by Rachel Liu

JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, has won the 2020 Most Satisfied Retailer and Supplier Award announced by Dongfang Fast Moving Consumer Goods Center and Kuaixiaopin.net on September 26^th. JD Super ranks top in categories including cost, credit, process management, marketing campaigns and more.

The survey was compiled over three months from interviews with over 100 executives from suppliers, and the votes of over 100,000 netizens. JD Super stood out, ranking No.1 among retailers and ecommerce platforms, in a clear indication that the platform’s model is not only approved by partners and media, but also by a wide range of consumers.

JD Super has extended its ability on big data, marketing and supply chain to help partners with digital transformation and achieve better performance on the platform. In the first half of 2020, over 10,000 consumer goods brands achieved over 100% YOY sales increases on JD, and over 20 brands saw sales surpass RMB 1 billion yuan. During the recent 9.9 Shopping Festival, sales of JD Super increased 128% YOY, over 300 million diapers, over 30,000 tons of milk and over 5.85 million hairy crabs were sold. As Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, sales of time-honored mooncake brands including Daoxiangcun (稻香村), MX Cake (美心), and Guangzhou Restaurant (广州酒家) increased over five times YOY from August 19^th to September 17^th, and sales of C2M mooncakes increased over five times too.

This September, JD Super announced that it expects to achieve annual sales of over RMB 800 billion yuan by 2023. JD Super also upgraded their strategy from “TOUCH” to “TOUCH +”, which aims to integrate offline and online products and services to serve customers’ needs, optimize supply chain capability, and reach out to customers through omnichannel marketing with more targeted customer operations. With the new strategy, JD Super hopes to work with partners to achieve sustainable growth and provide customers a premium experience across different channels, categories and scenarios.

Besides the 2020 Most Satisfied Retailer and Supplier Award, JD Super also won over 20 awards in the advertisement and marketing category in the same competition; and won four medals in the 2020 Modern Advertising Awards announced earlier this month.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

Leading German enterprise Loctite, which provides adhesive, sealant and coating solutions for manufacturing segments, signed an agreement with JD MRO, JD’s B2B subsidiary for industrial maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and services. The two parties will work together to integrate resources in sales channels and co-build the service system.

Under the cooperation, Loctite’s adhesives, bonding and sealing, lubrication and cleaning solutions will be sold via the JD MRO platform. Loctite’s industrial bonding solutions are concentrated on service before purchasing, with complex categories, functions and applications that can be challenging for enterprises to understand.

Leveraging JD’s intelligent procurement capability, as well as product purchasing and usage guidance, enterprises will be more easily able to find the best solution for their needs.

Both parties have also launched integrated solutions for petrochemical, cement and coal, which require higher professional solutions, so as to improve procurement efficiency. For example, JD can provide diverse ways to reinforce vibrating large bolts in ore stackers and mining machines, in order to prevent them from loosening; or offer patching and filling solutions for coal production lines with any possible tear or scratch problems.

Eric Yau, director of Loctite’s Asia Pacific region said, “The cooperation is an important chance for us to expand in the China market. Additionally, leveraging JD’s capabilities in supply chain, we would like to build an integrated and digital procurement solution to better serve manufacturers that are in line with industrial IoT development.”

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

“We throw out trash every day, but it never occurred to me that I could get an ice cream by doing a good job sorting waste,” said a resident surnamed Chen living in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA), located in the south of Beijing. Chen used the 1,750 “mung beans” she earned in the past two months as a reward for sorting waste to buy her grandson a Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Her friend redeemed 1,290 “mung beans” for a box of eggs for her family.

Local Residents Exchanging “Mung Beans” for Ice Cream

The “mung bean” is an integral part of a digital waste sorting WeChat mini-program developed by JD to empower residents in BDA to not only comply with China’s new waste sorting regulations, but to have fun and earn points doing so. This initiative is through a cooperation with the BDA starting from September 2019 to implement a digital platform that makes trash sorting effective and convenient.

The program has kicked off with 19 housing communities in the area participating. With the initiative, residents in the BDA are equipped with a digital waste sorting mini-program called “Sorting Space” (分类空间站), and can earn bonus points for sorting their waste correctly. Bonus points can be exchanged for daily necessities via a platform embedded in the mini-program or at the offline bazaars organized randomly by both JD and local housing communities.

Residents involved in the program will be given a small green bucket for their kitchen waste. Each bucket is affixed with a QR code, which is then bundled with each family’s WeChat account. Residents put the buckets in a designated collection area at the entrance of their building, and then someone in the housing compound’s management will scan the QR code on the bucket, weigh the waste and check if it has been sorted correctly. If correct, residents will be allotted bonus points. The program also serves as an education tool to help residents familiarize the regulations – if they sort incorrectly, the WeChat mini-program will guide residents on how to sort the waste correctly.

Trash Buckets on the Shelf

In addition to the designated buckets for kitchen waste, residents will also receive a reusable bag (also affixed with a QR code) to put their recyclables in. Third party recyclables processing companies will then evaluate the recycled items and grant bonus points to residents.

To involve more residents, JD and local communities organized an offline bazaar in September inviting over 10 brands including Häagen-Dazs and Yili to make it easy for local residents to exchange points for products on site.

“If you build a product to be convenient and fun, consumers will embrace it with open arms,” said a representative of the program at JD. “This is what we’re doing with our trash sorting program – using our technology to make people’s lives easier, and make our communities cleaner.”

This is not JD’s first effort in the waste sorting space. Last year, JD’s AI team developed a solution that enables people to take a photo of the type of waste they have and be guided on how to dispose of it properly. JD Business, JD’s enterprise procurement channel, is providing supplies on its platform (b.jd.com) and leveraging its logistics capabilities to help local companies comply with the recycling policies. In addition, JD also launched the first demonstration park for trash sorting at JD’s Beijing Asia No.1 logistics park including labels with trash disposal guidance for packages, and arrange a special area for trash sorting.

