JD Health Releases 2020 Annual Results

by Ella Kidron

JD Health released its financial year 2020 annual results on Mar. 29. This is the first annual results the company has released since its listing on Hong Kong Stock Exchange ( 6618.HK) on Dec. 8, 2020. The company announced net revenue of RMB 19.38 billion, an increase of 78.8% YOY. Profit (on a non-IFRS basis) was RMB 0.75 billion.

In his letter to shareholders, JD Health CEO Lijun Xin commented on the company’s efforts to leverage its strength in supply chain and medical and health services to support the frontlines under COVID-19 and to provide much needed support to its users all across the country.

Xin wrote, “With six years of development under our belts, our development strategy has become increasingly clear: We strive to create a technology-driven platform that is centered on the supply chain of pharmaceutical and healthcare products and strengthened by healthcare services, encompassing a user’s full lifespan for all healthcare needs.”

The company’s superior user experience and professional services have continuously enhanced trust and confidence in the platform, driving JD Health to 89.8 million annual active user accounts as of Dec. 31, 2020. Furthermore, benefitting from the platform’s scale and strong supply chain ability is an attractive proposition for partners. As of Dec. 31, 2020, there were over more than 20 million SKUs on the JD Health platform, and the online marketplace had attracted over 12,000 third party merchants.

A selection of highlights from the results is below:

JD Health FY 2020 Results Highlights

 

 

(ella@jd.com)

 

 

 

JD Joins BRCGS International Advisory Board to Promote Supply Chain Confidence

by Ella Kidron

JD.com has joined the International Advisory Board of BRCGS to promote supply chain confidence and share its deep expertise in this area with industry peers. JD is the first e-commerce company to join the board. The company is a leading retailer in China, and sets the standard for online shopping through its commitment to quality, authenticity. JD.com carries a vast variety of products covering from fresh food and apparel to electronics and cosmetics. Its unrivalled nationwide fulfillment network covers 99% of China’s population, and provides same- and next-day delivery as standard – a level of service and speed that is unmatched globally.

BRCGS is a market-leading global brand that helps build confidence in the supply chain. It is globally recognized across both food and non-food categories and operates the most rigorous third party certification scheme of its type. BRCGS works with a wide range of stakeholders to develop Global Standards, including retailers, certification bodies, food manufacturers and food service companies. Global Standards help organizations maximize safety management performance, be more efficient, enable greater profitability, as well as supporting ideas and innovation.

Geoff Spriegel, Chairman of the International Advisory Board, said: “As Chairman of the BRCGS International Advisory Board I am delighted to welcome JD.com to membership of the Asia Pacific Board. As BRCGS has grown internationally it has gained enormous value from the senior technical executives of major food companies that sit on the Board. The BRCGS Team is most grateful for their expertise to advise on strategic direction and feedback on performance of the Standards in the marketplace. JD.com provide the first representation of an e-commerce company on the Board and will provide a valuable insight from this growing sector of the industry.”

Geoff Spriegel, Chairman, International Advisory Board, BRCGS

Geoff Spriegel, Chairman, International Advisory Board, BRCGS

David Sun, the quality director of JD.com, said the company is honored to be a membership of BRCGS IAB, and he is looking forward to working with the BRCGS IAB members to share JD.com’s experience as an e-commerce retailer. JD.com is willing to work with members of BRCGS to provide end consumers with safe and high-quality products around the world.

David Sun, Director of Quality Assurance, JD Retail

David Sun, Director of Quality Assurance, JD Retail

 

 

(ella@jd.com)

JD Launches Digital Tea Farm in Sichuan

by Yuchuan Wang

JD Farm, JD.com’s smart agriculture business, launched a digital tea farm project in Ya’an, Sichuan province on Mar. 27. The project leverages the company’s expertise e-commerce and logistics, together with advanced technologies including AI, big data and IoT.

Ya’an is believed to be the origin of artificial tea cultivation. The digital tea farm is a collaboration with leading tea company Sichuan Mengdinghuang Tea Industry Co., Ltd., which operates over a one-square-kilometer tea farm.

