Other supplies and 200,000 RMB worth of masks in an hour

Sales of Agriculture Specialties on JD Increase 104% YOY in H1

Posted on Sep 23, 2020Dec 1, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

JD has announced a program to help farmers across China increase their sales. During the third annual Chinese Farmers Harvest Festival, JD is expected to help farmers double their sales. JD will cooperate with local specialty merchants and partners on marketing initiatives and create local specialty labels.

JD Data showed that in first half of 2020, sales of agricultural specialties on JD 104% YOY. The sales are 2.6 times that of the national growth rate published by China’s Ministry of Commerce.

JD has worked with local government, platforms and media to co-build brand awareness, and to improve the entire production and fulfillment process.

JD has also a signed partnership with local stakeholders on day of the Harvest Festival, including with the Yanchi County government of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to build an integrated supply chain and product sourcing process for building a digital breeding base for sheep, as well as with the Dongying government in Shandong to promote Yellow River hairy crabs’ sales at scale, as well as brand development.

JD Data showed that in the past three years, Guizhou, Hainan, Qinghai and Heilongjiang provinces have seen the most growth of agricultural specialties. Data also finds that the place of origin has become the primary label for the quality of agricultural products (for example, “Sichuan oranges” or “Hainan mangos”). The turnover of landmark agricultural products increased by 74% YOY. Sichuan oranges, Guangxi oranges and Yunnan blueberries saw a leap in sales in 2020.

JD Data also showed that local specialties from western China were mainly sold to consumers in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Rice supplied from Sichuan, Heilongjiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Hunan provinces has also increased, among which Northeast China is the most popular origin of rice. Apart from Liaoning province, the top consumption regions for rice from Northeast China are Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai and Jiangsu, which purchased nearly 50% of the rice from the region.

Affected by the epidemic, meat sells online are the highest in eight years. Top meat sales (beef, pork and lamb) come from Inner Mongolia, Henan and Shandong.

In first half of 2020, online fruit sales accounted to nearly 20% of total local specialty sales. Guangzhou, Shandong and Sichuan fruits are popular, while the most consumers come from Beijing, Shanghai and Jiangsu.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD Delivery Station Reports Monthly Earnings of RMB 10 Million Yuan

Posted on Sep 23, 2020Oct 11, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

JD’s Xinyun express delivery station in Puyuan town in Tongxiang city, of Eastern China’s Zhejiang province, has over 50 couriers and services more than 1,500 local sweater manufacturers to supply over 20,000 apparel shops nationwide, earning an amazing monthly revenue of more than RMB 10 million yuan.

Puyuan is China’s largest sweater manufacturing base and distribution center, with a trade volume accounting for over 60% of the country’s total volume.

To handle the high volume of orders, Ou Wang, JD’s Puyuan station head, established a special team. The team provides customized doorstep order collection service, according to clients’ different demands. During peak sales periods like 618 Grand Promotion and Singles’ Day Shopping Festival when merchants are overwhelmed by an explosion in orders, the team helps clients with packaging until midnight.

Ou Wang, head of JD Xinyun express delivery station in Puyuan town, Tongxiang city, Zhejiang province

“We have always adhered to our core value of ‘customer first’,” said Wang. Now, JD’s express delivery service has built a strong reputation in Puyuan through word-of-mouth, with clients posting positive feedback and sending virtual gifts and tips to local JD couriers through JD’s app or mini program. JD launched the function in 2017 so that customers could express their appreciation of JD couriers.

As Singles’ Day approaches, Wang says his station is already working closely with manufacturers to ensure smooth delivery for what are expected to be record-breaking sales of Puyuan sweaters during the largest annual shopping festival.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Customers Buy Villas Online for their Parents Before Mid-Autumn Festival

Posted on Sep 23, 2020Sep 9, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

Many customers know JD as the destination for electronic products, consumer goods or luxury products. But now, customers can also place orders for villas from third-party merchants on JD. The merchants can provide full service design, renovation and decoration support for villas in the countryside. As Mid-Autumn Festival is around the corner, many JD customers who ordered the villas are preparing to move into the new home with their families to enjoy the holiday, which is marked by family reunions.

