Other supplies and 200,000 RMB worth of masks in an hour

JD Data: Wuhan One Year On

Posted on Apr 8, 2021Oct 13, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

JD released a data report on consumption in Wuhan, Hubei province to mark the one year anniversary of the lifting of the lockdown in the city on Apr. 8. The data indicates the rapid post-lockdown recovery of Wuhan and Hubei province in general last year, particularly during the June 18 and Singles Day (Nov. 11) Grand Promotions.

In the first quarter of 2021, e-commerce consumption in Hubei was 52% higher than a year ago at this time. Compared with 2020, the first quarter of 2021 saw the highest users growth from middle-aged and senior consumers; the number of users aged 46-55 on JD 167% YOY. This age group not only flocked to e-commerce platforms during the pandemic but has stuck with the habit since then, explained Yao Chen of the JD Big Data Research Institute.

In stark contrast to being cooped up inside, enthusiasm for outdoor sports is high. Sales of cycling, sports and outdoor shoes and clothing in Hubei province have increased more than 10 times compared with the same period last year. Pets are also getting on the road, with pet travel related products also increasing more than 10 times YOY.

Selected highlights from JD’s data report

Many consumers who honed their cooking skills in lockdown have continued to perfect then. In the first quarter of 2021, sales of baking supplies and vegetables have increased over 10 times while condiments are up over five times.

On the other hand, the outbreak and the attention that was drawn to Wuhan has put the city on map for more travelers. A week before the Qingming Festival holiday, bookings for one-day tours in Wuhan were hugely popular, with Yellow Crane Tower, Yangtze River Bridge and the Hubei Provincial Museum becoming must-see attractions for travelers.

Sales of certain Wuhan related travel guides have also doubled since last year. Products from Hubei province such as Wuchang fish and Honghu lotus root are up five times, and famous hot and dry noodles have more than doubled YOY.

(ella@jd.com)

JD Data: The Rise of the “Treat Yourself” Economy in China

Posted on Apr 8, 2021Sep 27, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

Based on a report jointly released by JD Big Data Research Institute and Economic Daily last Friday, purchases for oneself consistently accounted for nearly 60% of user’s overall consumption in the past three years. The rise of the “treat yourself” economy (referring to purchases made for oneself) is a reflection of a shift in consumer mindset as well as pursuit of more enjoyment of life’s pleasures and self-improvement.

Dr. Yi Zhang of the JD Big Data Research Institute explained that the data shows female consumer habits oscillate overtime, with purchases for oneself as a proportion of total purchases rising in the 16-25 age bracket, and then falling as consumers build families around age 26-35, rising again as kids grow up when parents become empty nesters from 36-55, and then falling at 56 and up. Purchases for oneself tend to fall into two categories – enhancing physical appearance and overall self-improvement.

Consumption for oneself as a proportion of the total for male consumers, however, more or less demonstrates a steady decline in terms of making purchases for oneself which peak around 16-25, to buying more for the family as time goes on. Even when the proportion is at its lowest at 56 and up, however, it is still makes up a higher proportion than consumption for the family does.

In 2020, the top categories for purchases for oneself include medicine, pet life, health products, personal care and alcohol. It’s no surprise that under the influence of COVID-19, medical and healthcare products have risen significantly.

(ella@jd.com)

Huawei Becomes the First Brand to Have 50 Million Fans on JD.com

Posted on Apr 7, 2021Aug 16, 2021 by Hui Zhang

by Hui Zhang

JD.com announced on April 2 that the number of fans of Huawei’s first-party store on JD has surpassed 50 million, becoming the first brand on JD to do so.

To mark this milestone, Huawei will provide a series of promotion events and benefits such as RMB 1 yuan for Huawei Mate X2 trial, trade-in subsidies of up to RMB 350 yuan, and 20% off of maintenance fees. It has been less than a year since the number of fans of Huawei’s first-party store on JD surpassed 40 million last August.

The robust growth in the number of fans comes from the strong spending power of JD consumers, and JD’s reliable services that bring peace of mind to consumers who purchase Huawei products on the platform.

According to JD’s big data, sales of Huawei mobile phones in the first 10 minutes of Nov. 11, 2020 during JD’s Singles Day Grand Promotion increased by more than 100% YOY, with sales of Mate 40 exceeding RMB 100 million yuan in the first 7 seconds the same day. For Huawei’s new product Mate X2, which was launched in Feb., JD’s data revealed that the number of reservations on JD quickly exceeded 1 million, with the first batch of phones sold out in only a few seconds.