“We’ve implemented both IoT hardware and management software in Mengdinghuang Tea’s farm. The technology can monitor the water and soil quality, weather conditions and insect infestation, plus the transportation, packaging and other production information,” said Heyang Qi from JD Farm. “Through digital analysis, the system will guide scientific planting and production of tea.” For example, the analysis of insect infestation will give advice for farmworkers to accurately apply fertilizer and pesticides.

Insect infestation system

Insect infestation system

The digital system will encrypt the farming data with blockchain technology, which enables consumers to trace the tea back to its origin and understand growing conditions simply by scanning a QR code on the product’s packaging.

Traditional offline sales channels for tea have been impacted by COVID-19. Through the collaboration with JD, Mengdinghuang tea’s products will be sold through JD Farm’s online flagship store. According to JD’s data, the company has helped several Sichuan-based tea companies double their sales by going online.

“We hope to leverage the opportunity of building this digital tea farm to lead the new growth for the tea industry driven by technology,” said Jianyong Wei, chairman of Mengdinghuang Tea.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD.ID CMO: Five Years On, JD.ID Laser Focused on Quality and Service

by Ella Kidron

JD.ID, JD.com’s joint venture in Indonesia, celebrated its fifth anniversary on Mar. 28. To mark the occasion, the company’s CMO, Leo Haryono, spoke with the founder of Alarice and ChoZan and LinkedIn influencer, Ashley Dudarenok, about the company’s journey since 2016, consumer trends in Indonesia, and what to expect from JD.ID going forward.

“Before the [COVID-19] pandemic, people would mainly buy online because of a big discount, or because the product is something they don’t get in the supermarket,” said Haryono. In this pandemic, shopping behavior has become ‘online first’. People care about their safety, and purchase behavior for products like groceries has shifted online.

“In addition to groceries, the 3C category (computers, communication, and consumer electronics) has remained a top seller for JD.ID. “It’s exciting that they trust JD with these high-ticket items.” Furthermore, as people are spending more time at home, gaming has boomed under the impact of COVID-19, creating significant demand for gaming equipment and accessories.

According to Haryono, a few things make the Indonesian e-commerce market particularly unique: deep smart phone penetration and young customers. Indonesia is a very young country, which means consumers are open and eager to try new technology.

In addition to ‘online first,’ another trend is that people are purchasing more items and with increased frequency. The average spend per purchaser has increased by up to 50% YOY at JD.ID as of the end of 2020 .

Dudarenok noted the healthy balance of international and domestic brands in JD.com’s operations in China. As for Indonesia, Haryono mentioned a “great balance of global brands, local brands.” JD.ID supports government initiatives to enable Indonesian SMEs to participate more actively in the economy, meaning a wide variety of niche local products is also available on the platform.

What sets JD.ID apart from others in the market is the #DijaminOri tagline, which means “authenticity guaranteed” in English. “#DijaminOri is something we used when we started the business five years ago. We coined the term. If you ask people what they think of JD.ID in the local market, they will speak to #DijaminOri,” said Haryono.

The early commitment to authenticity has also served to educate the market and cultivate consumers who highly value product quality and service, in both the shopping experience and delivery. “Our primary focus is to bring a joyous shopping experience to customers. We learn from the success of JD.com in China and bring that to Indonesia. But at the same time, we tailor our method to the local market.” This deliberate decision has enabled the company to achieve nearly 100% of orders in Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi delivered in 24 hours, and 85% of orders nationwide fulfilled in 24 hours, even though Indonesia has tons of islands.

The approach has paid off. The number of people who registered on JD.ID in 2020 was nearly 40 times higher than in 2016 when JD.ID was getting started. Orders are up to 50 times in the same period. Daily active users are also approximately 15 times higher. “Daily app downloads have increased 10 times since 2016. This is encouraging,” said Haryono. JD.ID supplies a wide range of products from home electronics, apparel, audio, furniture, games, and many more.

Looking to the next five years, high quality, authenticity, vast product selection, and customer service remain top priorities for JD.ID. The company is an early mover in Indonesia’s O2O (online to offline) market. Haryono stressed that enabling consumers to buy anything at any time is a key aspect of providing top-notch service.

“There may be this perception that Indonesian consumers want to go for bulk or cheaper products with e-commerce, not quality or authenticity, but JD.ID being there in the market and to see that they are thriving in Indonesia proves this wrong,” said Dudarenok. “At the end of the day, quality and authenticity always win.”