Mr. Wu is an owner of a 4S car store in Changsha, Hunan province. His parents live in an over 20-year-old apartment in their hometown, a small city called Xiangtan. The apartment is aging, and there are problems with its electric circuitry. Mr. Wu first decided that he would like to build a villa for his parents in their hometown by himself, but as he was too busy to oversee the project and the construction was delayed for a long time. While Mr. Wu was browsing on JD one day in September 2019, he found that there are merchants on JD that can provide the full service villa construction in the countryside. “I can build a villa for my parents and don’t need to worry about all the details. That’s amazing,” said Mr. Wu.

In September 2019, Mr. Wu ordered a villa from BoHome, a third-party merchant on JD. The construction began in October and was planned to finish in six months, but due to COVID-19, completion was postponed to August 2020, just in time for Mr. Wu’s family to move in the new villa for the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Ms Zhou from Xiangning, Hunan province also received a villa that her children bought for her as a Mid-Autumn Festival gift. With an increasing number of customers ordering villas online for their parents, JD and BoHome are working together to upgrade the service, and customize the furniture for the whole house according to customers’ needs. Before they order the villas, BoHome will also offer one-on-one consultancy to understand the customers’ demands. JD, Bohome and leading villa merchants are now offering special discounts for customers who want build their own villas in the countryside ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD Brings Popular Italian Tires to the Chinese Market

Posted on Sep 23, 2020Oct 12, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

JD and leading Italian tire brand Pirelli have reached a partnership agreement to bring high quality tire products to consumers in China. The two parties simultaneously announced the release of a Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) summer tire product, the P5 Touring, available exclusively on JD, as well as the exclusive sales debut in China of Pirelli’s high performance, the Ice Zero FR. In the future, both parties will work together to create a Pirelli flagship store on JD.

JD Auto’s Yan Qing with other members of the auto team and Guiliano Menassi and the Pirelli team

Through C2M, JD’s big data helped Pirelli understand that for regular outings, Chinese consumers regard safety and comfort as most important. As such, Pirelli and JD introduced the custom made P5 touring to JD consumers, which considers specific characteristics of rainy days, and includes wide horizontal grooves to effectively drain water and increase the safety of driving on wet surfaces. The tread pattern is also designed to reduce noise and improve driving comfort, while a high silicon formula reduces rolling resistance, thereby reducing fuel consumption. At the same time, outstanding traction ensures safety for all road conditions.

The Ice Zero FR also debuted on JD. A winter tire solution, the new product improves traction under all winter road conditions, and combines a formula that can stably perform in cold conditions. The formula retains elasticity at low temperatures, allowing the tire to provide a high level of grip on the ice. The Ice Zero FR tires are available in nearly 20 sizes, ranging from 17 to 20 inches.

Giuliano Menassi, CEO of Pirelli Asia Pacific, said “By creating an information sharing mechanism with partners, potential sales channels and external resources, we can better predict differentiated demands and the development potential of different regions. JD is one of Pirelli’s strategic partners in the China market. Through our joint efforts, we can further meet the individual needs of domestic consumers.”

In addition to buying high quality products, one of the biggest headaches for consumers is installation. In order to provide consumers with a better experience, JD Auto has been building a “goods + service” model through cooperation with its offline JD Auto Service outlets. When car owners choose and buy tires on the JD platform, they can select a nearby JD Auto Service outlet to have it delivered to and make an appointment for an installation. More than 80% of JD’s tire consumers choose to book installation services online.

“Based on our omnichannel advantages, JD will work with Pirelli to create an integrated online and offline operation model from the perspective of improving user experience,” said Yan Qing, general manager of JD Auto. He added that driven by big data, JD will actively make use of its online operations, offline stores, technical resources, supply chain and more, to meet user needs through JD app, WeChat mini programs [and other channels].

