by Rachel Liu

Shopping festivals are no longer only about promotions. According to the 618 Ecommerce Platforms Service Satisfaction Report released by Retail Lab under Southern Metropolis Daily, price only ranks No.3 among the key concerns for customers in shopping, and service has surpassed price to become a top focus for customers. JD has launched a series of innovative services covering different businesses in this Singles Day to provide customers with a better shopping experience.

 

Mobile Phone

During this Singles Day, JD is providing 43 services for mobile phone consumers, including the highly popular trade-in, one-hour delivery, 30-day no reason return, and two other new services. JD’s Singles Day pre-sales period is being held October 21^st -31^st, and the official sales period is from November1^st -11^th. Customers can pay a deposit during the pre-sale period and then pay the rest when the official sale begins, and enjoy a cheaper price.

Typically, this would be that customers wouldn’t receive their products right away, but JD has arranged for some of the mobile phones to be pre-ordered and paid for earlier, and then JD will deliver the products same- or next-day. If the price happens to drop further after November 1^st, the price difference will be deposited in customers’ accounts automatically. As the first e-commerce platform to launch this service, JD has witnessed its growing popularity among customers – data shows that over 50% of the customers chose to enjoy the products ahead of time instead of waiting for official sales.

Another service is the 1.2 times refund. If customers find that the prices of mobile phones bought on JD are lower during the Singles Day period, JD will provide a refund that equals 1.2 times the price difference. JD also continued its 30-day return service and expanded it to most of the mobile phone products on the platform, while the industry standard is usually 7-day return window.

 

Consumer Goods

This Singles Day, pet owners don’t need to worry about buying the wrong pet food on JD. During big promotions, pet owners tend to stock up on pet food, but they can’t guarantee that their pets will enjoy the taste. JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, has launched a new service which allows customers to return already-opened pet food that their pets don’t like. During Singles Day period, the service is expanded from seven days after customers receive the orders to 30 days. JD Super also extended its refund policy to 30 days – from November1^st to November 30^th, customers who find that prices of items they previously bought are even lower can apply for a refund of the price difference.

 

Fresh Food

JD Fresh launched nine after-sales services to ensure customers enjoy high-quality, fresh and healthy food. If customers having problems with their orders, such as damaged packages or food quality issues, they can apply for after-sales service within 48 hours. Customers can enjoy a refund directly without the need to send the old products back. For example, October and November are hairy crab season in China and many consumers visit JD to buy hairy crabs. Any customer who finds a dead crab in their order can immediately receive two live hairy crabs.

 

Health Consultancy

COVID-19 has made customers get familiar with online health consultancy. To enable more customers to enjoy premium health care resources, JD Health invited over 100 doctors from AAA hospitals (the highest tier of hospitals in China) in different areas to provide free consultancy services for JD customers during this Singles Day.

 

Additionally, as many customers began to decorate their new homes with the improvement in the COVID-19 situation, JD has been providing comprehensive home furnishing services including measurement service at customers’ doorsteps, free delivery and installment of furniture, and 30-day no reason return.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

C2M: JD’s Data to Change China’s Manufacturing Industry

by Kelly Dawson

 

“Only by creating value can we be rewarded.” Richard Liu, Chairman and CEO at JD.com, has cited this adage as a guiding philosophy for JD.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in JD’s consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) initiative, which leverages JD’s big data insights to jointly develop tailored products with brand partners based on exactly what customers want, as revealed through their shopping behaviors and preferences.

Ahead of this year’s Singles Day promotion period, in which JD will launch 300 million items of new products including a wide range of C2M items, JD’s Big Data Research Institute released a report on overall consumption trends related to new and C2M products.

A driving force

According to the report, new products (including C2M) have become a major force in assisting China’s post-pandemic economic recovery—much of it driven by people younger than 40 years old with strong spending power, who are increasingly interested in products that demonstrate their individuality. This is where C2M products can shine, by catering to the changing desires of younger consumers.

