JD Helps Elderly People Enjoy More E-commerce Benefits

Posted on by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

The JD Home Appliance Flagship store in Deyang, Sichuan province launched a service area specifically for elderly people to help them learn to use electronics products, making their lives easier and providing more convenience for their shopping experience.

Internet-based services that make life more convenient pose some challenges for elderly who are not used to the technology. According to Mengkang Wu, head of the JD Home Appliance flagship store in Deyang, over 6% of customers visiting the store are over 60 years old, and the percentage will be higher during Singles Day. The staff in the service area will recommend easy-to-operate products for elderly consumers. After customers bought products, the staff would show them how to use the products, and leave their phone number in case they need help at a later time. The store also provides free services to encourage elderly customers to try the products in store, such as provide free clothes steaming services using the steamers in store.

“I feel like I am too old to keep up the trends,” an elderly customer in the store said. “Now in China, every payment is made through mobile phone. Hospital appointments are usually made by young people through phone too. It’s also hard for us to get taxis on the streets because most taxis have already been booked online. The service area that JD has launched is very helpful for me. My kids are all working in other cities, so I always come here to ask the staff for help.”

The service area that JD has launched is very helpful for me.

The service is designed for elderly down to the last detail. For example, name tags of staff are extra-large, and staff are instructed to speak louder and adjust the font size on their phone screens. The store also has cooking classes, a massage  area and a movie area, which has attracted many elderly people to spend their free time there.

“JD has an omnichannel business ecosystem, so we also need to provide the best experience for all customers offline. We have the responsibility to help elderly people solve their problems and enjoy their lives,” said Wu.

JD’s customer service team is also making efforts to optimize the service for elderly people. Feng Zhou, a JD customer service employee recently helped over 500 elderly villagers apply for medicine subsidies.

Suibin is a poor village in Heilongjiang province, and most of the young people have left the village to work in cities, leaving elderly people who don’t know how to use mobile phones  shopping online. A village official in Suibin learned about JD Health’s project to provide over RMB 1000 yuan of subsidies to purchase medicine, and asked for Zhou to help the over 500 elderly people apply for the subsidy – a task he completed in the span of four days. “The project can help the elderly people save RMB 1000 yuan every year, and they can use the money to buy more clothes and nutritious food. I am glad to be able to make my contribution on the project,” said Zhou.

In the future, JD will continue to optimized the service for elderly customers and streamline the process for after-sale service.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

Posted in ESG

JD Shares Insights with Executives during HP and SAP-Hosted Event

Posted on by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

JD participated in an event hosted by HP and SAP on the China opportunity titled, “A New Era for Globalization – The China Wave” on October 28th. The event, which was held virtually, gathered nearly 50 technology executives from Fortune 500 companies based in the Nordic region (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway).

Christina Boutrup, renowned author and journalist, gave the opening presentation, focusing on the “Chinese tech revolution.” “We tend to underestimate China and Chinese companies,” she said. She explained that not only are Chinese companies developing leading innovation in areas like 5G, AI, solar, electric cars and more, but also that China’s technology-driven approach to COVID-19 control – such as the apps for people’s health codes based on previous destinations traveled and temperature sensors. In her talk, Boutrup mentioned that companies like JD are paving the way in Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) and omnichannel, among other areas. Last year Boutrup published The Great Tech Revolution, a book focused on Chinese innovation, in both English and Danish. JD was featured in the book. Following the event, Boutrup also posted on her LinkedIn, writing “the future is happening right now – in China!”

Christina Boutrup’s LinkedIn post

Christina Boutrup’s LinkedIn post

JD shared on how, in addition to its eight consecutive-year commitment to keep delivering during Chinese New Year, agility, as well as technology played a key role in its support of the fight against COVID-19. From January 20th to February 28th, JD supplied 220 million food items weighing 290,000 tons. JD Health’s online medical consultations platform handled over 10 million requests during the epidemic period. Additionally, the company deployed autonomous delivery robots for contactless delivery in Wuhan. ‘Da Bai’, the robot that was used to make deliveries to key hospitals was made part of the National Museum’s exhibition on the fight against the virus.

Participants were curious about JD’s C2M model. As people are demanding more health-related appliances following the outbreak, JD has worked with several leading home appliances brands to create products that address this need. JD and LG alone have developed seven C2M refrigerators and washing machines in just two months.

 

(ella@jd.com)

 

 

JD Logistics Announces to Recruit 15,000 Logistics Employees

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

JD Logistics will recruit 15,000 logistics employees including couriers, warehouse managers, sorters and drivers to guarantee fast fulfillment when its business is growing rapidly. The announcement was made ahead of the annual peak sales season Singles Day.

The company is now operating more than 750 warehouses nationwide and can deliver parcels same- or next-day in more than 200 cities.