The strategic cooperation with Pirelli expands the product categories of JD automobile tire sales through new products and C2M so that more owners can experience exclusive tailor-made tire products. It also shortens the supply chain through online and offline operations, coupled with JD’s big data analysis, helping make Pirelli more competitive in the Chinese market.

(ella@jd.com)

The Green Stream Initiative: How to Cut the Carbon Footprint of Online Shopping

Posted on Sep 23, 2020Oct 4, 2022 by Vivian Yang

This article was first published on the World Economic Forum’s Agenda Blog

by Vivian Yang and Ella Kidron

When a package from an e-commerce shopping spree arrives on the doorstep, how many of us think about where it came from? The answer is probably not too many. Perhaps even fewer will think about the carbon footprint generated through all of the steps it took to get the package to our doors.

It is not merely the “last mile” of the logistics process, the delivery, which adds to our carbon footprints but every step of the process: from when a product was manufactured, all the way to when it makes it into our hands. Put simply, the supply chain is extremely carbon-intensive, but fortunately, there are a few things we can do to lessen the blow. First and foremost is green supply chain management.

Green supply chain management integrates eco-friendly measures into the entire supply chain process, from product design to procurement, and from product delivery to end-of-life disposal. It is impossible for one party to achieve this on their own. Rather, green supply chain management requires an integrated stakeholder approach, ensuring that every activity in the supply chain is more sustainable.

JD.com, as China’s largest retailer and a leading logistics provider, is pioneering the ecosystem approach to green supply chain management in China. Under the “Green Stream Initiative” which was jointly initiated by JD and its partners, including P&G, Nestle, Lego, Unilever, WWF and more in 2017, a number of decarbonizing actions have been implemented throughout the supply chain. The concrete actions that have been taken to ensure responsible consumption, transportation and disposal, include:

1. Package design

When we think about a single package, the amount of tape used to secure each one might seem insignificant. But what if we are talking about the 63 billion parcels in circulation in China’s logistics industry in 2019? It turns out that narrowing the tape, from 54mm to 45mm as JD did four years ago, can make a big difference. By adopting slimmer tape, without using too little that the package would not be sealed properly, over 15% of total tape used has been saved. Given the massive amount of packages JD generates, the company estimates that at least 100 million metres of tape can be reduced each year.

This standard has not only been implemented by JD; partners across the logistics industry in China have followed suit. To further encourage minimizing packaging in the industry, JD initiated a green packaging standards alliance and a green packaging R&D centre in collaboration with partners, both of which are a first for the industry, and contribute to building awareness and standardization of green packages in the e-commerce and logistics industry.

P&G’s original packaging from JD’s warehouses

2. Procurement

Minimizing secondary packages and waste is the collective goal for the upstream and downstream partners in the supply chain ecosystem. One solution to this is using packaging boxes that can be circulated throughout the ecosystem, instead of just used once.

At the same time, by closely working with upstream partners, employing measures such as co-designing packages with manufacturers, or moving our packaging operations into manufacturers’ premises instead of our own warehouses, more and more primary packaging can now be used for direct shipment, greatly improving operational efficiency and reducing packaging waste. With our support, consumer goods giant P&G has now fully adopted original packaging delivery in all its e-commerce operations in China.

JD’s bsiness-to-business circulation boxes

3. Green warehousing

Behind an efficient logistics operation are large-scale, highly-automated warehouses. How to power those warehouses to ensure that they can meet the needs of the business, without causing a massive amount of pollution is a key consideration. As such, on the warehouse roofs of JD’s Asia No. 1 logistics fulfillment center in Shanghai, a massive distributed photovoltaic power generation system has been built, supplying electricity for the highly automated warehouses and connecting to the power grid. It is expected that by 2030, the power generation area will reach 200 million square metres, becoming the largest powerhouse of clean energy of this kind.