According to Haryono, the level of service JD.ID provides is the bottom line in what an e-commerce experience should offer. “For customers to keep coming back, you have to work on these basics. This is what they want.”

View the whole discussion here

View a snapshot of JD.ID’s five years of milestones here

To learn more about working with JD.ID in Indonesia, please contact:

Adhi Pratama

Senior Media Relations Manager JD.ID

adhi.pratama@jd.id

 

 

(ella@jd.com)

JD.com to Adopt Green Power in its Asia No.1 Logistics Parks

by Yuchuan Wang

Today marks the 15th annual Earth Hour initiated by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2007. As a company committed to leading a more sustainable world, JD has announced its Asia No.1 logistics parks will gradually adopt green power for operation. The plan will start from three parks in Chengdu and Deyang in Sichuan province.

Green power is generated from wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy resources in order to substantially lower carbon emissions. JD estimates that the company will use nearly 14,000 MWh (megawatt-hour) green electricity annually in the three logistics parks, and reduce annual carbon dioxide emissions by 11,000 tons.

As early as in 2017, JD took the lead in deploying a rooftop distributed photovoltaic power generation system in its Shanghai Asia No. 1 logistics park, which supplies electricity used in warehouse lighting, picking, sorting, packaging and more. Now the system is being deployed in over 10 Asia No.1 logistics parks nationwide.

In addition, JD Logistics became the first Chinese logistics company to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2019, with a commitment to reducing its carbon emissions by 50% compare to 2019 by 2030.

“We will continue to invest in green supply chain in the future, lead the entire industry to go green and contribute to the sustainable development of businesses globally,” said Jerry Duan, head of JD’s Green Stream Initiative.

Over the years, the Earth Hour global environmental movement has drawn public attention to nature loss and climate crisis through encouraging individuals and businesses to turn off non-essential electric lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Posted in ESG

JD Title-Sponsors Suqian Marathon in Jiangsu

by Yuchuan Wang

The JD.com title-sponsored Suqian Marathon will be held on Mar. 28 in Suqian, Jiangsu province, and is expected to welcome 10,000 Marathoners from all over China. Leveraging its strengths in technology, retail and logistics, JD will provide the event with a registration system, logistics service and e-commerce support.

It will be the first time a marathon race is held in the historical city of Suqian, which is the hometown of Xiang Yu (230-202 BC), the Hegemon King of the ancient state of Western Chu during the Chu-Han Contention period (206-202 BC).

It will be the first time a marathon race is held in the historical city of Suqian, which is the hometown of Xiang Yu (230-202 BC), the Hegemon King of the ancient state of Western Chu during the Chu-Han Contention period (206-202 BC).

As a city program, marathon races often do not have a unified registration process, so in the past applicants have needed to switch between different registration websites. To give runners a hassle-free experience, JD has tailor-made an online registration solution for the Suqian Marathon. Applicants can use the JD app to complete the whole processes from registration to payment, to purchasing sports products and even booking hotels.

“We’ve achieved partnerships with dozens of marathon races in China who will use our registration solution for their 2021 races, including the Wuxi and Taiyuan Marathon, and many others,” said Xiufeng Lu from JD Sports.

In addition, JD Logistics will provide free storage for runners in Suqian. Thirty-two 4.2 meter-long JD container trucks will operate along the race. Runners can put their belongings in JD’s trucks at the starting point and retrieve them at the destination.

Running is becoming a new lifestyle, sometimes a fashion, for many Chinese people. Statistics show that before the COVID-19 pandemic, there were 1,828 marathon races held in 2019 in China, with over 7 million participants.

The second weekend of April 2021 will see the first super weekend for marathoners, with approximately 20 races to be held across China. JD’s data shows that sales of running shoes and trunks increased 152% and 135% respectively in March 2021 compared with the previous month.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Medicine Procurement Celebrates its Fourth Anniversary

by Vivian Yang

JD Medicine Procurement (药京采), the medicine wholesale and procurement service platform under JD Health, became the first distributor of a new anticoagulant medication, Rivaroxaban manufactured by pharmaceutical company Nanjing Chia Tai Tianqing. The two sides made a joint announcement on Mar. 21 in Beijing. The event also marked the 4th anniversary of the JD Medicine Procurement.