In addition to high-quality consumers, the premium services provided by JD, such as the 30-day worry-free refund, one-hour delivery, and free trial before payment, have also provided benefits and guarantees to Huawei’s fans.

“As an important mobile phone retail platform, JD will continue to maintain a close partnership with Huawei to further promote the brand’s reputation and sales growth, while working together with Huawei to continue providing high-quality product and services and thus bringing consumers convenient and premium services,” said Yong Duan, senior director of JD Mobile Devices.

JD and Huawei have a long history of collaboration and have made a lot of achievements. When Huawei debuted its flagship product Mate9 in 2016, sales on JD reached RMB 100 million yuan in just one minute. In the same year, JD launched a special one-hour delivery for Huawei’s Porsche design mobile phone. In 2018, Huawei joined hands with JD in IoT which made it possible for Huawei’s products such as mobile phones, routers, computers and more to be controlled by JD’s IoT system.

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

Ambassador of Denmark to China Visits JD.com

Posted on Apr 9, 2021Sep 22, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

Thomas Østrup Møller, Ambassador of Denmark to China, visited JD Beijing headquarters today for discussion on future cooperation opportunities. Anne Marie Engtoft Larsen, Denish Tech Ambassador, also joined the discussion online from Copenhagen.

Following a tour around JD headquarters, the JD team gave Ambassador Møller an introduction to the operations plan for the future Demark National Pavilion to be launched on JD Worldwide, JD’s platform for imported products. Also discussed was JD’s green supply chain program Green Stream Initiative, in which the ambassadors showed great interest. The ambassadors expressed their support for these on-going projects, and hope to extend the cooperation with JD to more areas, especially technology.

“Danish people are very creative and innovative. Danish brands are very popular among Chinese consumers, such as Lego, Danisa cookies and Ecco,” said Larry Lee, vice president of JD. “As the leading retailer in China, we hope to become the bridge between Chinese customers and Danish brands. For JD, technology plays an important role in the future development of the company, and we believe there will be cooperation opportunities between JD’s newly formed JD Technology business division and Denmark.”

“We are very happy with the current cooperation and greatly appreciate the opportunities that JD Retail and JD Health offers,” said Ambassador Møller. “Besides our current efforts to bring in more Danish brands, especially the SMEs, by forming a national pavilion on JD Worldwide, I also very much look forward to the further cooperation opportunities with JD in more areas, including health, sustainable logistics, digitalisation and technology. We see big potential in China regarding these areas.”

“For Denmark, it is very important that technological development is done in a responsible way. My office works to build diplomatic ties with the global tech industry, to increase dialogue, understanding and public-private collaboration. This February we just launched the new Danish Tech Strategy 2021-2023 with a vision to create a responsible, inclusive and secure technological future that delivers solutions to the world’s greatest challenges. We hope to explore potential areas to continue the dialogue with JD.com such as learning more about JD’ s efforts on increasing data privacy and protection and more broadly your approach and visions on responsibility in the tech industry,” said Ambassador Larsen.

JD has introduced many leading Danish brands on its platform to great success. Take Lego for example: Since the Lego first party flagship store launched on JD in 2015, it has accumulated over 13 million followers. JD also supported the brand to penetrate deeper into lower-tier markets, and the improvement of the brands’ marketing ability in the Chinese market. On JD Worldwide, hottest-selling Danish brands includes audio equipment brand B&O, Ecco, dairy product brand arla, and accessories brand Pandora.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD Global and Visa to form a Partnership in Cross-border E-commerce

Posted on Apr 8, 2021Sep 22, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

JD Global Sales under JD.com, and Visa Inc., the world’s leader in digital payments, have signed an agreement to deepen cooperation in cross-border e-commerce.

Under the partnership, JD Global Sales and Visa agreed to jointly launch an online merchant subsidies program, targeting consumers across Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and overseas markets. The program aims at facilitating the overseas expansion of Chinese brands and merchants, helping them recover from the COVID-19 epidemic at a faster pace with optimized cross-border products and services, as well as driving cross-border e-commerce growth post-the pandemic. With special offers tailored for Visa cardholders, the program will help connect JD customers worldwide and provide them with easy access to a wide selection of products and services from JD, while ensuring a fast, secure and frictionless payment experience.

The partnership will allow JD Global Sales and Visa to further explore Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan markets and address the growing consumer demand for cross-border e-commerce in the region by strengthening local infrastructure development and co-creation. With the adoption of Visa’s tokenization technology, JD Global Sales will promote “one-click” card binding to JD customers, enabling a securer, more convenient and more seamless cross-border online shopping experience for mobile payment users. In addition, with a focus on enterprise-level customers of JD.com and small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in China, the two parties will explore B2B digital solutions to empower their digital transformation and development of cross-border commerce.

