by Martin Li

Chinese smartphone maker OnePlus has set up special demonstration areas at 41 JD Home stores in cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou.

JD Home is a brick-and-mortar store brand of JD.com, which sells a variety of quality computers, telecommunication devices and consumer electronics.

The announcement marks the start of offline channel cooperation between the two companies. Based on the cooperation, JD will give OnePlus access to its livestreaming technology and data resources, as well as one-hour delivery service.

Meanwhile, OnePlus will provide sufficient supplies, brand training, and promotion support to the stores.

The number of the stores which house the special brand area for OnePlus is expected to grow further.

“JD Home and OnePlus will pursue deep cooperation in supply chain and omnichannel, as well as omni-scenario marketing, in an effort to make it easier and faster for consumers to buy OnePlus smartphones and give them a better shopping experience,” said a representative of JD’s communications business unit.

“We will partner with JD Home to explore omnichannel marketing, making full use of our respective resources and advantages to improve customers’ shopping experience,” said a OnePlus spokesperson.

The two companies started close cooperation when OnePlus launched its OnePlus 5 Series. JD Home stores played host to its new phone launch in different forms such as pop-up stores.

In April 2020, OnePlus launched the inaugural sale of its flagship phone OnePlus 8 at JD Home stores in ten cities in China, including Wuhan in Hubei Province, Chengdu in Sichuan Province and Kunming in Yunnan Province, and Shanghai.

Established in 2013, OnePlus has attracted more than ten million users in 196 countries and regions, covering developed markets like the United States and West Europe.

 

（bjlihao3@jd.com)

 

 

by Vivian Yang

According to the data from JD, in 2020, the number of car brands that sell cars on JD Auto, JD’s online automotive selling platform, doubled YOY.

The JD Big Data Research Institute and 21^st Century Business Herald, China’s leading business media group, co-launched the JD Auto Consumption Ecosystem Report 2021 on Jan. 28, concluding that online platforms’ role in integrating the whole chain of automotive manufacturing, transportation, sales and services is crucial for the development of the auto industry against the odds of the pandemic.

“China’s auto market witnessed a robust bounce back in the second half of 2020 after COVID-19-caused sales to decline earlier in the year, with an increasing amount of  car sales and aftermarket services happening via ominichannel,” noted Hui Liu, Chief Data Officer of JD Big Data Research Institute, co-author of the report, during the online report release event.

When it comes to motorcycles, Gen Z and females become the fastest growing consumer groups. JD Auto’s data shows that consumers under 25 years old account for 28% of the overall motorcycle buyers on the platform. The number of female buyers increased by 61% YoY. They represent 39% of the overall motorcycle buyers on JD.com in 2020.

Tires and engine oil topped the list of auto aftermarket product sales, with transaction volume rising 24.8% and 9.7% respectively, reflecting the high speed growth of online market for auto products.

Brands such as Mobil, Shell, Pirelli and Michelin whose engine oil or tires are highly trusted, enjoy stable growth online via JD.com.

As China’s auto market has become increasingly mature. Consumption of car maintenance and insurance on JD is surging. By December 2020, JD Auto Service, JD’s omnichannel car maintenance chain had expanded to over 1,200 stores in 29 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across China.

The report also highlighted that consumers from China’s lower-tier cities and owners of new energy vehicles have high demand for arranging car maintenance via online platforms.

Additionally, sales of car-use electronics, cleaning and decoration products experienced rapid growth at the same time, with decorative products reaching 407% YoY sales increase in 2020, said the report.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

Chinese movie director Chuan Lu produced a mini-movie for JD ahead of Chinese New Year to promote the mobile phone service package provided by JD Mobile. Lu joined a sharing session at JD’s Beijing headquarters on Jan. 28 talking about the story behind this production.

Lu is famous for his movie works including Hoh Xil, The Missing Gun and City of Life and Death. He won Best Film Director at the Fourth Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong in 2010. The mini-movie he produced for JD, named The Longest Chess Game, is based on a real-life story about two train station agents who remained on duty during one Chinese New Year holiday.

The tier-5 train station, which is the smallest station in China’s railway system, had only two agents, and they needed to work in turn every 12 hours. To ease the young agent’s homesickness, the older encouraged him to play chess. Due to their work schedule, they could only make one move every 12 hours when they returned from duty, and the game ultimately helped them find pleasure and comfort in the isolated place.

The mini-movie has a special resonance in China, where hundreds of thousands of hard working station agents, engine drives, couriers, medical workers and more people remain on duty during Chinese New Year each year so that other Chinese people can enjoy a happy, safe and convenient festival.

JD Mobile would also like to provide peace of mind for customers shopping through its comprehensive service package.