JD Medicine Procurement’s nationwide distribution network which includes offline drug stores and its superior logistics service, will ensure pharmacy merchants and customers get medicine more conveniently and securely. Customers can also purchase the medicine via JD Pharmacy, JD Health’s online medicine retail platform, with the prescriptions from JD’s internet hospital.

JD Health’s online medicine retail platform, with the prescriptions from JD’s internet hospital.

Rivaroxaban is effective in treating and preventing blood clots. The medication is in high demand among patients with cardiovascular diseases. Beyond the goal to increase people’s accessibility to the medicine, the cooperation also extends to cooperation in chronic disease management based on JD Health’s specialized online medical center for cardiology, as well as collaboration on the development of intelligent wearable devices that can track patients’ health conditions in real-time.

Rivaroxaban is effective in treating and preventing blood clots

JD Health’s pharmacy stores alliance (京东健康-联盟大药房), a program that partners with offline pharmacy stores, especially small and medium sized stores in China’s lower-tier markets, also launched grand celebration events during the 4th anniversary of JD Medicine Procurement. Over a hundred of its offline members joined in the celebration. The program offers support to its alliance members in the areas of JD Health’s brand authorization, supply chain support, IT system support, online traffic supply, online marketing, O2O integration and more.

JD Medicine Procurement provides integrated and comprehensive services for all partners in the supply chain

“JD Medicine Procurement provides integrated and comprehensive services for all partners in the supply chain. The platform enables more people to access high quality and low price medicines and healthcare products,” said Xinyuan Zhou, head of JD Medicine Procurement. “This is also part of our effort for the national plan in building grassroots-level public health and medical services and the strategy of rural revitalization.”

Song Zhang, a middle-sized pharmacy store owner in Handan city of Hebei province told a Chinese local media recently that since joining JD Health pharmacy store alliance, he has learned a lot about how to use internet thinking to manage his business. This has also helped him attract more customers.

“In the past, people living in third-tier cities have limited access to foreign healthcare products from brands like Swisse, which now they can procure directly from JD Medicine Procurement platform,” said Zhang, “Now, when customers come to buy medicine in my store, they are always willing to test [JD Health’s] intelligent health checkup devices that we have inside. This is an incremental service for my business.”

According to Zhou, the unique value of the platform is to use internet to enable medicine procurers to make orders whenever and wherever they need.

According to Zhou, the unique value of the platform is to use internet to enable medicine procurers to make orders whenever and wherever they need. Coupled with JD’s logistics and delivery services, more pharmacy stores can enjoy cost-effective and highly efficient medicine supply chain services.

To date, JD Medicine Procurement has covered more than 90% provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China, with nearly 300,000 registered procurement terminals on its platform.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

Sales of Imported Pet Products Increased 10 Times YOY on JD’s Super Pet Day

by Rachel Liu

Sales of imported pet products increased 10 times YOY on JD’s Super Pet Day, held on Mar. 23rd. Sales of cat food increased 7.5 times YOY, and health supplements and health-related products for pets increased nine times YOY, as did smart pet products.

Consumption trends indicate that Chinese consumers’ demands for imported pet food, health-related products for pets and smart pet products are increasing quickly.

The best-selling brands on Super Pet Day were French pet food brand Royal Canin, Canadian brands ACANA and Origen, as well as Chinese brands My Foodie, and pidan, which also ranked No.1 for its practical and innovative design of pet products.

Sales of imported pet products increased 10 times YOY on JD’s Super Pet Day

The top 3 best-selling cat products are ACANA cat food, pidan cat litter, and Royal Canin K36 cat food. Products that can improve cat’s health such as deworming products from Frontline Plus are also among the Top 10 best-selling products. Best-selling dog food brands are Royal Canin, My Foodie and Pure Natural.

Best-selling dog food brands are Royal Canin, My Foodie and Pure Natural.

Besides expanding product categories to provide rich products for pet lovers, before the Singles Day Grand Promotion last year, JD Pet launched a service which allows customers to return already-opened pet food that their pets don’t like, so they don’t have to worry about getting stuck with food that will go uneaten.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)