The number of new products released on JD in a single month in 2020 exceeded that of the whole year in 2018, the report noted. The number of new products released on JD since 2020 has been close to 200% of the total in 2019.

As we dive into this year’s Singles Day promotion period, the transaction volume of new products on JD has reached more than 40% of the total range of products—confirming that the category will continue to drive the whole consumer market upward.

“Concrete results”

JD’s C2M initiative aims to address many of the challenges associated with the traditional product development model, offering what JD believes to be an “intelligent revolution” for the consumer market.

In the old model, the average product launch cycle was 18 months, with ten months spent on market and product research alone. Many brands found that by the time the products hit the market, consumer tastes had already moved on. The path from the upstream production to the downstream sales was simply too long—and worse, was often been ineffective at providing an accurate picture of what customers really want.

Further, the chances of a successful launch for a new product in the traditional model are very low—only 5%, according to a study published by Harvard Business Review.

In contrast, brands that worked with JD to co-develop C2M products saw product research time cut by 75%, shortened the product launch cycle by 67% and increased sales, according to JD Retail CEO Lei Xu.

For example, Lenovo launched a C2M version of a high-performance thin and light notebook customized to address customer feedback. Coinciding with the outbreak of COVID-19 and a boom in home office-related purchases, the product saw huge sales. Since then, different models of the notebook have occupied the top three positions of Lenovo notebook sales.

Li Weichang, general manager of Lenovo China’s consumer PC division, said that the cooperation with JD has yielded concrete results. “The data analysis provided by JD has brought significant improvements to Lenovo’s product design, which has helped us more precisely target customer needs and provide products people want,” he said. JD and Lenovo announced in 2019 that the partnership aims to generate RMB 10 billion yuan in sales of enterprise products by the end of 2022.

Another successful case is Sony’s full-screen AI eye protection TV, which was developed in response to customer feedback that expressed concern for children’s eyesight while watching TV. Sales of the TV increased six times during the National Day holiday, compared with the average daily sales in September.

Valuable data

JD’s ability to provide truly valuable data insights to brands lies in its successful expansion across many categories—now ranking first in China’s household appliance retail omnichannel category, with market share of 28.9%; and also leading the mobile phone category online and through omnichannel. JD Super is currently the largest online and offline supermarket in China; and so on.

Relying on a strong intelligent supply chain, JD is able to collect information from the whole process—before, during and after sale of goods. This approach places consumers at the center, with an aim to create products and services that truly address common pain points. Additionally, JD provides manufacturers with full-scale assistance in terms of channels, supply chains, users and logistics.

Through the C2M initiative, JD has created a closed loop ecosystem that is better positioned to serve consumers.

As China transitions to an economic strategy of “dual circulation” that will rely more heavily on domestic consumption, the digital upgrading and transformation of China’s manufacturing industry will certainly play an important role.

 

(kellydawson@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com is opening a new SEVEN FRESH supermarket in Beijing’s CBD. Located on B1 at the Wonderful World shopping mall, the supermarket sells over 5,600 products including fruits, vegetables, seafood and beverages among many others in the more than 3,400 square meters’ area.

In addition to providing various quality products, SEVEN FRESH also offers onsite catering services for nearby residents and working professionals. Consumers can order meals from the SEVEN FRESH app and choose to have them delivered to the doorstep or to enjoy in store. The store can deliver in as fast as 30 minutes.

“The new SEVEN FRESH is an upgrade from the previous stores, further expanding the catering area to account for almost 50% of the sales area,” said Kun Li, the store manager. “Adopting an online and offline operations model, our customers can purchase JD-selected quality products, and also purchase more products from around the world through JD’s online e-commerce pool and enjoy fast delivery service.”

Launched in January 2018 by JD.com, SEVEN FRESH is one of the company’s key omnichannel retail initiatives. During the upcoming Singles Day promotion, SEVEN FRESH will deliver a unified high quality shopping experience through its online and offline channels.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)