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

JD Holds Second Annual Agriculture Forum

Posted on Nov 20, 2020Nov 3, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

The second annual Divine Farmer Forum was held in JD’s headquarters in Beijing on November 16^th. At this forum, JD introduced the latest developments in its JD Farm project, which leverages advanced technologies such as IoT, blockchain and big data to advance the farming industry. Nearly 40 JD farms have been launched across the country so far.

Established in 2019, the Divine Farmer Forum is committed to exploring the development path of agriculture. Co-organized by Renmin University’s China Cooperative Research Institute, JD Farm and Flyteam, a Beijing based agricultural consulting company, over 400 representatives from China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, municipal governments, agricultural associations, consulting companies and enterprises attended the forum.

JD showcased some examples done by JD Farm at the forum. In Linqu, Shandong province, the locally bred “Little Qiao honey peach” is tasty because it contains more sugar than average, but it easily cracks during the growing period and can be affected by low temperature during Springtime. In 2018, JD Farm began to equip the traditional peach farm with advanced technologies.

According to Yongjun Gao, general manager of “Little Qiao” family farm”, JD Farm applied an IoT digital agricultural system which is able to monitor water source, soil, climate and insect infestation. With real-time data, the system is able to forecast and provide alerts for natural hazards, suggest how fertilizer and pesticides should be applied, and improve the overall quality of fruits.

Little Qiao family farm is also able to sell its honey peaches across China online, thanks to JD’s e-commerce platform.

“Leveraging JD’s technology and e-commerce abilities, we bring produce directly from farms to consumers’ tables at the best price,” said Baozheng Long, vice president at JD.com. “The application of smart supply chain, IoT, blockchain, AI and big data will further drive the industry to develop and help farmers earn more.”

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Photo Gallery: This Week at JD (November 16th – November 20th)

Posted on Nov 20, 2020Sep 30, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

Lijun Xin (left), CEO of JD Health and Evelyn Cheng (right), CNBC correspondent

Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health, joined CNBC’s annual East Tech West event in Nanshan, Guangzhou on November 18 and shared insights on the industry with Evelyn Cheng, CNBC’s Beijing correspondent. The event is a by invitation-only retreat and brings together people at the cutting edge of the technology industry and leading investors from around the world. Xin shared that the COVID-19 pandemic would advance development of China’s online health industry by around five to ten years.

The Green Stream Initiative, JD’s green supply chain program was awarded a 2020 Paulson Prize for Sustainability, on November 18 at a virtual streaming award ceremony. The Prize is jointly organized by The Paulson Institute and Tsinghua University, with an aim to identify and award sustainability-focused projects in China that provide innovative, scalable, and market-based solutions at the intersection of economics and the environment.

JD Logistics will upgrade 100 existing delivery stations across 10 cities in China to “JD Express”. The upgrade has begun since November and will further complete JD’s express service network and improve service level. The upgrade will transform the delivery stations from operation hubs to management hubs.

Yiming Wang, vice chairman of CCIEE and former vice president of DRC

JD Big Data Research Institute and Tsinghua China Data Center (CDC) jointly launched a report on digitalized and intelligent supply chain development trends in China this week. Yiming Wang, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE) and former vice president of the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) shares four suggestions for the future of supply chain development. Click here to learn more.

The second annual Divine Farmer Forum was held in JD’s headquarters in Beijing on November 16^th. Co-organized by Renmin University’s China cooperative research institute, JD Farm and Flyteam, a Beijing based agricultural consulting company, over 400 representatives from China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, municipal governments, agricultural associations, consulting companies, enterprises and press attended the forum.

On November 15^th at 10:45 am, the No. 79366 train left Wujiashan (吴家山) station in Wuhan, conveying 600 tons of goods of JD.com, to North Changsha station. The train, nicknamed “Mobile Warehouse”, was loaded with 30 railway containers, jointly operated by JD Logistics (JDL) and China Railway Container. Equivalent to 20 17.5-meter transportation goods trailers, the train is expected to ease the pressure of limited road transportation resources and support goods allocation to meet the fast fulfillment demands of JD’s merchants.

In-depth Report: Message to Release from The 4th JD Discovery: Built to Last

Posted on Nov 20, 2020Oct 12, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

Ahead of the fourth JD Discovery (JDD) conference to be held next week, JD and Tsinghua University have jointly launched a report explaining three trends for the future of supply chain development in China: digitalization and intelligence, online-offline integration, and the strengthening of industry infrastructure.

During the upcoming JDD conference, which will gather industry experts from all areas of technology to discuss the most pertinent issues and developments in the industry, JD will unveil a new description of supply chain that is deeply in line with the trends outlined in the report.

