by Ling Cao

“Since 2017, we have cooperated with Hommy, one of JD’s private label brands focusing on home furnishing to create over 100 products, with a 90% success rate for new product development, and annual sales reaching RMB 15 million,” shared Weiyuan Zhou, the e-commerce manager at Linkfair, in an interview with Chinese domestic media New Business Trend. Linkfair is a Guangdong-based manufacturer or stainless steel cookware, aluminum cookware and smart appliances.

For a long time, Linkfair was mainly an export-oriented manufacturing business, whose domestic market accounts for only 10% of its total sales. With the complex COVID-19 situation as well as the government’s advocate for dual-circulation, Linkfair has seen a chance to expand in the domestic market.

The company previously had less experience and know-how regarding customers’ consumption habits in China. Zhou shared, “For example, people in Europe and the UK will tend to buy a set of pots with different sizes, while Chinese customers prefer to buy just one specific and suitable pot. This forced us to redesign our products.”

With the help of JD, Linkfair was able to understand customer profiles and shopping preferences more accurately, enabling the company to design more suitable products. Additionally, JD will open up its experience in e-commerce operation, sales forecasting, warehousing and logistics, marketing and after-sale service to Linkfair and other partners.

As Xutao Xie, general manager at Feibang, a Zhejiang-based fitness equipment manufacturer that also cooperated with JD’s private label brands said, “Going forward, after the product has been produced, we will have JD to handle all of the next steps.”

Zhou’s team has also gradually gained experience from JD after the long-term partnership, he said. “The cooperation is very effective, and has helped us increase sales growth by 50% to 70% annually.”

After over two years of exploration, JD has created four private label brands focusing on different categories and markets, as well as over 8,000 SKUs (stock keeping units), including Jing Zao, a comprehensive brand; LATIT, focusing on sports-related products; and Huixun (literally means “seeking discounts”), which targets customers from lower-tier markets, as well as Hommy. In 2020, sales of JD’s private label brands increased 200% YOY.

“Leveraging JD’s supply chain, brand awareness and technology-driven capabilities, JD hopes to join hands with partners together to focus on creating a value chain in the industry, helping manufacturers undergo digital transformation,” said Xiaosong Wang, senior vice president of JD.com and head of JD Original, JD’s private label brands department, during a partner conference at JD’s headquarters held in last December.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

JD Home, JD.com’s offline retail experience store chain, and Chinese mobile phone brand realme have achieved ominchannel supply chain cooperation, including setting up realme counters in JD Home stores, realme providing exclusive new products to JD’s offline stores, big data and supply chain sharing and more.

Through working with JD Home, JD can help realme and other digital brands introduce more traffic and resources offline and expand the offline and lower-tier markets through online and offline integrated marketing. JD Home’s high-quality after-sale service and “one-hour delivery” service also supports many mobile phone brands to earn customers.

Besides realme, brands including Xiaomi, Honor, and OnePlus also opened counters in JD Home stores, and enjoyed JD’s support on traffic and supply chain for better sales performance. Working with JD Home provides brands with high-quality offline channels, saving time and energy for brands to build offline channels. Take Xiaomi for example, the performance in JD Home stores has greatly exceeded the brands’ expectations.

“After transferring my store into a JD Home store, I began to do omnichannel marketing, in which the online and offline traffic supplement each other. Soon after, I saw sales of the store doubled that month,” said the owner of a JD Home store.

Joining JD Home for omnichannel innovations can bring benefits for all parties. For brands and retailers, the online and offline integrated marketing has increased the sales performance of brands. For JD, working with leading mobile phone brands also improved its ability in marketing and innovations. For customers, experiencing products offline and enjoying the price and service equal to online has become a trendy way of shopping, and they can now enjoy more new and exclusive products in JD Home stores.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

Sales of movie tickets on JD during the Chinese New Year holiday increased by 146 times YOY as compared to the same period in 2020; and by 11 times as compared with the week before the holiday, according to statistics revealed by JD Big Data Institute on Feb 18.

