestyle,” said Hui Yang, from JD Fresh’s fresh and frozen food department.  “They tend to buy milk with higher protein. Through the partnership with New Hope Dairy, we can not only meet the requirement from the product side, but also narrow down the middle suppliers from production to sales, as well as source the milk from the 100% dairy farm rather than captive breeding, ensuring the highest quality and making it cost-effective.”

The low-temperature fresh milk has market potential, though it has faced challenges such as short shelf life and the far distance from the dairy farm to sales destinations, with problems in transportation making it hard to reach to lower-tier markets.

Under the partnership, both companies can provide customers with milk from 11 dairy farms across China, with 150,000 cows in total, as well as two pasteurization production lines in Hebei and Zhejiang. More importantly, the network can be connected with JD’s 87 temperature-controlled cold chain warehouses covering 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, enabling fast and safe logistics and last mile delivery service.

Yang added, “Going forward, we will develop more new products, such as a low-fat version, with an aim to consistently match customers’ demands.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

JD Daojia (JDDJ) expanded its on-demand delivery service to cover 500 offline computer and digital products stores in Henan province on Apr. 16, under the support of JD and a local service provider. Customers in Henan will be able to enjoy on-demand delivery service of electronic products, including customers from lower-tier markets.

The stores will also obtain support from JD on digital transformation, traffic and more resources. As digital transformation and omni-channel have become the trend for offline stores, launching the stores on JDDJ will enable them to receive more orders from the platform and reach more customers. On-demand retail platforms like JDDJ will offer new shopping scenarios for customers beyond offline stores or traditional online platforms.

“Through working with the stores, JDDJ can provide on-demand delivery service to more areas in Henan and improve customers’ shopping experience,” said Yan Shang, general manager of JDDJ Henan branch. “More stores from Henan will join JDDJ, and we hope to achieve full coverage of on-demand delivery of electronics and digital products in Henan.”

The trend of on-demand delivery service has expanded from consumer goods products to electronics, digital products and more. When Lenovo Y7000 P and HP OMEN 6 debuted on JD, JD Computer and Digital Products stores worked with JDDJ to deliver the new products to customers on demand for the first time.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD Beauty, the beauty division of JD.com, along with the beauty business of Kuaishou, China’s leading video sharing and livestreaming platform, announced on Apr.15 to release the Gemini Program, through which both sides will explore in-depth cooperation in building brands, marketing promotion, industrial belt branding construction and KOLs cultivation.

“Livestreaming is an innovative way to sell many products, especially beauty products. KOLs can have a try of beauty products themselves and show consumers the real effects through livestreaming,” said Terry Wang, general manager of JD Beauty.

“JD’s cooperation with Kuaishou will bring a convenient and seamless shopping experience to Chinese consumers while offering them authentic beauty products in an efficient manner,” Wang added.

JD Beauty will rely on its supply chain strength to provide authentic and high-quality beauty products for Kuaishou and take advantage of its nationwide logistics network to provide efficient logistics services to consumers. In return, Kuaishou will train a group of KOLs to continuously offer livestreaming services for JD Beauty. In addition, Kuaishou will provide preferential traffic support to JD Beauty. For the development of industry belt brands, both sides will provide one-on-one livestreaming guidance, traffic and resources to local beauty brands, aiming to assist in local economic development. Furthermore, both JD and Kuaishou will provide professional training to KOLs, and those with high sales performance will have the privilege to choose products as a reward.

JD Retail announced a strategic partnership with Kuaishou in May 2020 to develop a short video e-commerce livestreaming ecosystem. Through the cooperation, Kuaishou users are able to purchase JD’s first party products without leaving the Kuaishou app, and enjoy fast delivery and after-sales service provided by JD.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

The online expo project that JD iCity, the intelligent city unit of JD Technology, created for the China-South Asia Online Expo 2020 was awarded by the Yunnan government as a model case of the city’s digital intelligence implementation on Apr. 20. This recognition reinforced the company’s strong capabilities in providing technological solutions for large-scale international exhibition activities online.

Under the theme of “The Everlasting China-South Asia Online Expo 2020,” the digital event was held from Dec. 12 to 18 in 2020, and served as an important platform to boost trade during COVID-19 in South Asia, Southeast Asia and even on the global scale. More than 8,000 exhibitors and 6,000 buyers from over 100 countries and regions participated in the 7-day expo, which saw imports and export deals reach an overall amount of RMB 81 billion yuan, making it the most participated event with the widest coverage in the history of the expo, spanning all provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China for the first time.

As the official technology provider of the expo, JD iCity’s cloud team leveraged advanced technologies in cloud computing, AI, big data, IoT, 5G and more to build an efficient and immersive experience for all – its meeting system can accommodate more than 1,000 users to conduct real-time online communications. Other smart functions such as real-time translation, 24/7 intelligent customer service, VR display and AI-powered livestreaming content review all helped to maximize the effectiveness of both B2B and B2C interaction scenarios.

“JD’s cloud-based digitally intelligent exhibition solution has been tested and proven to be successful in a number of online exhibition events, such as China International Fair for Trade in Services and more,” said Donghai Yang, head of JD iCity’s Yunnan team. “We are confident that JD’s mature and unique technological capacity can empower more national and international level exhibition events in the future.”