Furthermore, in some of the automated areas, robots can operate in the dark, so there is no need for lighting systems. The rain collection system below the warehouses serves as a water reservoir for irrigation use in green areas of the fulfillment centre. Inside the warehouses, as well as JD’s delivery stations (the last consolidation point before packages are sent to consumers), we are going paperless by using electronic order slips, which saves a large amount of paper.

Asia No.1 Logistics Park in Shanghai

4. Transportation

We can further green the supply chain by using electric vehicles, thus reducing the impact of getting products from one place to another. To date, JD has introduced more than 5,000 self-operated electric vehicles in 50 cities cross China. Over 1,600 charging terminals have been installed across the country. Electric motorcycles are used by many of the couriers during the last-mile delivery process, further helping to reduce CO2 emissions and traffic congestion.

Clean-energy JD delivery vehicles

5. Product delivery

Products can be delivered in recyclable boxes and insulated cold chain containers, which can be used repeatedly in the packaging, distribution and delivery phases. To incentivize customers to participate, we provide customers who join our box recycling programme with loyalty points and rebates.

Green stream circular boxes

6. End-of-life product management

In order to track and give many used products a fruitful second life, JD has used its digital platform and logistics to ensure that used products, such as clothes, toys, books and more make it to their new homes. Some of these products are reused by charity organizations, some are recycled by professional recycling institutions, and some are redesigned into new products.

JD couriers’ uniform is made of the PET materials of used plastic bottles

In late 2019, JD and Coca-Cola China co-piloted a recycling program in Shanghai. JD’s courier team collected used bottles from 50,000 households when they delivered packages to consumers. With the collected bottles, designers turned the PET materials into couriers’ uniforms and other lifestyle products. The cooperation aims to help more people understand the value of recycling and help shape their daily behavior, including waste sorting, recycling and sustainable consumption.

(vivian.yang@jd.com; ella@jd.com)

Reducing Cost and Damage, JD Logistics to Power Aiqin’s 8,000 Stores

Posted on Sep 22, 2020Oct 15, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

China’s leading maternal and infant chain store Aiqin recently announced a partnership with JD Logistics, which will now be fully responsible for the company’s fulfillment from warehousing to transportation and delivery. Additionally, the company will hand over more than 60% of its fulfillment business to JD Logistics. So far, JD Logistics has helped Aiqin lower the damage rate of delivered goods to 1/10 of its previous rate.

According to Aiqin, among every 100 products delivered to stores in the past, 7 to 9 would arrive damaged; and despite all of Aiqin’s efforts to hold previous partners accountable, the situation did not improve.

After switching to JD Logistics, the damage rate of delivered products decreased to lower than 7‰, according to feedback from Aiqin’s franchised store owners. JD has also facilitated an exclusive channel for fragile items, so that Aiqin no longer needs additional packages for those items, saving costs of RMB 60,000 to 70,000 yuan every month.

The maternal and infant product industry has particularly high demands for supply chain management, requiring a more precise management of product life cycles. The partnership with JD Logistics has already solved many problems for Aiqin’s existing supply chain network supporting over 8,000 franchised stores nationwide.

To supply such a high number of brick-and-mortar stores, Aiqin previously built warehouses in the south, north, southwest and central regions of China along with 60 service centers. However, these warehouses depended on various individual service providers in different regions, resulting in different service standards. What was even more troublesome was that there were other companies handling the transportation from warehouses to stores, which meant that “if there was a problem with the goods delivered to the store, the transportation staff would blame the warehousing staff and vice versa,” explained Junhua Peng from Aiqin.

Aiqin was constantly working to upgrade the required standards for warehousing and transportation, but struggled to solve the fundamental problems that were increasing fulfillment costs and resulting in a bad experience for offline store owners.

The partnership with JD Logistics will ensure that fulfillment to stores is a smooth and seamless process, from warehousing to transportation and delivery. “We should have partnered with JD earlier, freeing us from worry,” Peng said.