JD Discovery conference online website

For the company’s future development, JD will leverage the digitalized and intelligent technology based on supply chain to connect and optimize processes covering production, circulation and service, in order to reduce cost and improve efficiency within the industries.

Nearly four years have passed since Richard Liu, Chairman and CEO of JD.com, emphasized technology during JD’s annual meeting in February 2017. “This is the time to put aside all of our achievements in the past, though the existing business model will support us to keep much higher growth rate compared with industry average in the next five to seven years— while in the next ten years, the improvement pace and the impact of technology to human beings will exceed the past 100 years,” Liu said during the meeting. “In the next 12 years, JD needs to leverage technology to break and rebuild business models.”

JD.com chairman and CEO Richard Liu speaks at 2017 JD annual meeting

Liu’s pointed direction has led JD’s innovation and operation. As a technology and service company with supply chain at its core, JD continues to expand its boundaries. Data from the latest third-quarter earnings showed that technology innovation is driving operation efficiency improvements. JD’s inventory turnover days shortened to 34.3 days, hitting the fastest turnover rate since its IPO. And net service revenues were RMB 22.8 billion yuan (US $3.4 billion), an increase of 42.7% from the third quarter of 2019.

The need to widen boundaries

Liu has come up with a ten-section operation theory. He divided the value chain for retail and consumer goods industries into ten sections, covering creativity, design, R&D, manufacturing, pricing, marketing, transaction, warehousing, delivery and post-sales. The first five sections belonged to brand owners; the last five belonged to retailers. In the past ten years, JD focused on the last five sections, originally starting from transaction, and gradually stretching to warehousing, delivery, post-sales and marketing.

As a result, JD’s nationwide logistics network has helped reduce the social logistics cost and helped JD to form foundation of supply chain infrastructure. JD’s logistics network has also proved its value amid the pandemic, playing a key role in ensuring uninterrupted delivery of essential and medical supplies in China. More importantly, JD has opened core supply chain capabilities to external partners, helping the industry to optimize cost, efficiency and experience.

JD Logistics trucks

Additionally, JD aims to stretch the supply chain from merchandise to other industries, including finance, healthcare and auto aftermarket— and further accessing the upstream sections from Liu’s ten-section theory: creativity, design, R&D, manufacturing and pricing.

Stretching to more industries

Since its establishment, JD has been building its strength in supply chain and technology, producing four unicorns to date, namely JD Logistics, JD Digits, JD Health and JD Industrial Technology.

As one of China’s leading online healthcare platforms rooted in JD.com, JD Health defines its strategy as medical services as the starting point and supply chain at the core, building a digital-driven healthcare management platform covering users’ full life circle and all scenarios.

Lijun Xin, JD Health CEO explained, “In the past, the business model of JD Health was more like a pharmaceutical e-commerce business, but if we can’t guide and manage the whole life cycle of users, we can’t become a real healthcare-service company.”

JD Health CEO Lijun Xin speaks at an offline event

Led by Xin, JD Health will open up the whole industry chain to integrate medical resources of all parties, and provide users with products and services that run through the whole life cycle and cover all health scenarios.

Xin shared, “For example, JD’s family doctors will know when any of your health indicators turn abnormal, even when you might not be aware, and they will contact you in a timely fashion to take action. When you use JD’s online platform, health consultations, medicines and other healthcare related services will be covered.”

Based on supply chain, JD Health has launched an omnichannel program for customers. Through nationwide collaboration with more than 200,000 offline pharmacies in over 200 cities so far, JD offers a 30-minute fast medicine delivery service for its online users. During the latest Singles Day Grand Promotion, sales from the program increased 21 times YoY and delivery services continued to improve, with one customer even receiving medicine in less than 10 minutes.

Talents enabling sustainable growth

Ahead of the Chinese spring festival earlier this year, Richard Liu sent an open letter to JD employees, with one of the key messages: “Talent is always the core among everything.”

At JD, the “Big Boss” is a key program to make the whole JD.com organization more agile, a characteristic that is often a key factor to decide whether a company can last long. The program empowers business divisions to make their own decisions, demonstrating greater trust in leaders across the company. JD aims to put decision-making power in the hands of those closest to the customer.

“The program is also premised on the idea that each business unit is a ’Lego building block’ that together with other units can more easily adapt, shifting and stacking to meet complex and ever-changing needs,” explained Rui Yu, CHO of JD.com.

JD Digits is also concentrating heavily on talent building. Leveraging digital technology, JD Digits is an example of how JD has extended its capabilities to help financial institutions, governments and other public institutions transform into a more digitalized business model. Within JDD, employees define themselves as the “chief growth officer (CGO)”, who each aim to help clients grow their business.