“Once COVID-19 was under control, people came back to cinemas in droves during the New Year holidays. Last spring, we could not go to the cinema due to the pandemic, and now it’s time to make it up,” according to the institute’s latest lunar new year consumption report.

As a result of this increased demand, JD launched its JD Movie Cards 2021 promotion for Chinese moviegoers ahead of the festival, containing four options of 6,12, 24 and 50 tickets at discount prices for the whole year that can be used in over 9,000 cinemas across China through JD’s online ticketing platform.

By early morning of Feb. 18, China’s box office during the holiday period had taken in RMB 8 billion yuan ($1.24 billion USD), setting a new record despite the restrictions on cinema occupancy.

Seven new releases are playing during the holidays, with Hi Mom and Detective Chinatown 3 taking the leading positions to finish their runs with sales of over RMB 3.5 billion yuan and RMB 2.7 billion yuan respectively, followed by A Writer’s Odyssey (RMB 538 million yuan), Boonie Bears: The Wild Life (RMB 406 million yuan), New Gods: Nezha Reborn (RMB 240 million yuan), The Yinyang Master (RMB 210 million yuan) and Endgame (RMB 150 million yuan).

The booming start bodes well for China’s post-COVID movie market – after it overtook the US to become the world’s top movie market in 2020.

Last July, JD was among the first movers to re-open online movie ticketing after 6 months of cinema closure. In response to the crisis, a real-name ticketing system was urgently developed by JD’s team to enable audiences to return to cinemas quickly and safely.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

This year’s Spring Festival consumption is indicative of highly adaptive consumers eager to enjoy old traditions amid new circumstances. A report released by the JD Big Data Research Institute underscores this phenomenon.

According to the report, during the  Lunar New Year’s Eve（which fell on Feb. 11 this year） meal and assorted snacks gift boxes, convenience food, BBQ ingredients and more increased 90% as compared with last year during the same period*.

It is no surprise that demand for ready-made New Year’s Eve meals increased substantially in China’s biggest cities as many urbanites opted to stay in the city in which they work this year. This meant that in some cases they were fending for themselves, or celebrating with fewer family members. Sales of such ready-made products in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou increased 4.7 times, 3.2 times and 4.3 times respectively. Similarly, with more people residing in these cities during the holiday, auto services, professional development courses, and scenic area tickets increased 3-6 times.

As is the case every year, alcohol was in high demand this year. The category saw an increase of 2-3 times YOY, among which baijiu was most popular among north and southwest Chinese consumers, while imported spirits and beer were preferred more by consumers in the country’s southern Guangdong province.

The reduction in travel during this year’s holiday has been met with a marked 58% increase in remote orders (orders where the recipient and sender city are different). The top recipient provinces and regions of such orders were Hubei, Jiangsu, Henan, Beijing and Shaanxi. Whereas 2020 was highlighted by consumers spending an unprecedented amount of time in the house, this year’s reduction in travel didn’t keep consumers from going outside. Products including action cameras (such as GoPro), badminton equipment, and tents increased 4.7, three and 30 times respectively.

Of particular note this year, Valentine’s Day fell in the middle of the Chinese New Year holiday period, adding an extra touch of romance to gifting. This resulted in a drastic change in consumption structure, with jewelry, beauty, watches and other gifts as a proportion of the whole rising significantly. The amount of women’s karat gold necklaces and yellow gold pendants bought by male consumers between the last week before the New Year, and Valentine’s Day increased 6.2 times compared with the same period last year. The amount of gold bead necklaces (believed to lead to good luck for the wearer) and silver necklaces bought by female consumers for their male counterparts increased 3.5 times. Beauty products were also highly popular Valentine’s Day gifts.

“Total retail sales of consumer goods during the Spring Festival period demonstrate both the ongoing pickup of offline as well as the continued growth of online retail,” said Fei Lu, senior analyst at the JD Big Data Research Institute. “Trusted online platforms are not just serving to accelerate the pace of the consumption recovery, but even more so to expand new consumption frontiers.”

*Note “same period” refers to the same period on the lunar calendar last year, also known as the Spring Festival period in 2020.

(ella@jd.com)