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

 

 

by Ella Kidron

JD.com hosted a charity auction in collaboration with Swiss watch brand H. Moser & Cie. and The One Foundation, the auction took place on Apr. 14 at midnight and concluded on Apr. 18 at 19:00. The final price of the one of a kind Swiss Alp Watch Infinite Reboot was RMB 388,000 yuan after 16 rounds of bidding, up from its starting price of RMB 238,000 yuan. All proceeds from the auction go towards supporting children’s welfare through H. Moser & Cie.’s partnership with The One Foundation.

RMB 388,000 yuan final price of the H. Moser Swiss Alp Watch Infinite Reboot at conclusion of auction

Of the watch itself, a spokesperson commented: “The item is devoid of logo, indices, and hands. Its dial features only a mechanical disc reminiscent of the symbol one sees when a computer program is loading, turning constantly to reflect the ceaseless march of time…It is a symbol of the infinite, of the relativity of time and of the headlong rush in which society is caught, ever more connected, ever more virtual. Here comes a fundamental question: in the face of extreme digitization and excess, could it now be time for a complete reboot?”

Online auctions have become increasingly popular, and JD Auction is a platform of choice thanks to its reliability and commitment to authenticity. The platform has auctioned products in over 40 primary categories and covering over 200 sub-categories. Everything from mansions to jewelry to famous calligraphy works and high quality alcohol can be found on JD Auction, meeting consumer needs for rare collectibles as well as everyday use products.

JD Auction has held several online charity auctions. Last November, in cooperation with JD Foundation, the platform hosted a charity auction to promote China’s intangible cultural heritage. All funds received from the auction of craft masters’ works were used to help women in impoverished areas and ethnic minority groups to encourage their pursuits of art and cultural creations.

 

(ella@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD’s online donation platform, the “JD Giving Platform”, was highlighted in the company’s first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report issued on Apr. 16. Leveraging JD’s self-operated e-commerce network, the JD Giving Platform was created to provide charity programs with integrated support.

“One-click donation and direct supply distribution with transparency is a new model that JD has created to fulfill its social responsibility,” said Baozheng Long, vice president of JD.com and vice chair and secretary of JD Foundation. “JD’s strength in technology, logistics network, and ecommerce platform make it possible for JD to not only offer help itself, but also mobilize people from all walks of society to make their own contribution to make the world better.”

This platform, created by JD’s charity affiliate JD Foundation, is the first Internet fundraising information platform recognized by the Ministry of Civil Affairs of People’s Republic of China. The platform creates social value and drives everyone to participate in philanthropy.

Through the platform, charity organizations can not only raise money from individual consumers but also use JD’s supply chain, distribution network, technical support and customer service to guarantee the donations reach their intended recipients. More importantly, the platform has provided consumers with a transparent and reliable donation experience. Through JD’s official app, more than 470 million consumers can learn about various charity programs and purchase materials to help people in need. The materials are delivered directly to the charity program by JD’s efficient logistics system. In this way, JD’s business network and logistics system offer a convenient way to connect consumers with trusted charity programs, and donations can be completed with just one click.

The platform features two major functions, with one of them supporting used materials recycling, including clothing, toys and books, and the other function supporting money donation and one-click purchasing of materials from JD to be donated to people in need. So far, people have purchased 3.61 million new items for donation, and nearly 4 million idle items have been recycled through the platform.

So far, JD has partnered with dozens of Chinese official NGOs, such as China Social Welfare Foundation, One Foundation, China Women’s Development Foundation, and Wardrobe of Love, to enlarge JD’s radius of impact in helping people in need.

From 2019-2020, JD.com initiated several rounds of a clothing recycling project, “Exchange Old Clothes for Love” Clothes Donation, in partnership with China Charity Federation to help children with premature heart disease. Through customer orders placed on the platform and the free home collection service of JD’s express service, the project successfully recycled more than 473,000 pieces of clothes in 90 cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing and Shenyang. While nurturing community awareness of public welfare, it is also a lively practice of promoting low-carbon lifestyles, emissions reductions, and waste classification.

In cooperation with Li-Ning, the well-known Chinese sportswear and sports equipment company founded by Olympic gymnastics champion Li Ning; World of Art Brut Culture (WABC), a Shanghai NGO devoted to supporting special needs individuals through creative art therapy treatment; and Paipai, a second-hand commodity trading platform; JD has initiated a CSR project to raise public awareness and money for children with autism. Socks made from recycled bottles with paintings drawn by children with autism were sold on JD, with thousands sold out within the first 6 hours of launching. All the money raised through this program on the JD Giving Platform was donated to children with autism.

JD Foundation was created on September 24, 2014 with the mission of advocating corporate responsibility for a higher quality of life, and supporting public welfare. Led by the ideas of social innovation and entrepreneurship, JD Foundation organizes charitable activities in the fields of poverty alleviation, education, and environmental protection. In 2020, JD Foundation donated around RMB 200 million yuan. JD Giving Platform raised RMB 19.77 million yuan and more than 850,000  charitable items.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)