by Ella Kidron

JD hosted a press conference on October 19 to announce plans for its upcoming Singles Day Grand Promotion at its headquarters in Beijing. At the conference, JD Vice President Simon Han provided further color on JD’s plans for the upcoming shopping festival, with a focus on how customers can get the most out of their Singles Day experience. Han explained that 2020 was a very trying time for China and the global economy. With China’s epidemic prevention and control now entering a period of normalization, Singles Day is key in the continued revitalization of consumers.

JD Vice President Simon Han during Press Conference in Beijing

Among the highlights cited by Han, JD will offer more than 200 million goods at 50% off. New products will also be a big focus of Singles Day this year. Han announced at the conference that JD will offer 300 million items of new products during the 21-day festival period.

Han explained that livestreaming, which was a key element of the 618 Grand Promotion, will continue to play an important role in this years’ Singles Day. JD will invite over 300 celebrities and over 500 executives into its livestreaming room. November 10^th, “JD Live Super Night 2020” will see over 30 blockbuster stars, yet to be revealed, join. Gamification promises to keep consumers engaged throughout the shopping season. JD has several online games where consumers can earn cash or even free fruit.

During Singles Day, PLUS privileges are expected to save RMB 16 billion yuan for members of JD PLUS, the premium membership program. JD PLUS will contribute RMB 1 billion in rights and subsidies. A limited number of members will be able to get the JD PLUS “buy one get 10” membership card, getting access to benefits from life services platform Meituan, ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing, Burger King and more. PLUS members will also enjoy 5% off from the PLUS brand alliance which includes over 730 brands. November 8^th, which has been designated as PLUS DAY, will enable members to enjoy 20-times JD beans （京豆）across all categories. As announced on October 16^th, JD PLUS has exceeded 20 million members.

In shopping festivals, one of the most daunting things is how to navigate the myriad of coupons available to consumers given that some are full category, some are across the platform, and some are buy X/deduct Y, while others are a certain percentage discount. JD takes the guesswork out by automatically calculating the most advantageous combination of coupons across the platform at checkout based on what’s in the shopping cart.

JD’s Singles Day is not only online but multi-channel. Over one million stores in JD’s omnichannel ecosystem will attend the festivities. In some cases, location-based-services (LBS) will provide connectivity between online and offline promotions. Furthermore, services like JD’s full-price trade-in service, refund without return, the price guarantee from JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, and more will ensure consumers a worry-free Singles Day shopping experience.

During the press conference, ahead of the announcement of its Singles Day plans, the company officially released its pre-recorded talk show, which was simultaneously broadcasted on JD Live and to the audience. The show invited popular Chinese comedians as well as JD employees, including a courier, a customer service representative and a buyer, to give a monologue expressing some of the common frustrations with online shopping, while JD Retail CEO Lei Xu and JD Vice President Simon Han provided commentary on each of the performances and provided detailed explanations of how JD ensures customers steer clear of such concerns.

For example, one comedian expressed that he bought a 1.8 meter mattress for a 1.5 meter bed from an e-commerce platform, and that the time it took to contact customer service, fill in confusing forms about the return, and more exceeded the seven-day return window. JD executives highlighted the company’s 30-day return guarantee for large home appliances as one of the many benefits for choosing JD for these types of products. The audience erupted in laughter throughout. This is the first time for JD to use such a format to communicate its Singles Day strategy.

(ella@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD Life and Services business unit is holding the “Autumn Garden Festival” online from October 14-20, providing diversified, personalized and professional gardening-related products to help customers take care of their plants during autumn time and prepare for the winter.

Gardening fans can enjoy big discounts on green plants, seeds, pots, vases, and all kinds of small planting gadgets on JD Flowers’ platform, while acquiring handy guidance on how to cultivate their plants.

A JD Flowers product page

China’s eight-day Golden Week holiday in early October left many Chinese families with mooncake boxes, chocolate jars, gift boxes, plastic bottles, and even deserted tires on their balconies or in their basements. JD showcased creative methods and tips to help consumers exercise their “green thumbs” and make good use of these containers to decorate their homes.

Professional gardeners can also find a full range of gardening instruments and tools on JD including lawn movers, electric saws, gardening scissors, pesticide, fungicide, and more with guaranteed quality and at attractive prices.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD Health is participating in the 83^rd China International Medical Equipment Fair (CMEF) from October 19-22 in Shanghai to showcase a wide range of medical devices including exclusive and customized products.

In cooperation with its medical device partners, JD Health set up three exhibition areas to display devices for blood glucose management, oxygen monitoring, blood pressure monitoring and more. Additionally, JD Health set up an area highlighting a donation from JD Health and its medical device partners to people in need in Hubei province during the pandemic.

JD Health has built strong partnerships with various Chinese medical device brands. Since setting up a cooperation agreement with JD in 2012, Yuwell, a medical equipment and supply company, has maintained rapid growth, ranking first in the category of medical devices in the second half of 2016 on JD. In 2018, the annual sales of Yuwell exceeded RMB 800 million yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of over 100% since it started working with JD. In addition to marketing cooperation, JD and Yuwell co-developed medical equipment based on JD’s big data and consumers’ feedback. In 2019, Yuwell released a number of new C2M products including blood pressure monitors and oxygen generators, and launched the new products on JD exclusively. Many of these C2M products have become best-sellers on JD.

JD Health has also shared market insights with its partner Abbott, assisting with promotion both within and outside JD’s app to help the company quickly reach annual sales of more than RMB 100 million yuan.

During the pandemic, medical mask supplier 3Q has been able to consistently supply high-quality and affordable medical masks through JD, thanks to JD’s supply chain—with the PV of a single product exceeding 100 million on the first day of pre-ordering since Feb. 14^th.

(zhanghui36@jd.com)