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

JD.com Named IFR Asia’s 2020 Issuer of the Year

Posted on Feb 27, 2021Sep 29, 2022 by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD.com has been named the Issuer of the Year in IFR Asia’s 2020 Awards, as announced by the magazine on Feb 26, 2021. The awards are hosted by International Financing Review (IFR), a leading financial news magazine group headquartered in London.

IFR said in an article on its website covering the news: “In a breakout year for Chinese technology stocks, one company delivered a series of popular and well-executed capital market deals. For raising its profile and winning over new followers, JD.com is IFR Asia’s Issuer of the Year.”

“JD.com completed an impressive range of capital markets financings in 2020, broadening its reach with global equity and debt investors and capitalising on a global shift to new-economy stocks,” the article continued.

In 2020, JD.com completed its secondary listing in Hong Kong on Jun. 18. JD Health, the healthcare subsidiary JD.com also went public on HKEx six months later on Dec. 8.

The article also mentioned the IPOs of both JD Logistics, which filed its prospectus with HKEx earlier this month, and JD Technology is also on the way to go forward.

The magazine highlighted that JD’s resilience through the outbreak of COVID-19 is reflected in the company’s rise in credit quality, noting upgrades by both Moody’s and S&P.

“JD.com’s successes in 2020 sum up the adaptability that has been a hallmark since its earliest days. [Richard Liu, founder and CEO of JD.com] first turned to online sales in the aftermath of the SARS epidemic, launching electronics marketplace jdlaser.com in 2004. Sixteen years later, the coronavirus pandemic has again accelerated a shift in its business model – and transformed its profile in the capital markets,” said the article.

(vivian.yang@jd.com )

“Hoarding Clouds” Becomes a New Fashion of Chinese SMEs

Posted on Feb 26, 2021Oct 13, 2021 by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD Cloud kicked off its spring promotion on Feb. 25^,to offer cloud-based products and services at prices as low as 86% off. The promotion will last for a month until Mar. 31, coinciding with the prime time when small and medium enterprises plan their new year cloud deployment.

“Just like people hoard baby diapers, we are now hoarding the clouds,” said Qixiao Lin, a manager of a small retail company. “Now we can find good deals to prepare the resources. I took in 5 times the public cloud resources as in the previous year during the promotion.”

Business demand for cloud resources are growing steadily on the Chinese market. For individuals and SMEs who do not have the ability and budget to build their private clouds, public cloud computing services are their ideal solutions.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Yuanzhe Zhang’s online education company saw explosive growth in 2020 and their IT infrastructure under Zhang’s supervision underwent huge pressure overnight. Zhang was glad that the public cloud services he had prepared are highly flexible, helping him sail through this user surge. Zhang took advantage of the current promotion to book more than RMB 200,000-yuan worth of cloud resources in case of a rainy day in the future.

“Public clouds have become the water and electricity for the development of many SMEs,” said a representative of JD Cloud. “It will save them about 30% to make the purchase during the March promotion.”

JD Cloud provides cutting-edge scientific and technological capabilities in the fields of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing and the Internet of Things. Their ability has been repeatedly tested in China’s super shopping festivals, and can be customized to serve a variety of business needs.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

Demand for Yuanxiao/Tangyuan Skyrockets ahead of the Lantern Festival

Posted on Feb 26, 2021Nov 11, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

Consumer preferences around Lantern Festival in China are changing, according to JD’s big data. Lantern Festival (which falls on the 15^th day of the first month of the lunar calendar – Feb. 26 this year) is usually a time for people in China to gather around the table and eat “yuanxiao” in the north of China and “tangyuan” in the south of China. Both yuanxiao and tangyuan are glutinous rice balls which typically have a sweet filling.

JD big data shows that in the week leading up to the festival, the amount of glutinous rice balls sold increased eight times YOY, and lanterns doubled. This is no surprise as online channels have become a major force for the FMCG category, especially as of last year.

What is new, however, is the move towards new flavors and styles. For example, the sales volume of salty yolk-filled glutinous rice balls increased 1.5 times YOY. What’s more, among the fruit-flavored category, durian is the highest. Salty flavors are also highly popular, with fresh meat glutinous rice balls increasing by more than 1.5 times YOY. Consumers are also opting for lanterns which have creative designs on them.

In the week before Lantern festival, users searched most not for black sesame flavored glutinous rice balls (a traditional and popular flavor), but for rice rhubarb (大黄米), sugar-free, chocolate and other flavors. Lettuce sales also increased, thanks to the tradition in the south of China to consume it since the word for lettuce sounds like the word for “making money”(生财) in Chinese. Sales of lettuce increased by 77% YOY.

With the main New Year feasts of this year now over, consumers are looking to get back in shape. The sales volume of scales sold reached the highest level in nearly a month, while consumption of sports-related items increased more than 1.6 times YOY.