“JD.com puts customers first and provides them with quality products and services regardless of where they are. “said Chris Choi, head of Global Sales, JD.com, at the signing ceremony. “As JD Worldwide continues to integrate our supply chain at a global scale, we are laying a solid foundation for improving localized services and logistics. JD Global Sales considers itself a bridge that connects Chinese brands and the world and act as a solid backing for Chinese companies going overseas. Through the partnership with Visa, we will better serve global markets by leveraging JD’s own resources and the global network of Visa to expand internationally.”

“2021 is going to be an unprecedented year for e-commerce, and digital platforms will be the new High Street for small and micro businesses (SMBs). Not only can they gain greater exposure and reach potential customers on digital platforms, but also create new service experiences for digital-first customers,” said Henry Yang, Vice President, head of Merchant Sales and Acquiring at Visa Greater China. “At Visa, we take an open partnership approach. We are committed to becoming the trusted engine for commerce by connecting buyers and sellers worldwide with our innovative, fast, secure and reliable digital payments network. We are excited to work with JD Global Sales to help China’s cross-border e-commerce thrive.”

Henry Yang (left), Vice President, head Merchant Sales and Acquiring at Visa Greater China, and Chris Choi (right), head of Global Sales, JD.com, signed the partnership agreement.

Background

In 2021, the continuous evolution towards integrated commerce is no longer just an emerging trend but a reality. To meet the evolving consumer demands, companies and merchants seek to provide the best customer experience and adopt business strategies to reduce friction, accelerate innovation, and develop multiple channels. Visa’s data shows that since January 2020, the total number of Visa cards used for e-commerce transactions worldwide (excluding travel) has increased by 14%. In emerging markets, the growth rate is as high as 100%, driven by net-new e-commerce users in many cases.

Accelerated digital transformation worldwide in the wake of the pandemic is bringing new opportunities for China’s cross-border e-commerce business. In 2020, China’s cross-border e-commerce trade volume totaled 1.69 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31.1%, while e-commerce exports were 1.12 trillion yuan, up 40.1% year-on-year. Under the new partnership, JD Global Sales and Visa agreed on moves in 2021 to develop a global commerce ecosystem, in addition to creating financial solutions for cross-border e-commerce scenarios. Giving full play to the global coverage and impact of JD Global Sales and Visa, the cooperation will promote shared resources development and financial empowerment.

Built on the successful partnership in 2019, JD Global Sales continues to be a Visa Partner of Excellence in cross-border trade in 2020. In the new partnership, Visa and JD Global Sales will streamline resources to create added value for the cross-border e-commerce. Visa operates one of the largest electronic payment networks in the world—VisaNet—connecting a total of 3.5 billion Visa cards worldwide and nearly 70 million merchant locations in more than 200 countries and territories.

JD Global Sales, as an e-commerce platform of JD.com for global consumers, has seen rapid growth in recent years. In 2020, its business targeting Chinese consumers overseas increased by 2.5 times year-on-year in terms of trade volume, making JD.com a preferred shopping platform for more and more consumers. The two parties will extend the partnership to provide capacity building tools to empower SMB owners in China’s e-commerce space, helping them make informed business decisions with confidence and unlock greater potential in the increasingly competitive market.

JD to Help COSCO Shipping Logistics Build Intelligent Warehouse

Posted on Apr 8, 2021Nov 8, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

COSCO Shipping Logistics and JD Logistics (JDL) inked a partnership on Apr. 2 in which JDL will help COSCO build an intelligent warehouse in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, to drive the digital transformation of the logistics service provider affiliated with COSCO Shipping Corporation which owns one of the world’s largest shipping fleets.

According to the agreement, JDL will provide COSCO Shipping Logistics with integrated supply chain solutions. By introducing a highly efficient intelligent stacking machine system, the intelligent warehouse in Jiaxing is expected to be able to handle as many as 5 times the number of the in- and out-bound goods a traditional warehouse can process on an hourly basis. In addition, JDL will leverage its advanced algorithms and operations experience to enable unmanned retrieving and return of pallets in the warehouse.

“The Jiaxing automation project is a starting point of our collaboration with JD Logistics and a demonstration of the digital transformation push of COSCO Shipping Logistics,” said Kai Jiang, general manager of the company. “We hope to deepen our cooperation with JDL in both domestic and overseas markets in the future and complement each other’s advantages.”

