by Hui Zhang

JD.com leveraged its big data and shared insights of Chinese consumers with scissor– and knife-maker Zhang Xiaoquan to help the nearly 400 year-old Chinese brand to craft products that are popular with young consumers

Through an analysis of current and potential consumers of knives on JD and their shopping behaviors, the brand was able to understand that young middle-class consumers who pay more attention to both quality and appearance of the product shop on JD. Based on this finding, in 2018, JD and Zhang Xiaoquan worked together to co-develop a new set of knives with the knife base made of walnut. As the color and wood quality caters more to young middle-class consumers, at the time, the new product was a hit, becoming one of the brand’s top 3 products in terms of sales in its online flagship store. Sales of the product on Singles Day (Nov. 11^th) in 2019 increased by over 300% year-on-year. The annual sales of the brand’s store on JD were also driven by the new product, which increased by more than 20% year-on-year. Sales of Zhang Xiaoquan’s store on JD during the 618 Grand Promotion (from June 1-18^th) even doubled this year.

Zhang Xiaoquan is only one of the Chinese brands that has benefited from working with JD. Huashi Hongmu (滑氏红木), a company that specialing in mahogany furniture, successfully connected with their target consumers through partnering with JD. Both sides also jointly embarked on a variety of marketing explorations such as live streaming to attract consumers to visit the brand’s offline stores.

Several other age-old Chinese brands have witnessed a sales boom on JD. According to JD’s data, sales of mahogany furniture on JD increased by 220% on June 18^th.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

JD has partnered with Wanda Film to launch a bundled year-long membership card that will be sold during the upcoming National Day holiday, enabling customers to see movies, as well as enjoy a superior shopping experience online.

This is the first movie-related membership card launched by JD PLUS, JD.com’s premium membership program, in a move to expand its business boundaries. It’s also a new trial for Wanda Film to launch tailored benefits, as well as innovative cooperation in the e-commerce field. Customers who buy the card will have JD PLUS membership benefits including exclusive discounts when shopping on JD, as well as discounts for seeing movies at nearly 600 of Wanda’s offline cinemas.

The movie industry has been searching for a new marketing model in the wake of the pandemic. In this context, JD and Wanda will leverage marketing resources both online and offline to reach consumers.

JD PLUS has over 16 million members as of January this year, who are mainly from tier one and two markets, with high power of consumption.

Customers can buy the membership card through JD’s app or offline at the ticket sales machine at Wanda’s nearly 600 cinemas. The card will be sold as a limited edition from September 28^th to October 8^th to celebrate China’s National Day.

Previously, JD’s PLUS members already enjoyed a range of benefits covering shopping, video, music, travel, audio, reading, health and more.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

By Martin Li

Five Seven Fresh supermarkets across China have received FSSC 22000 Food Safety Management System Certification, an internationally-recognized standard for food safety that safeguards public health. Seven Fresh is JD’s innovative omnichannel fresh food supermarket business.

“The certification is a new start for Seven Fresh,” said Duan Lixia, business director of Seven Fresh. “It marks a milestone for Seven Fresh, by improving our quality management system and meeting international standards. We will continue fulfilling our commitment to putting food safety first and keep improving to win customer trust.”

The five certified supermarkets are located in Beijing, Xian, Chengdu and Guangzhou.

The FSSC 22000 food safety certification system is managed by Foundation FSSC 22000, based in The Netherlands and governed by an independent board of stakeholders, consisting of representatives from several sectors in the food industry. Applicants have to meet strict standards in raw material storage, dining infrastructure, processing and processed food storage.

Relying on JD’s strong supply chain capability, Seven Fresh has been sparing no efforts to ensure food safety in order to meet these standards, including supervision of original production areas, requirements for necessary inspection documents and random checks.

 

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

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)