The below infographics indicate some of the Lantern Festival trends this year:

Popular products sold during Lantern Festival

Popular flavors of glutinous rice balls include fresh meat, rhubarb rice, salty-yolk and sweet-scented osmanthus

(ella@jd.com)

Photo Gallery: This Week at JD (Feb. 21 – Feb. 26)

Posted on Feb 26, 2021Nov 15, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

JD CENTRAL (JDC) hosted the JD JOYFUL AWARDS on Feb. 25 at its headquarters in Bangkok and unveiled a new benchmark, “QPS”, to holistically evaluate merchants according to quality, price and service. The awards issued provide winning sellers with a wide range of supportive measures that go directly towards helping them improve their QPS rating.

JD Worldwide, JD.com’s imported products e-commerce platform, held its first online conference this year on Feb. 25 for potential partners and third-party companies, aiming to introduce more overseas brands to the platform. The online conference introduced the latest strategy of JD Worldwide and the new projects it is initiating to help overseas brands grow in China.

Kevin Jiang, president of international business, JD Fashion and Lifestyle, participated in a webinar hosted by the Chinese edition of WWD, and the British Fashion Council on Feb. 23 to discuss how the fashion industry is taking action to digitalize in the new normal. He introduced how JD helped brands and designers to deal with the impact of the pandemic, including omnichannel solutions, AR/VR technology, precise consumer targeting and more.

John Lobb, luxury shoes and boots brand from London under Hermès Group, launched a flagship store on JD.com on Feb. 23, which is the first and only e-commerce platform to partner with John Lobb in China.

JD Partners with Financial Technology to Create Investment Advisory System

Posted on Feb 26, 2021Sep 22, 2021 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

JD Technology, a business group under JD.com, has partnered with Financial Technology, a domestic fintech company, to create a digital investment advisory system for financial institutions. The announcement was made in this month and is one of the initiatives to promote digitalization of the fintech industry, with the intention of meeting client’s new needs.

Using the system, customers can have a virtual financial manager analyze their financial conditions based on AI and big data and determine personalized financial needs. The virtual financial manager can provide comprehensive plans covering a client’s entire lifecycle. For example, it is able to help guide clients on how to diversify accounts with one to satisfy daily needs and another support investment needs.

Through the program, financial institutions can create a new management experiences without having to rely heavily on marketing and advertising to attract customers. In addition to a reduction in labor costs, the solution provides more accurate and tailored services thanks to its data-driven nature.

A representative at JD Technology said, “This solution combines the functions of multiple financial transaction systems, as well as advisory services.”

The system can also improve customers’ conversion rate and the average basket size of asset management services. Some banks and securities traders have already used this new system.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD Central in Thailand Announces Quality, Price and Service as Benchmark to Grow Sustainably

Posted on Feb 25, 2021Sep 16, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ella Kidron

JD CENTRAL (JDC) announced the release of a new benchmark to enable sellers to grow sustianably based on quality, price and service. The benchmark (referred to as QPS) was announced during the JOYFUL AWARDS ceremony the company hosted at its headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand on Feb. 25.

A total of 23 Thailand and international brands were honored, and their performance was based entirely on QPS. CEO of JD CENTRAL Vincent Yang, who announced the QPS benchmark in his keynote speech during the ceremony, explained: “Our awards aren’t about which sellers sold the most products, but about how they performed in terms of QPS. This is what creates real value – it’s not pure reliance on traffic and subsidies.“

Thai ready-to-drink milk brand Foremost was among the award recipients of the SUPER JOY AWARD. A Foremost representative said: “FOREMOST is committed to continue providing our quality products made of 100% cow milk to JD CENTRAL’s shoppers at special prices to enjoy the best shopping experiences on the JD CENTRAL platform.“

Foremost Thailand’s SUPER JOY AWARD

Even as COVID-19 put extreme pressure on Thailand’s GDP, JDC achieved 169% YOY growth in 2020.“ Our purpose of holding this event is threefold,” said Yang. “We want to provide sellers with a clear vision of where we are going, share with them what we have achieved, and articulate our competitive advantages going forward.”The company’s average revenue per user (ARPU) and basket size continues to increase. Continued strong performance is attributed to an ongoing commitment to the essence of retail, which can be measured by QPS.

(From left to right) JD CENTRAL CEO Vincent Yang, Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) senior vice president, Chatchai Khunpitiluck and JD CENTRAL CMO Korlap Suwacharangkul

Consumers have demand for e-commerce but they have been misguided by a market where there previously was not enough attention on quality and service. According to Yang, JDC is focused on enabling its sellers, but also offline partners through omnichannel models. “JD CENTRAL is not a typical e-commerce company,” explained Yang. “We want to grow together with and empower our partners.”

In addition to Yang, JD CENTRAL CMO Korlap Suwacharangkul, as well as Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA) senior vice president, Chatchai Khunpitiluck spoke at the event to a room of sellers, and a local and international press corp who joined online. CMO Suwacharangkul provided a granular explanation to merchants of how to increase their QPS, in particular as it relates to product quality, attractiveness of promotions and prices, and services from pre-sales to aftersales.