JD Digits employees portraits exhibition at JD headquarters

Ling Xu, vice president of JD Digits said: “It represents a notion. Growth is the target and we are all committed to helping clients achieve the target. Only when clients reach their goals, can we share the benefits. It’s a client-centered philosophy, to encourage the employees to put clients first.”

One of JDD’s employee said, “Previously, one client needed to communicate with several departments within JD and JDD for discussing different business programs, while now they can just contact JDD as a central communication point. In my role I will help them with internal communications, which makes the whole process more efficient.”

Shengqiang Chen, CEO of JD Digits shared his view of how to approach work: “First, you need to do the right thing, and second, you need to keep learning. Last, you need to keep curiosity to this world.” Chen’s philosophy has enabled a strong team which supports JDD’s long-term growth together.

Learn from the Titans

Global leading companies share similar business strategies. See Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Microsoft as examples, for whom market value has reached over 1 trillion US dollars, respectively, with stable growth rate. They all share multiple business models, stretching their access to transaction, service and technology, which is in line with JD’s mission: Powered by technology for a more productive and sustainable world.

As CEO Richard Liu shared, “You have to maintain unique advantages to make the company last for 100 years— it’s not to seek profits from upstream, but to provide value by optimizing cost and efficiency.”

JD’s efforts in the area of digitalized and intelligent technology will guide the direction for the company’s future, which will need higher technology abilities while creating more value for the society.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD’s Hu Hao: Supply Chain Infrastructure Essential for Customer-Serving Business

Posted on Nov 20, 2020Sep 6, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

“JD, as a technology and services enterprise with supply chain at its core, used to be based on retail. But retail is constantly changing, and new fields are emerging,” said Hu Hao, head of supply chain innovation at JD.com. He explained that because retail is constantly changing, any scenario meant to serve consumers must consider the notion of supply chain. Hu made the comments at an event held at Tsinghua University on Nov. 18^th to release a joint report by the JD Big Data Research Institute and Tsinghua China Data Center on digitalized and intelligent supply chain development trends in China.

JD’s Hu Hao

“Supply chain has become infrastructure,” he said. Warehousing, marketing, trading, distribution and after-sales are needed in any scenario, meaning that supply chain has become infrastructure to service multi-terminal and multi-scenario capabilities. Hu further pointed out that supply chain capabilities will precipitate into new technology capabilities, serving all enterprises within the ecosystem.

According to Hu, the supply chain is demand-driven, and demand comes from consumer behavior, purchases and preferences. The whole supply chain, from design, to raw materials, warehousing, distribution, after-sales and delivery to consumers, will constitute cost for consumers. This is why it is so critical for JD to leverage its supply chain advantages and work with all parties in the supply chain to increase efficiency.

JD’s ability to accumulate data, including consumer insights, as well as its ability to launch products can be fed back to the production end. This means that by shortening the distance between the production and consumption ends, the entire new product market, supply chain efficiency, and the overall end-to-end chain will be enhanced.

(ella@jd.com)

JD to Upgrade 100 Delivery Stations to “JD Express”

Posted on Nov 20, 2020Sep 7, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

The upgrade will transform the delivery stations from operation hubs to management hubs. This change is a reflection of the development of the JD Express business, which started purely as a delivery business, but now also places a significant emphasis on pickup. As such, in addition to a unified brand image and decorations, the upgrade will also involve offices and meeting rooms as well as other client-friendly resources such as a beverage bar, as well as recycling and laundry for nearby residents.

The flagship stations will also integrate smart devices which are vital to improving logistics efficiency. The smart systems applied in these flagship stations will help couriers more efficiently deal with parcel delivery and collection. Smart technology integration has already been proven to increase efficiency in JD’s delivery stations. For example, in the smart delivery station in Yizhuang (Beijing’s economic-technological development area), adopting smart sorting devices and other technology enables the station to sort as many as 15,000 orders a day, 5 times the amount of a single traditional delivery station.

“JD will continue to expand the coverage of its flagship stations through continuous business model and technology innovation, and enable even faster, more efficient and convenient delivery services for our customers and partners,” said a JD Express representative.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Empowers Home Appliance Giant Haier with C2M

Posted on Nov 20, 2020Nov 17, 2021 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

This Singles Day saw Chinese home appliance giant Haier ranked No. 1 on sales in the large home appliance category on JD, and sales of the brand increased over 50% YoY. On November 11^th, within one minute, sales of Haier surpassed RMB 100 million yuan, and sales of its refrigerators, washing machines and water heaters all ranked top at each of their categories.

