JD.com’s 2024 618 Grand Promotion: Boosting Consumption Through Tech and Service Innovations

Posted on by Vivian Yang

JD.com is set to energize the retail landscape with its 2024 JD618 Grand Promotion. Announced at a press conference on May 28th, this year’s shopping festival will officially kick off on May 31 at 8:00 PM. The event will see immediate sales, bypassing the traditional pre-sale phase and starting four hours early to maximize consumer convenience. With the theme “Affordability and Quality,” JD618 aims to provide a seamless shopping experience that save consumers money, time, and hassle.

Sandy Xu, CEO of JD.com, emphasized at the press conference that delivering the ultimate user experience is JD’s core mission and a key driver of its growth. As consumer demand becomes increasingly personalized, Xu believes that technology and service innovations will stimulate consumer demand, creating a positive development cycle.

Sandy Xu, CEO of JD.com

On the topic of customer service quality, Xu highlighted that JD.com has approximately 600 million active users, supported by over 20,000 customer service representatives and hundreds of thousands of JD delivery personnel. JD’s intelligent customer service system can automate 90% of service inquiries across pre-sale, sale, and post-sale scenarios. This unique business model enables JD.com to maintain real-time communication with users throughout the consumption cycle.

For this year’s JD618, JD.com is enhancing the consumer experience with several key services, including:

  • Price protection on over 85% of products, allowing consumers to claim the price difference within the protection period. This service saved consumers nearly 3 billion RMB over the past year.
  • Free home pick-up for returns on 97% of JD’s self-operated products and 75% of third-party merchant stores.
  • An upgraded instant retail service, “JD NOW,” partnering with over 500,000 physical stores to offer on-demand shopping with delivery as fast as nine minutes.
  • More than 200 basic services addressing common consumer pain points, with over 80 industry-first and unique services.
  • 24/7 customer service from in-house representatives.

Xu also noted that JD’s extensive experience in the retail industry has allowed the company to accumulate high-quality interactive data, substantial industry know-how, and technical capabilities. This alignment of JD’s technology with industry needs enables the adoption of AI and other intelligent technologies to provide smarter services and more affordable shopping experiences at this year’s 618 event.

One notable innovation is the integration of AI digital avatars. Utilizing JD’s advanced language model, ChatRhino (also known as Yanxi), AI avatars of 18 brand leaders will debut in JD’s livestreams, following the recent introduction of JD’s founder Richard Liu’s avatar. These avatars will offer 50% off and numerous other discounts for viewers.

Additional affordability-focused promotions include:

  • Hundreds of brand bosses presenting popular products starting at 1 RMB through JD’s livestream series.
  • JD’s professional procurement and sales managers offering low-priced goods in their livestream channels.
  • Daily 20 RMB subsidies for consumers on JD’s platform.
  • “2 RMB Free Shipping Day,” offering millions of 2 RMB products.
  • Numerous cost-effective goods from various industrial belts are available with free shipping.

JD.com’s customer-first commitment focuses on enhancing the shopping experience by providing a “Diverse Selection, Fast Delivery, High-Quality, and Cost-Effective” range of products and services. In the past year, JD launched the “100 Billion Yuan Discount” program to boost cost-effectiveness and product variety, attracting over 100 million users. The company also launched the “Spring Dawn Initiative” in 2023, which increased the number of third-party sellers to over one million and doubled the SKU count since early last year. To ensure high quality and fast delivery, JD.com has lowered the free shipping threshold, introduced unlimited free shipping for PLUS members, and expanded free home pick-up and refund-only services to third-party merchants. JD Logistics’ “211” same-day and next-day delivery service now covers hundreds of cities across China.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD Health Launches AI-Driven Mental Health Services

Posted on by Vivian Yang

JD Health’s Mental Health Service Center unveiled a series of AI-driven service projects during a conference in Beijing on May 25th. The new offerings include “Small Universe for Chatting and Healing (聊愈小宇宙),” an AI-based therapeutic companion designed to support individuals, as well as multimodal diagnostic and digital management tools for doctors. This initiative establishes JD Health as China’s first AI-driven online mental health service platform.