During the sharing session, which was widely welcomed by JD employees, Lu talked about his idea for producing this movie: “This story is about the ordinary people’s insistence behind our daily lives. I hope that through this story, the audience can also feel the same spirit of JD’s consistent services, which aim to provide customers the best shopping experience. I also wish to pay my tribute to the people who have sacrificed their own time and efforts to make other people’s lives happier.” Lu also share his experience of making films for different international enterprises, and answered questions from JD’s employees.

JD’s mobile phone service package includes five services: 30-day return, one-hour delivery, free trial for 7 days, trade-in and “30365” service. The “30365” service means that customers can get a full refund if their phones have hardware problems within 30 days after the orders were made, or get a brand new product if there are problems within 365 days. When the service was launched last August, orders of mobile trade-in services on JD increased over 50% compared with the week prior to the launch.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

SEVEN FRESH will open a new store in Chengdu on Jan. 30, right before the Chinese New Year (CNY), providing local customers with cross-culture products ranging from bighead carp fished out of Chagan Lake in Jilin province, Chilean cherries and local specialties in Chengdu. On the opening day, the store will offer buy-one-get-one-free discount on more than 100 products. Customers can also enjoy delicious local food cooked in-store, such as fried meat in the Sichuan style, Wanzhou-style barbecue fish, Chongqing cuisine and more.

Leveraging big data, JD has analyzed customer profiles in a three-kilometer radius around the store, which is located at a Longfor Business Mall. Data shows that the area gathers a wide range of ages, from younger generations to elderly people. To meet their different needs, JD has adjusted the product categories within the store, adding not only daily necessities, but also high-end products such as organic food.

To prepare for the launch, JD held a Member’s Day during Jan. 27-28, inviting customers to enjoy a free taste of fruits, beverages and baked goods, which gained interest from customers.

Lixia Duan, head of SEVEN FRESH supermarkets said, “In addition to ensuring people’s livelihood, we hope the SEVEN FRESH store can provide an omnichannel shopping experience, as well as an entertainment place for local residents.”

SEVEN FRESH will continue to operate online and offline during CNY. To help customers prepare for CNY gift purchases, it also provides a delivery service. Customers can purchase at the store, and JD Express will deliver to recipients remotely. The delivery will be free on purchases above RMB 400 yuan for intra-city delivery, and RMB 800 yuan for between cities.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Martin Li

SEVEN FRESH, JD’s omnichannel supermarket brand, has been providing same-day home delivery to seventeen residential communities in Beijing’s Daxing District, where almost 20,000 residents are sealed off to prevent spread of the COVID-19 virus.

The two supermarkets serving the sealed-off area have seen their daily order numbers jump 2.5 times since Jan. 18 when the preventive measures took effect.

There are almost 140 in-store staff and 70 delivery staff in the two supermarkets, who are all involved in ensuring supply and delivery to the sealed-off communities. They sanitize open areas, warehouses and office areas every two hours.

Each order contains products in different sizes, including bottled water, rice, cooking oil, vegetables and fruits, which are a challenge to deliver.

“We understand residents’ worries about insufficient supply of daily necessities. The more orders we deliver, the more residents will feel relieved,” said Yunjun Cao, who is in charge of SEVEN FRESH’s business in northern China.

In 2020 Cao was involved in the efforts to ensure supply in Wuhan during the virus outbreak.

“Our delivery staff used to ride smaller electric vehicles, but now they have to drive vans to deliver more orders,” said Cao.

Some staff have even used their private vehicles to deliver orders on account of the volume, according to Cao.

 

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

 

 

by Ling Cao

JD formed a health sterilization alliance with home appliance brands, including Canbo, Midea, Fotile, Robam and more, aiming to provide customers with a healthy lifestyle when shopping.  This was announced Jan. 25, when JD kicked off its second annual health sterilization week from Jan. 22 to Jan. 28.

Livestream initiative on Jan. 25

During the week-long event, JD held a livestream event with brands under the alliance. In addition to providing various benefits and discounts to customers, Canbo and Midea decided to donate 1% of the sales generated from the livestream to Shunde Charity Federation in order to support health related programs. The livestream attracted over 880,000 viewers.

Bo Ye, general manager of JD’s kitchenware department said, “Customers have heightened awareness of health-related products under the COVID-19 situation in 2020. The alliance aims to provide high quality and health conscious products to customers.”

Bo Ye

Yongguang Li, executive vice president at Canbo, said: “Canbo actively responds to the nation’s encouragement to promote health related industries. The initiatives with JD are of great significance to us.”

Canbo and JD are long-term partners. Leveraging JD’s big data and customers’ feedback for purchasing smart and built-in disinfection cabinets, both companies have launched a C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) cabinet powered by AI. The product went on sale on JD in October 2020 and got good feedback from customers.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)