DEPA representative Khunpitiluck shared that e-commerce in Thailand has grown significantly in the last several years, owing some of the growth in 2020 to living under a “new normal” as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. He emphasized the importance to promote SMEs and ensure they can benefit from e-commerce. Khunpitiluck also advocated for a range of measures to make it easier for SMEs to benefit from e-commerce and to protect the market from unequal competition, predatory pricing, and to reduce tax burdens among Thai entrepreneurs among other efforts.

Although the pendulum has increasingly swung in favor of e-commerce under COVID-19, e-commerce only accounts for roughly 5% of total retail sales in Thailand. This is not because of lack of internet access. The number of internet users continues to increase reaching 48 million in 2020, according to a data report by the Office of the National Broadcasting and Telecommunication Commission, the number of internet users in Thailand continues to increase, reaching 48 million in 2020.

JD CENTRAL CEO Vincent Yang

About JD CENTRAL

JD CENTRAL is a leading e-commerce and business retailer in Thailand and is a joint venture between Chinese retail giant JD.com and Thailand’s largest retailer Central Group.

JD CENTRAL officially began operating in 2018 and is a combination of direct-to-consumer and marketplace businesses. Its self-defined role as a digital enabler differentiates the company from most e-commerce players in Thailand, the second largest economy in Southeast Asia.

The company is the first online shopping platform in Thailand to claim to provide 100% authentic products, echoing the “zero-tolerance to counterfeits” promise of e-commerce parent JD.com. Before JDC entered the market in 2018, Thailand’s e-commerce market was made up consumer-to-consumer (C2C) players. Combining the forces of Thailand’s powerful offline retail conglomerate Central Group, with the long-term e-commerce expertise of JD.com, the company introduced the concept of an online mall with guaranteed quality. Thanks to its own and third party delivery resources, including eight self-built warehouses. Today it is able to cover the whole of Thailand with rapid delivery services.

(ella@jd.com)

Over 100 JD Partners Won National Poverty Alleviation Awards

Posted on Feb 25, 2021Sep 20, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

Many counties and cities in China have won awards and certificates for their contribution to the nation’s poverty alleviation. Among them, over 100 are JD’s partners in e-commerce poverty alleviation programs. A ceremony to honor the counties, cities and individuals was held in Beijing on Feb. 25.

Yong Liu, secretary of the Wuyi county party committee made remarks on receiving the award: “I’m so honored to have Wuyi on the list on this historic day. Wuyi has proactively developed innovative internet+ ways to combine e-commerce, technology and industry together in poverty alleviation efforts. One of the renowned examples is JD’s running chicken initiative.”

Under the initiative, JD fits each chicken with a specially designed pedometer, with the aim of tracking 160 days of each bird’s rearing process. The company uses blockchain technology for maximum quality assurance and full traceability. JD has produced a series of programs of other programs, including swimming duck and running pig.

In addition, JD’s social e-commerce platform Jingxi has helped local farmers sell products to consumers across China. From September 2019 until now, Jingxi’s service covered 100,000 factories and tens of thousands of farms, and sold out over one million local specialties.

Since January 2016, JD has helped the counties it cooperates with sell over three million kinds of products online, achieving sales of over RMB 100 billion, and helped over one million families increase their incomes.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD Worldwide Holds Online Conference to Recruit Overseas Brands

Posted on Feb 25, 2021Sep 9, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

JD Worldwide, JD’s platform for imported products, held its first online conference this year on Feb 25 for potential partners and third-party companies, aiming to introduce more overseas brands to the platform. The online conference introduced the latest strategy of JDW and the new projects it is initiating to help overseas brands grow in China.

Through the conference, JD Worldwide hopes to convey that it is embracing brands around the world to join the platform, and will work with third-party companies to support the brands on operations, marketing and more to rise in the market, which has high potential.

Luke Liu, general manager of business development of JD Worldwide, introduced the new strategy of the business for 2021. “JD Worldwide is a young, vibrant and fast growing platform. We welcome more and more brands who want to explore the Chinese market to work with us, and will leverage our rich resources on supply chain, marketing and operations to empower the brands, providing customized solutions for brands based on their situations,” said Liu. JD Worldwide aims to work with 1,000 partners to reach 8,000 overseas brands in 2021.

JD Worldwide also introduced its new projects of 2021 that will help brands gain more exposure and maintain healthy growth. One of them is the “World Fair” project, which welcomes companies and organizations from all over the world to open National Pavilions on JD under the support of relevant governments and embassies, to provide high quality products, travelling and cultural information for customers. Other new projects include the development of the third-party ecosystem, celebrity endorsed stores, duty free stores, and more.

Founded in 2015, JD Worldwide now has over 20,000 brands and 10 million SKUs from over 100 countries. Any brands interested in building their business with JD in China can apply via https://www.jd.hk/cooperation_en, or by emailing worldwide_BD@jd.com and adding the “JDworldwideBD” account via Wechat.

According to the data of iiMedia Research, the transaction volume of China’s cross-border ecommerce business is estimated to reach RMB 12.7 trillion yuan, and the total number of cross-border ecommerce customers is estimated to surpass 200 million. The cross-border market in China is huge and has great potential. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, many brands around the world have met difficulties to develop in local markets, and have taken action to enter the Chinese market.

(liuchang61@jd.com)