The chatbot, “Small Universe for Chatting and Healing,”  leverages JD Health’s healthcare-specific large language model (LLM). It features a rich, multi-dimensional personality, demonstrating enhanced empathy, language expression, and logical thinking abilities. This product aims to improve user interaction and provide support through more human-like communication.

The Mental Health Service Center currently hosts over 6,000 psychiatrists from renowned hospitals and more than 1,000 professional psychological counselors, offering around-the-clock services. For healthcare professionals, JD Health has introduced a multimodal diagnostic tool to enhance the quality and efficiency of psychological counseling and online diagnosis. Additionally, JD Health’s “Sleep Monitoring Data Processing Software” received the National Class II Medical Device License, enabling comprehensive monitoring of sleep physiological indexes and providing references for medical diagnosis and counseling.

Tian Chenghua, Director of the Institute of Mental Health at Peking University, highlighted the impact of AI on psychological testing at the conference. He noted that AI applications could replace over half of manual tasks, significantly boosting the accessibility and efficiency of mental health services. Moreover, AI assists psychiatrists in developing treatment plans, thereby elevating treatment quality.

JD Health’s innovative “doctor + medicines + psychological counseling” model integrates the convenience of telemedicine with extensive resource capacity, facilitating seamless links or referrals for mental health treatment and psychological counseling. This model enables targeted psychological assessments and personalized treatments for conditions such as depression and bipolar disorder.

During the conference, JD Health also announced the formation of a mental health service quality management committee and released a standardized online mental health diagnosis and treatment pathway to promote industry-standard practices.

JD Health aims to leverage its Internet Hospital’s leading position to integrate psychological services with other health resources, creating a cohesive service network. This includes medical checkups, chronic disease management, nutritional counseling, and medicine delivery. JD Health is committed to enhancing service levels, exploring innovative concepts, and developing a comprehensive, multi-level mental health service platform to promote widespread, high-quality mental health care.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD.com Earns Spot in Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com, also known as Jingdong, was recently recognized in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024. This recognition highlights JD.com’s excellence and leadership in the global supply chain sector. As the only major online retailer from Asia on the list, JD.com joins industry leaders like Amazon, Apple, and Schneider Electric.

According to Gartner, the companies recognized on this year’s list embraced in three trends: attracting and engaging talent, AI-driven advances, and antifragile supply chains. JD.com’s inclusion on this list underscores its success in navigating complex challenges while delivering exceptional value to customers worldwide.

“The supply chain organizations in this year’s Top 25 were notable for better protecting growth rates in a challenging operating environment, while at the same time delivering more sustainable operations,” said Simon Bailey, VP Analyst with the Gartner Supply Chain practice. “The best supply chains now have ESG criteria firmly embedded in their operations, while delivering higher than average growth rates, better returns on physical assets (ROPA) and stronger margins.”

“We are honored to be recognized in the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25 for 2024 for our efforts in driving innovation in the global supply chain ecosystem,” said Hao Hu, Head of Supply Chain R&D at JD.com. “JD.com has developed cutting-edge technologies such as explainable forecasting, autonomous replenishment, and an intelligent carbon management platform to create a resilient, efficient, and sustainable supply chain that delivers value to customers worldwide.”

 

Significant investment in new technologies and infrastructure has enabled JD.com to continuously enhance its supply chain efficiency and agility, achieving an industry-leading 29-day turnover rate (in Q1 2024) while managing an extensive portfolio of over 10 million self-operated SKUs. Currently, JD.com boasts an automated procurement rate exceeding 85%, all while maintaining an average inventory availability of no less than 95%.