JD also expects the addition of logistics employees can guarantee the fast delivery during the upcoming peak sales season including 11.11 (Singles Day) and 12.12 promotions. During this year’s Singles Day promotion, JD will sell over 200 million products with 50% discounts and more than 300 million new items will be launched through JD’s platform.

JD is one of the few companies that pays the full social insurance and housing fund benefits to frontline logistics employees. The company’s “housing plan” fund has enabled over 800 couriers buy properties.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD and Shanghai Municipal Government to Issue RMB 2B Yuan Coupons

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Robin Luo

JD has joined hands with Shanghai’s municipal government to issue coupons worth RMB 2 billion yuan for local consumers during this year’s Singles Day Grand Promotion.

Consumers can enjoy discounts on JD using these coupons together with subsidies and coupons previously issued by JD. As China International Import Expo is around the corner, JD’s Singles Day promotion aims to boost strong and resilient consumption growth in Shanghai.

Starting from Nov. 3rd, consumers who purchase the designated products, such as cellphones, smart home appliances and digital products on JD can enjoy price cuts as high as RMB 400 yuan thanks to the coupons. It is expected to benefit tens of millions of Shanghai residents. The coupons will be issued on Nov. 3rd  and Nov. 9th.

This year, during the Singles Day, JD will offer over 200 million products at 50% discounts, and over 300 million new products to Chinese consumers.

 

(press@jd.com)

JD Health Empowers Partners through Omnichannel and Integrated Services

Posted on by Hui Zhang

by Hui Zhang

Telemedicine has been thrust into spotlight since the outbreak of COVID-19 in China to cope with the unprecedented demands for healthcare resources. The pandemic helped drive Chinese consumer behavior changes and accelerated the digitalization of healthcare industry. JD Health, as one of the major players of healthcare industry, embraced the change and empowered its partners through omnichannel solutions, lower-tier cities penetration, and integrating medical services with products to bring easy access to patients.

Omnichannel Solution

JD Health has retail and wholesale businesses covering pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and other healthcare products, both online and offline. The omnichannel solution is aimed at fulfilling consumers’ increasing healthcare consumption needs anytime and anywhere.

For example, JD Health worked with offline medical institutions and pharmacies to provide customers with a one-stop service experience that covers online medical consultation with Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors, filling prescriptions, preparing herbal decoctions and delivering the medicines to customers’ homes.

Through cooperation with offline pharmacies, JD Health developed an omnichannel medicine delivery service to help pharmacies benefit financially, while providing rapid drug delivery services to patients. The service now covers more than 200 cities across China. Consumers can place orders in nearby pharmacies through the service based on their locations, and the drugs are guaranteed to be delivered in 30 minutes. Additionally, JD Health also provides convenient medical services to consumers through JD’s offline self-managed pharmacies, offline pharmacies in partnership with JD Health and drug vending machines.

As of June 2020, there were more than 9,000 third-party merchants on JD Health, providing consumers with a wide range of medical product categories – complementing its first party business.

Empowering Lower-tier Cities

Pharmacies in China’s rural areas account for over 93% of the total number of medical institutions in China. However, problems such as an inefficient medical supply chain and chaotic procurement channels can result in drug shortages and expired drugs, making it difficult to guarantee drug safety for people living in rural areas.

To address the situation, JD health empowers rural offline pharmacies through its B2B business platform- JD Medicine Procurement to improve the circulation efficiency of traditional channels, and increase the transparency of information.

As one of China’s large-scale third-party pharmaceutical wholesale platforms, JD Medicine Procurement facilitates the digitalization of rural clinics by offering offline pharmacies with intelligent marketing tools, enriching healthcare product categories including medical devices, and trainings to physicians, thus ensuring drug safety and price stability to people living in rural areas.

Integrating Medical Services with Products

As one of the fastest-growing internet healthcare platforms in China, JD Internet hospital is already contracted with over 65,000 practicing physicians on its platform. Over 80% are of or beyond attending doctor’s level and 62% from AAA hospitals ( the top-tier hospital In China) So far, JD Health has opened 17 specialized medical centers online, including a Respiratory Center, a Diabetes Center, a Hepatology Center, an Oral Care Center and more. The “family doctor” telemedicine services program launched this August is tailored made to provide timely, consistent and comprehensive primary healthcare support for Chinese families. It targets serving over 50 million Chinese families in the next five years.

Consumers of JD Health’s retail business who have been attracted by a variety of drug brands, high-quality products and effective consumer experiences are willing to try healthcare services on the platform, including online medical consultations. Likewise, online healthcare services provide a superior experience, thereby attracting consumers to other healthcare management services on the platform, such as chronic disease management and family doctor services.

“ ‘Internet + Healthcare’ is reshaping the industry and provides us immense opportunities to work with our partners so as to construct a win-win healthcare ecosystem,” said Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health.

