by Hui Zhang

JD.com will partner with 30 home improvement brands including B&Q, Nippon Paint and others from both home and abroad to form a Home Renovation Alliance, in an upgrade of its previous home furnishing alliance in 2018. The group will work to meet consumers’ three core demands of partial, overall and customized home improvement, and to bring an integrated service solution from purchase, delivery, installation and return to consumers.

Consumers usually have different demands and concerns towards partial, overall and customized home improvement. For example, many consumers worry that home renovation might involve a long construction period, loud noises and the strong smell of formaldehyde, all of which would negatively affect their life.

In respond to consumers’ needs, JD will work with various brands from the Home Renovation Alliance to launch renovation packages to match different scenarios and budgets. For parents who need to renovate their children’s homes, JD has worked with Dulux to create a ‘Zero Methanol Children’s Home Decoration’ package, which ensures that children can come home safely within 24 hours after the painting.

JD Home Renovation Alliance will also set up five service initiatives to benefit consumers,  including setting up a quality-service standard, smart home renovation, insurance on home renovation, fast repairs in the case that you are not satisfied with services, and furniture or package storage. For example, consumers can choose JD Mini Storage, a solution for every storage need, from short-term to long-term storage, to store personal items. For home renovation insurance, JD Home Renovation Alliance will also provide different insurance services that ensure financial security and home renovation quality, with an indemnity of RMB 1 million yuan.

To ensure the best possible consumer experience, JD will explore how it can best empower cooperating brands from the perspectives of technology, marketing and financial services.

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

From September 17^th to September 21^th, transaction volume of JD’s home appliance flagship store in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, exceeded RMB 50 million yuan. The store, with an area of nearly 10,000 square meters, opened last week in Nanjing’s Hexi commercial zone where the spending power of consumers is very strong.

High quality, technology-forward products are offered in the store, attracting many young consumers, whole 18 to 35 age group makes up 56.9% of the customer base. The average in-store duration for consumers is over 56 minutes. Sales of dryers and dishwashers are two times that of a typical home appliance store.

Haixia Mei, general manager of this store has observed four trends:

• Consumers generally have higher interest in high-end and “cool” products. Dishwashers, washer/dryer combos and sweeping robots have become popular for consumers to try and buy. Consumers tend to pay an average of RMB 10,000 yuan (~US$ 1,467) for refrigerators and washing machines.
• Consumers pay more attention to healthcare when buying home appliances and usually will buy two or more washers or dryers.
• Consumers attach importance to service experience and many of them praise JD’s comprehensive pre and after-sales services such as the 30-day price protection policy.
• The store is busier in the afternoon and evening so JD has extended the close time of the store to midnight.

Earlier this year, JD announced a plan to open 20 JD E-Space Experience Stores in first tier cities (large scale), as well as 300 home appliance flagship stores in prefectural cities on a one-city-one-store basis, and 5,000 stores in towns and villages by 2025.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

With the eight-day National holiday (“Golden Week”) just around the corner, JD and travel leader Trip.com have launched a promotion for Chinese Mainland tourists to Macau during the period. The promotion comes as restrictions on Chinese tourists traveling to Macau are eased from this week. The event represents another step in the partnership between JD and Trip announced in August.

Since the restrictions on Chinese Mainland residents traveling to Macau were lifted, JD has noticed a spike in booking consultations on the JD Travel platform. As such, JD and Trip.com are offering a number of attractive hotel products to consumers. Leveraging a supply chain advantage, the parties have the connected duty free, hotel and service industries to satisfy consumer demand. For the partnership, Trip.com has provided JD with real-time inventory and competitive pricing. For example, a two-night package at the Venetian Macau originally priced at RMB 3,215 yuan is available to JD consumers at RMB 1,908 yuan. Other top hotels participating include Riviera Hotel, Marriott, MGM, Mandarin Oriental, Grand Hyatt and more. Most products have a long expiration date (for example, until the end of the year) so that tourist can have more flexibility.

The promotion is expected to help benefit the Macau tourism market which took a hit under COVID-19. In a recent report, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) said that a bump in arrivals during the Golden Week holiday period could provide support in helping to attract tourists back from the Chinese Mainland to Macau. EIU also predicted that Macau’s economy will recover in 2020 from a 63% projected fall this year largely due to dampened tourism.

In mid-August, JD and Trip.com announced a partnership in which the supply chain for Trip.com’s core products will be connected with the JD platform. The vision for future cooperation includes five core areas, user expansion, sharing of channel resources, full coverage of online and offline travel scenarios, cross-border marketing, and the development of enterprise travel. The goal is to meet all diversified travel-related needs of consumers before, during, and after travel, and jointly create the most reliable and satisfying platform for users.

JD Travel has always emphasized the concept of “quality travel.” It currently operates across six core business lines: transportation, hotel accommodation, travel and vacation, scenic spot and amusement park, local entertainment and enterprise travel services. In order to meet the needs of individual users, JD Travel integrates a wide range of consumer services and preferential packages. On the enterprise side, JD provides a rich online business travel solution, integrating high quality supplier resources, providing business customers with professional, comprehensive enterprise travel management solutions.

(ella@jd.com)