Advanced Technology for Resilient Supply Chains

In February, JD.com was awarded Gartner’s “Power of the Profession Supply Chain Awards for 2024” for its research in probabilistic forecasting and explainable AI technology. This technology has built a resilient planning system that delivers reliable decision-making despite unpredictable disruptions and rapid market changes. Integrating probabilistic forecasting with explainable AI significantly enhances supply chain agility and resiliency, especially during complex shopping scenarios like large-scale promotions and disruptions such as extreme weather conditions. This technology has boosted supply chain planning accuracy from 65% to 90%, reduced vendor lead times by 15%, and enabled JD to maintain a high service level.

Adopting GenAI for Industry-Specific Scenarios

JD.com’s advanced innovation in applying generative AI (GenAI) was also recognized by Gartner. The company launched a large language model (LLM), ChatRhino, for industry-specific applications. The model combines generalized data with JD’s proprietary intelligent supply chain data to address challenges in sectors like retail, logistics and finance. Businesses can utilize ChatRhino for commercial applications like intelligent customer service and AI marketing.

Global Footprint of Next-Gen Supply Chain

JD.com continues to expand its global footprint by replicating elements of its world-class logistics and supply chain solutions from China to address supply chain challenges in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and more. JD Logistics’ overseas warehousing operations already offer same-day fulfillment services in key European markets and rapid two-to-three-day delivery across 90% of regions in the United States. Recently, JD Logistics announced a significant expansion of its express delivery service, enhancing the international express delivery experience from China to 23 global destinations.

Intelligent Carbon Management Platform for Sustainable Supply Chain

On May 13, FORTUNE China announced its “China ESG Impact List 2024,” marking JD.com’s third consecutive appearance for its exceptional performance in environmental, social, and governance (ESG). Last year, JD Logistics introduced the Supply Chain Emission Management Platform (SCEMP), a groundbreaking platform for managing the carbon footprint of logistics transportation. SCEMP accurately calculates carbon emissions based on the actual routes of transportation vehicles. “Verified to encompass over 140 types of carbon emission factors for road transportation in China, SCEMP is the first of its kind in supply chain carbon management,” said Christiana Wang, a carbon reduction expert from JD Logistics.

 

About the Gartner Supply Chain Top 25

Supply Chain Top 25 ranking comprises two main components: business performance and community opinion. Business performance in the form of public financial and ESG (environmental, social, governance) data provides a view into how companies have performed in the past three years, while the community opinion component gives a peer and Gartner expert view to companies’ future potential and reflects leadership in the supply chain community. These two components are combined into a total composite score.

Gartner derives a list of companies from a combination of the Fortune Global 500 and the Forbes Global 2000. In an effort to maintain the list of companies evaluated at a manageable level, a general annual revenue threshold of $15 billion has been applied and companies without physical supply chains are excluded.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD.com Launches JD NOW: Transforming On-Demand Retail with Instant Delivery

Posted on by Vivian Yang

On May 16th, JD.com unveiled its upgraded on-demand retail business, JD NOW. Combining JD’s instant shopping services, formerly known as JD Shop Now and JDDJ, JD NOW offers a wide range of premium products from over 500,000 physical stores delivered in as fast as nine minutes to consumers across 2,300 counties and cities in China.

JD NOW’s new logo features JD’s mascot, JOY dog, wearing a bamboo-copter, symbolizing innovation and speed. In addition, JD NOW’s delivery riders sport new uniforms with a helmet topped with a bamboo-copter and a racing-style T-shirt. To enhance the delivery experience for special deliveries such as flowers and perishable items, riders in black gloves use mini-fridges to maintain optimal conditions throughout the delivery process.

Dada Now, China‘s leading local on-demand delivery platform and JD NOW’s delivery operator, is improving its operations and fulfillment technologies to ensure rapid delivery. Customers can enjoy ultra-fast doorstep delivery in as little as nine minutes, with the option of  insurance to cover any potential late deliveries.

Along with the introduction of the new brand, JD NOW gained a prominent new consumer touchpoint on the landing page of the JD App, showcasing five main categories: fresh produce, flowers and cakes, supermarkets, coffee and milk tea, and medicines. The JD NOW section dynamically updates its displays based on users’ locations and shopping preferences, while highlighting discounts to help consumers make informed decisions. Additional categories, such as digital products, baby and maternal supplies, and pet products, are also available.