JD Health held its partners conference on October 29th in Chengdu, and announced that the company will provide a digitization-driven full-user lifecycle and scenario health management platform with supply chain as the core, and medical services as the starting point.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

JD CEO Richard Liu: Alarm Clock, RMB 15B Yuan, And User Experience

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

Providing the best user experience has always been the central point around which all JD’s businesses keep on expanding and evolving, wrote China Securities Journal (中国证券报) in a recent report following the announcement of upcoming IPOs from JD Digits and JD Health.

The Journal shed light on several stories about JD’s founder and CEO Richard Liu with a common thread about his persistent pursuit to improve the user experience, which is believed to be the starting point for Liu to develop JD’s strategies and choose what business areas the company should take on.

In the early days of JD.com, Liu handled all customer’s inquiries online by himself. To ensure a timely response, Liu slept on the wooden floor in his office every night, setting an alarm clock every 2 hours. When the alarm rang, it rattled so loudly on the floor that he had no choice but to get up and work. This intermittent sleeping pattern lasted more than 3 years until he had someone to help on customer services.

When JD was a small company, Liu would organize annual events in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou respectively to get together with his customers and invite them to visit JD’s local offices and warehouses. Liu would take down all their feedback and did internal reviews to improve the company’s services. During some of these events, he could often identify exactly which customer had previously raised a complaint and how JD had solved the issue.

When the company moved to a new building in 2007, Liu assigned the best office area to the customer service team, as he wanted customers to always experience the best part of JD in every aspect.

In the same vein, JD was the first e-commerce company in the country to start 24/7 customer service all year round. It was also the first company that promised to go to customers’ homes to pick up their return items or old-for-new exchange items. Over the past ten years, JD has accumulatively put in over RMB 15 billion yuan in developing its customer services.

The most classic example that shows JD’s customer-centered decision-making logic is Liu’s single-minded decision to build JD’s own logistics network, which he believed was the only way to reduce the risk related to parcel delivery and truly improve customers’ online shopping experience. Against the objections of many, Liu went ahead with these plans in 2007, putting heavy investment into building JD’s own logistics network. Ten years later, his efforts have clearly paid off. Nowadays, JD Logistics’ network and its services cover 99% of the total national population, with 90% of orders delivered within 24 hours. The service continued running efficiently even during the COVID-19 lockdown period earlier this year.

As the Journal concluded, “JD’s services are the best”— a standard Liu wants his customers to always benefit from too—whether in JD’s various businesses and services related to retail, technology, healthcare, insurance, and more.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

An O2O Experience of Buying Properties on JD.com

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

Have doubts about buying houses on the JD Real Estate platform only via virtual interaction? Rest assured—you’ll also have the option to experience the properties offline, thanks to JD’s integrated services supported by its real estate agent partners’ alliance, branded as “Good Houses Selected by JD (好房京选)”.

Ahead of this year’s Singles Day Grand Promotion, JD announced that the alliance has expanded to over 800 brick-and-mortar real estate service offices in Chinese cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou, and more. With information sharing, on-site property tours, and digital collaboration across these agencies, the service provides a richer experience when compared with traditional real estate agents, by matching supply and demand more accurately, and significantly improving people’s home buying experience.

“Through the agency alliance powered by the ‘internet +’ model and backed by the JD brand, we introduced standardized brand and services to ensure our customers find their properties in a safe and efficient way,” said Yide Wang, marketing director of JD Real Estates.

Customers can search for property information online and visit JD Real Estate’s offline agency to learn more about a wider range of properties, communities and the environment through AR/VR, panoramic roaming, electronic sand table, and other technologies— before they decide to check out the properties in person.

JD also provides real estate agents with an intelligent system that can improve their operational costs, data management and online transaction efficiency.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD Builds Lab in Wuhan to Provide IoV Solutions

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

JD Cloud & AI cooperated with BiNEi, a leading Internet of Vehicle (IoV) solution provider for new energy vehicles, to jointly build a lab in Wuhan for researching IoV solutions. The lab will combine JD’s vehicle-road synergy solutions with real applications such as in the supply chain field, in order to promote the development of smart transportation, smart IoV and more.

Based on big data, algorithm, edge computing, IoT and cloud computing, JD’s solutions can help lower costs and improve efficiency for logistics transportation. For example, JD can help build a system which connects data from transportation information reports, traffic accident alerts and more.

Gang Liu, director for the IoT department at JD Cloud & AI said, “We found that edge computing can optimize cost and improve safety, which is an important technological method for achieving vehicle-road synergy.”

Gang Liu, director for the IoT department at JD Cloud & AI

JD’s solutions have already rolled out in Xi’an, Wuhan, Beijing and Hainan province, helping local governments build IoV testing zones, as well as help car manufacturers and customers with integrated services covering sales, post-sales and operations.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)