“Supply chain digital transformation is a systematic project for enterprises. We are thrilled to participate in the construction of COSCO Shipping Logistics’ intelligent warehouse system which will leverage our deep understanding of supply chain automation, digitalization and intelligent-ization,” said Jade Wang, head of open platform for digital supply chain at JDL. “The two parties will establish a long-term communication mechanism to drive the digital transformation of COSCO Shipping Logistics.”

JD.com established a partnership with COSCO Shipping Corporation in 2017 and has since collaborated in shipment, logistics, e-commerce, technology and finance.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Holds Steak Campaign to Adapt to Consumption Trends

Posted on Apr 7, 2021Sep 23, 2021 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

JD held a Super Steak Campaign during Mar. 22 to Mar. 28, in order to match customers’ increasing demand for purchasing diverse, high-end and specialized steaks.

JD’s data showed that 8,929 tons of steaks were sold during the campaign. Customers who bought steak for the first time on JD increased 120% YOY. Additionally, the campaign accelerated sales for other related categories, in which shrimp, fish and meat sales increased 200%, 110% and 80% YOY, respectively.

A report from Nielsen showed that customers tend to buy the freshest and highest-quality produce and meat, 32% of who are willing to pay for meat from big brands. JD’s data showed the same trend, in which popular steak brands such as Hitomorrow and Hondo sales have surged since March to now.

In another trend, data from JD showed that more and more parents buy steak specialized for kids, as these products normally select tender steak cuts, which are more suitable for kids. Data showed that sales of this category increased 3.5 times in March compared with that in February.

Nielsen’s report unveiled another trend for fresh produce consumption, which is that customers tend to consider whether the shopping experience is convenient. To provide tailored service for customers, JD combined the products with a staggered delivery service, in which customers buy a larger volume of steak, but have the option of postponing delivery of some portion of the steak until the customers are ready, in order to ensure freshness.

JD has long been determined to provide best-in-class steak for customers. Ye Kan, sales manager of meat products at JD Fresh shared that they regularly review customer comments, popular key word searches and more, in order to ensure that JD Fresh is addressing customer’s demands. One example is that last year, JD Fresh designed a steak product specifically for JD’s PLUS members, with premium beef collections and packages which is very popular among PLUS members, with a 97% satisfaction rate.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

Chinese Artist Cao Fei Highlights JD.com in First Major Solo Exhibit in Beijing

Posted on Apr 2, 2021Sep 28, 2022 by Kelly Dawson

by Kelly Dawson

The first major solo art exhibition by renowned contemporary Chinese artist Cao Fei has opened at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) in Beijing, with a section highlighting JD.com in two videos filmed at one of the company’s futuristic, AI-powered Asia No. 1 automated warehouses. Titled “Staging the Era,” the exhibition is a retrospective of Cao’s work, which explores themes of economic growth and globalization, encapsulating the dizzying changes that have taken place in China and around the world in recent decades.

In a video titled “Asia One,” a JD employee is seen interfacing with digital devices in JD’s warehouse. He is accompanied by only one other employee, and a team of robots that echo JD’s real-life use of autonomous ground vehicles (AGVs) and other AI technology to handle more than 1.3 million packages per day during peak shopping seasons, seen here in a seemingly never-ending stream and dispatched with orderly efficiency. The two workers yearn for affection, yet struggle to connect.

Later a group of workers appear in the warehouse to participate in a feverish dance performance reminiscent of Chinese operas, a surreal sequence surrounding an enormous inflated octopus that serves as contrast to the futuristic, sleek technology of previous scenes. Above them is a banner that reads, “Humans and machines, hand in hand.”

Also featured in the exhibition is the documentary film “11.11 (2018),” which was filmed at JD headquarters in Beijing and explores the overwhelmingly complex operations undertaken by the e-commerce giant during the enormously popular shopping festival occurring on Nov. 11 each year. In this video, JD’s (very human) employees are showcased, with some of its more than 190,000 couriers and logistics workers seen racing through the streets of Beijing, a common sight in the capital city.

Both videos were previously featured in a 2018 group exhibition titled “One Hand Clapping” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City, on which occasion the New York Times declared that “No young artist has a sharper view of the future than Cao Fei.” Describing “Asia One,” the newspaper described the video as a “mournfully beautiful hybrid of economic forecast and tragic love story.”

Now appearing as part of the artist’s first major solo exhibition at UCCA, “Asia One” and “11.11” are showcased in a separate area and accompanied by JD paraphernalia including a warehouse hard hat and stacked delivery boxes. Also appearing at the exhibition is the giant inflated octopus from “Asia One,” an absolutely unforgettable image.

“Staging the Era” will be on exhibit at UCCA in Beijing until June 6, 2021.

(kellydawson@jd.com)