On May 20th, a day associated with love in China’s internet culture, JD NOW launched romance-themed promotions, including limited-edition gift boxes with flowers and cosmetics and recommendations of gift items based on the popular MBTI personality test. These promotions aim to meet customers’ immediate needs for gift shopping.

China’s on-demand retail market has been growing rapidly and is expected to exceed RMB1 trillion in 2024, according to a recent white paper by the China International Electronic Commerce Center. The launch of JD NOW underscores JD.com’s commitment to enhancing user experience and meeting the increasing demand for instant and diverse shopping solutions.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD.com Announces First Quarter 2024 Results

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

On May 19, JD.com announced its unaudited financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2024.  Below is an infographic with the key highlights. The full release can be found here.

 

JD.com Recognized in FORTUNE China’s ESG Impact List for Third Consecutive Year

Posted on by Vivian Yang

On May 13, FORTUNE China announced its “China ESG Impact List 2024,” marking JD.com’s third consecutive appearance for its exceptional performance in environmental, social, and governance (ESG).

FORTUNE commended the listed companies for their significant efforts in enhancing environmental sustainability, supporting their workforce, and contributing to their communities, all while achieving continuous and inclusive growth despite economic cycles. JD.com has consistently demonstrated its dedication and standing as a responsible corporate entity across various critical ESG aspects.

Leading Green Supply Chain Initiatives

JD.com has been at the forefront of advocating for a sustainable supply chain. For example, it continually enhances its consumer trade-in services. Data from the Beijing Green Exchange shows that from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2023, JD.com’s Home Appliances and Household Appliances division reduced carbon emissions by approximately 154,900 tons through recycling eight types of household appliances—equivalent to planting over 20 million trees.

JD.com has pioneered innovative models such as “Internet + recycling,” seamlessly integrating online waste delivery with offline recycling. In 2024, JD.com and its partners invested 6.5 billion yuan to expand and upgrade the company’s trade-in service, now covering over 200 categories, providing efficient and convenient one-stop solutions.

Empowering Employee Well-being

Launched in May 2023, the “JD.com Youth City” project represents one of the largest recent investments in employee welfare, with over 6 billion yuan allocated to provide approximately 4,000 turnkey employee apartments.

In promoting inclusive employment for women, JD.com has shown a strong commitment to gender equality, particularly by creating a supportive work environment for working mothers. This initiative garnered recognition from the United Nations Global Compact and inclusion in their report “Women at Work: Chinese Companies Taking Action on Gender Equality.” Additionally, JD.com was listed in the Bloomberg Gender Equality Index (GEI) for the first time in 2023, making it the only Chinese company in the industry included in the index.

Promoting Transparent Corporate Governance

JD.com upholds ethical guidelines and fosters a culture of compliance and integrity driven by technology and data. In 2023, JD.com released the “Report on Analysis of Employee Fraud Cases in Enterprises in the Internet Industry” and the “Guidelines for Evaluating the Maturity Level of Corporate Integrity and Compliance Management,” becoming the first in the industry to publish such guidelines. JD.com also champions the Anti-Corruption Sunshine Integrity Alliance, promoting integrity and compliance across the private sector.

JD.com’s ESG initiatives not only reaffirm its commitment to sustainable development but also set a standard for the industry. Moving forward, JD.com will uphold its corporate mission of “Making Lives Better through Technology,” leveraging its advanced supply chain technology and service capabilities to deepen ESG practices and create even greater value for users, partners, and society as a whole.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

Posted in ESG

JD.com Unveils 2024 618 Grand Promotion: Immediate Access from 8 PM on May 31

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com, a global leader in e-commerce, is set to energize the retail landscape with its annual 618 Grand Promotion, starting at 8 PM on May 31. This year’s theme, “Quality and Affordability,” highlights a diverse selection of products that combine value with excellence, readily available for immediate purchase. JD.com is also offering daily coupons worth RMB 20, providing shoppers with even greater savings.