In the home appliance industry, the most popular development is C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer), a model that JD has been exploring. Haier has developed a water heater with JD based on customers’ feedback. Tens of thousands of customers had previously left comments on JD to ask whether they could determine how much hot water was left in their water heater and if the water was clean. In response, during this 618 Grand Promotion (June 1^st to 18^th), JD and Haier launched a water heater with an indicator on the product’s display. Over 10,000 water heaters were sold during the promotion. JD and Haier also launched two updated versions of water heaters with purifiers in August and October. During this Singles Day, 50,000 of the above mentioned three kinds of water heater products were sold in total.

“Using digitalization to empower our partners is a trend in the industry,” said Bo Ye, general manager of kitchenware at JD Home Appliance. “Haier’s impressive sales of Haier’s C2M products in the past year allowed both customers and the brand to see the advantage of using C2M. In the future, we will develop more products that can meet customers’ demands and are looking forward to working more deeply with more brands to develop high-quality C2M products.” When it comes to home appliance products, JD’s C2M initiative can save brands 75% of the time it might take to manually survey customer demands, and can make the development and design of new products more effective.

Apart from C2M, JD also empowers brands with extensive offline channels to promote the new products, such as the over 15,000 JD Home Appliance stores in 4^th to 6^th tier cities. During this Singles Day, sales of air conditioners and small home appliances in the stores increased over 200% YoY; sales of refrigerators and washing machines increased over three times YoY, and sales of ultra-large screen TVs increased 6 times YoY. More customers in lower-tier cities are looking for high-end products. JD also has stores targeted at customers in 1^st to 3^rd tier cities, including the JD E-Space, JD 5 Star Home Appliance stores and JD Home Appliance flagship stores.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

Five New Post-COVID-19 Necessities

Posted on Nov 19, 2020Oct 13, 2021 by Hui Zhang

by Hui Zhang

Masks, thermometers, vaccines, nucleic acid tests and internet hospitals have become the five new necessities for Chinese consumers since the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020.

Mrs. Li, a resident of Beijing, said that she has already bought 1,500 masks this year. “I buy masks for my child and other adult family members. As a family of five, our family used five mask per day on average.”

JD’s data shows that sales of masks on JD Health skyrocketed from January to September 2020, increasing by nearly 19 times year-on-year, and the repurchase rate exceeds 50%. The average monthly sales of masks from January to October this year increased by 3,862% year-on-year.

Thermometers have become another necessity for consumers to monitor their health status. Sales of the thermometer category on JD Health from January to October have increased by more than six times year-on-year, with mercury thermometers, infrared thermometers, electronic thermometers and ear thermometer guns increasing by 1,296%, 388%, 363% and 298% respectively, year-on-year.

During the pandemic, Chinese consumers have attached increasing importance to vaccination, making this another major necessity for people’s daily lives. According to JD’s big data, vaccine sales on JD Health from January to September increased 226% year-on-year. In August, the number of searches for “flu vaccine” increased by 20 times and the number of orders increased by seven times compared to the same period last year.

Even as most areas in China have been designated as “low risk”, nucleic acid testing is still essential for high-risk workers, such as doctors and cold-chain logistics workers, and for areas with quarantine requirements. JD’s data shows that the daily number of nucleic acid tests booking services reached a peak increase of 460% during JD’s 618 Grand Promotion in June. JD Health can provide online booking of nucleic acid testing services covering a total of 110 stations across 37 cities in China. JD Health is also the first platform in China to provide online booking services for COVID-19 testing.

Online consultation makes it possible for consumers to see a professional doctor without leaving their homes, making this a new daily necessity for Chinese consumers. As of September 2020, the average daily online consultation of JD’s internet hospital is 90,000 times, which is nearly six times that of the same period in 2019.

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

Industry Data: JD’s Active Users Increased amid Singles Day Grand Promotion

Posted on Nov 19, 2020Sep 28, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

According to data from QuestMobile, China’s leading big data analytics firm, active users from JD’s App increased 53.5% YoY on Singles Day, while the growth rate during November 1^st to November 11^th was 67.4% YoY, higher than the industry average.

JD has been consistently expanding into lower-tier markets. QuestMobile data showed that over 60% of JD’s new App users are from tier 3 and lower markets. As for the average customer age, JD is stretching the boundaries beyond its current key customer base who are 25-35 years old. Among the new App users, nearly 40% are over 36 years old, while 25.3% are under 25.

Lower-tier markets also demonstrated great consumption power. JD data showed that 80% of the new customers of JD Super are from lower-tier markets. Sales of JD’s offline home appliance experience stores, which are mainly based in lower-tier markets, increased 200% YoY.

JD’s Q3 earnings showed that annual active customers increased by 32.1% to 441.6 million, which is the highest growth rate in the last three years. Based on smart supply chain and by leveraging digital technology, JD will continue to provide customers with a superior shopping experience, promoting sales growth for the real economy.

(ling.cao@jd.com)