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

After seeing a cry for help in the local news in Sichuan, JD mobilized a team to help rescue 300,000 kg of unsalable kiwifruit.

The report, which appeared in the Chuanguan News (川观新闻) on the evening of September 27^th, said that the “Wenchuan warriors” were desperately seeking a channel to sell the produce. During the worst period of the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, 12 “Wenchuan warriors” from Lehuo village, Wenchuan county (home of the devastating Wenchuan earthquake of 2008) in Sichuan province, selflessly traveled day and night to deliver six trucks full of vegetables amounting to around 100 tons to the epidemic epicenter. This time, one of the Wenchuan warriors, Guiyun Yang, is the main person in charge of the kiwifruit sales and transportation.

Just five hours after the report, Yong Zhao, village director of Lehuo village came with good news that JD would open a sales channel through which the kiwifruit would be sold to JD consumers all over the country.

According to Zhao there are more than 1,400 villagers in Lehuo village and kiwifruit is a big source of income for them. He received many calls after the posting in Chuanguan news, but hesitated to sell because he did not feel that the logistics could guaranteed. “I was worried that the fruit would be damaged during transportation and destroy our kiwifruit brand.”

Behind the scenes, upon catching wind of the request, JD Logistics’ Southwest region reported the information to an internal working group. After collecting significant information, members of JD Fresh, JD Logistics and other relevant departments held an emergency online meeting to discuss how to solve this problem.

A representative for JD Logistics Southwest region said, “We have always heard the story of the ‘Wenchuan Warriors” trekking for 20 hours to deliver vegetables to Wuhan and were deeply moved”. JD has a mature response mechanism for unsalable produce. During the epidemic period, it only took JD one month to sell nearly 10 times as much unsalable produce than the same period last year. “It is our duty to help the ‘Wenchuan delivery warriors’ sell kiwifruit,” said the representative. Furthermore, JD’s professional packing and transport capabilities gave the villagers peace of mind.

The JD team (Photo from Chuanguan News)

Early on in the virus outbreak, JD launched the National Fresh Produce Green Channel (“Green Channel” to help farmers sell unsalable products through JD’s channels. The program also provides JD customers across China with access to more high quality and fresh produce thanks to JD’s supply chain and logistics strength.

(ella@jd.com)

by Kelly Dawson

When JD.com’s “Life Channel” suicide hotline team received an alert that a customer had asked if a Swiss Army knife sold on the e-commerce site was sharp enough to cut his wrists, team member Li Yan sprung into action. First she called the police, and then cancelled the customer’s order for the knife, which was scheduled to arrive the following day.

Within one hour, Li received confirmation that the customer was safe and under the care of his family.

Since Li and others founded the “Life Channel” project in March of this year, the 12-person team has prevented 175 suicides. Comprised of customer service staff with many years of front-line service, the team is trained in psychological counseling services to soothe customers that express suicidal thoughts during communication with JD’s customer service teams, and to take appropriate action to preserve their safety.

Potential suicide cases are identified by JD’s intelligent “Tianxiang” system via key words used in messaging and phone calls to the site’s customer service center, and automatically transferred to the “Life Channel” team.

Although members of the team are on call 24 hours a day, the hours of midnight to 6 o’clock in the morning are often the most nerve-wracking, said Bao Wei, one member of the team. Indeed, the latest research shows that suicides mostly occur between midnight and 4 am.

It can be a taxing role, with the heavy emotional weight that comes with speaking to people in what may be the lowest moments of their lives, according to Li. She has personally handled more than a dozen suicide cases in the past six months.

To decompress from work, Li often turns to meditative activities like housework and cooking. After a particularly difficult day, she once picked up a mop and a rag and spent two hours cleaning, and then tuned out while cooking, she recalled.

“Afterward, eating the food I cooked and looking around at my tidy home, I felt much better,” Li said. She is naturally introverted, and needs that time to recharge.

In contrast is Xu Meng, a more extroverted member of the “Life Channel” team, also its youngest. Born in 1997, Xu joined JD immediately after graduating from university. After two years with the company, he was assigned to the “Life Channel” project group.

As the product of a fairly stable upbringing, Xu has never experienced suicidal thoughts, he said. But he also understands that others are less fortunate, and that there are many ways in which a person can experience difficulties in life.

When Xu needs to decompress from a difficult day on the hotline, he pushes himself harder in the gym. “Exercising in the gym and sweating makes me feel free of my own thoughts, and helps me stop thinking about work,” he said. He never misses a day.

The team also subscribes to a philosophy that “negatives make positives,” he said, regularly organizing seminars and group discussions in which team members share their emotions and describe challenges encountered at work.
“After sharing with each other, it seems that the negative energy held in my heart is shared by my peers, and my pressure is reduced,” Xu said.

According to statistics, the majority of suicides occur on impulse. When suicidal thoughts arise, the earlier the intervention, the higher the probability of success. For this reason, the work done by Li and the “Life Channel” project is absolutely vital.

When Li feels overwhelmed by a call, she reminds herself of the training the team received from a psychological counselor to prepare for this work.

“He told us, there are no difficult skills in communicating with someone struggling with suicidal thoughts,” she recalled. “You just need to listen carefully, slow down the pace, and try to connect with the person on an emotional level that resonates.”

In short, the work doesn’t necessarily require any special skills, she said—only a kind heart. Thanks to Li and the rest of the “Life Channel” project, at least 175 people now know that someone is listening.

(kellydawson@jd.com)