In recent years, JD.com has led the industry in making changes to streamline shopping for millions during major shopping festivals. During the 2021 Singles’ Day promotion, JD.com pioneered the “Shop from 8 PM” concept to help customers avoid late-night shopping. In 2023, JD.com also became the first in the industry to eliminate pre-sales periods for Singles’ Day, reflecting the company’s commitment to providing consumers with a simple and joyful shopping experience.

This year’s 618 event will kick off with the “10-Billion-Yuan Discount Day.” Special promotions will continue with “9.9-Yuan Items with Free Shipping,” “Super Livestreaming Day,” and “PLUS Membership Day” on June 2nd, 3rd, and 8th, respectively, ensuring shoppers have access to top deals.

JD.com is dedicated to providing a superior shopping experience with tailored services such as free doorstep returns, trade-in options, integrated delivery and installation services, allergy-free guarantees, and a food return policy. A 30-day price guarantee further assures customers of the best value.

 

Read more: 618: From JD.com’s Birthday to China’s Largest Mid-Year Shopping Carnival

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JINGDONG Property Continues Global Expansion with Key Overseas Projects

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

JINGDONG Property (also known as JDP, or JD Property), a leading and fastest-growing modern logistics infrastructure development and management platform, has made significant strides in expanding its global footprint, marking its presence in Europe and Asia Pacific with 39 projects. This growth highlights JDP’s ability to rapidly establish modern logistics infrastructure in new markets.

JINGDONG Property’s entry into Europe began in mid-2022 with the acquisition of a 361,000-square-foot warehouse in Milton Keynes, marking its first transaction in the U.K. In late 2023, JDP further solidified its U.K. presence by acquiring a state-of-the-art logistics warehouse in Preston. Positioned near major logistics nodes, this newly built warehouse showcases JDP’s commitment to environmental sustainability with features such as substantial EV parking, a seven-acre ecological area, BREEAM excellence certification, 15m eaves height, and 50 docks, making it a prime hub for industrial activities.

In late 2022, JDP also ventured into The Netherlands with a smart logistics park in Utrecht’s ‘Lage Weide’ business park. Ideal for national, regional, and last-mile distribution, this park is close to essential transport routes and features 64 loading docks, 213 parking spaces, and solar panels, furthering JDP’s commitment to sustainable logistics and efficiency.

Another key milestone was the investment in the first and second phases of Apollo, Ansty Park in mid-2023. This development, located 10 miles northeast of Coventry City Centre in the U.K., is now a prime example of a Grade A property within JDP’s portfolio, specifically designed to support the logistics and manufacturing sectors. Apollo comprises seven units across two phases, with the first three units completed in early 2023 and fully let. These units are recognized for their sustainability, achieving BREEAM Excellent and EPC A ratings. The second phase includes four recently new completed units, designed to meet high sustainability and efficiency standards, featuring renewable energy sources like rooftop solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations.

The completion of the Apollo project has significantly improved logistics and transportation efficiency in the region, providing easy access to the U.K.’s motorway network. This strategic location, combined with a focus on green and sustainable practices, not only lowers operational costs but also boosts efficiency for businesses operating within Apollo.

Additionally, JDP’s growth in Asia Pacific was marked by a recent completion of a modern logistics warehouse in Indonesia, located in the Jababeka Industrial Estate next to the Cikarang Dry Port area. With 23,000 square meters of leasable area, this facility adopts a flow-through design warehouse model equipped with high-standard features for optimal logistics operations.

JDP’s overseas projects have attracted partnerships with notable international and local companies, contributing to the development of a high-quality industrial cluster in the area. Looking ahead, JDP is committed to further expanding its global footprint, with a focus on delivering customized logistics infrastructure that meets the diverse needs of businesses expanding internationally.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)