The partnership will enable individual stores to track procurement orders and adjust sales plans accordingly, something the previous system did not allow.

“Not knowing the location of the goods or when they would arrive often brought stress for sales,” said Hong Wang, an Aiqin franchised store owner.

As a leading modern logistics service provider, JD Logistics has accumulated over a decade of experience and expertise with extensive logistics infrastructure, and has expanded from serving JD’s hundreds of thousands of merchants to a wide range of industry players.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JDD Helps Nantong Build China’s First Governance Command Center

Posted on Sep 22, 2020Aug 31, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

Based on JD Digits’ intelligent city operating system, Nantong city in Jiangsu province has built China’s first modern governance command center. Officials from Nantong showed this achievement to a media delegation on September 22^nd.

This command center can realize digital city management, enabling precise transportation forecast, intelligent monitoring for hazardous chemicals, environmental conditions monitoring and more, in addition to providing visual reports to manage the city.

This center integrates information from different departments across each county in Nantong, helping resolve challenges of cross department governance projects. All of the information can be viewed via big screen as well as conveniently via PC, mobile app and more. If the system detects an abnormal behavior or emergency situations, the center will automatically notify the local department with instructions to manage it.

Xueyi Li, head of the command center said, “Nantong’s digital management, service and decision-making has taken a new step forward through the cooperation, which leverages our innovation in mechanism and JDD’s industry-leading ‘big data + AI’ technologies.”

Dr. Yu Zheng, vice president of JD Digits said, “Based on our city operating system’s ‘One Core, Two Wings’ concept, we hope Nantong will accelerate the upgrade of its intelligence, industrial digitization and provision of convenient life services.” Nantong’s command center is an application example of the “Core” in the “One Core, Two Wings” concept. Zheng added, “The two wings are serving production and consumption.” He explained that through linkage at the base, they further realize the connection and integration of production and marketing. All of these applications will be integrated into the intelligent operating system, enabling a virtuous circle among government-level management, industrial development and improvement of livelihoods.

JDD’s “One Core and Two Wings” Concept

Public emergencies such as floods are a great example of this phenomenon at work. By setting up video at specific points along rivers and sluice gates in the city, the local government can have a holistic view of the situation in real time, instead of having to go to each location, one at a time. This can improve efficiency in terms of response time and personnel deployment.

Another example is the intelligent supervision system for hazardous chemicals. There are over 2,000 hazardous chemicals-related enterprises in Nantong. Challenges such as asymmetric information, unintegrated systems and imperfect mechanisms make comprehensive monitoring difficult. The command center integrates the relevant information from local departments and chemical manufacturers to provide optimal monitoring abilities.

Since launching the system two months ago, it has already dispatched 407 abnormal situation warnings. For example, by monitoring the transportation routes of trucks carrying hazardous chemicals, the system can closely monitor abnormal behavior like sudden prolonged stops or detours, and by analyzing the surrounding environment, can determine the root cause, such as irregular transportation or illegal production. This helps triage issues to the right local department and to provide the right guidelines on handling the issue.

“This command center project represents real application for JDD’s AI and big data-based city governance system. It is not aimed at solving problems for a single department, but rather an innovative application to solve cross department challenges,” Dr. Zheng said.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD Seeks Anti-COVID Souvenirs for an Online Charity Auction

Posted on Sep 22, 2020Sep 29, 2022 by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

Back in February, a Wuhan resident’s “floating red curtains” went viral on social media after he forgot to close his windows before leaving the city ahead of the lockdown. The striking sight of the curtains billowing from the open windows prompted netizens to wonder about the owner’s health, with the videos shared over and over again on social media. Now, those curtains have been donated to Hubei Museum as an iconic symbol of the pandemic.

Inspired by the curtains, JD announced on September 17^th that it will launch a charity auction online soliciting pandemic-related items from the public, as symbols of solidarity amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Titled “the most precious auction of 2020”, the charity auction has already received several invaluable objects , including the original sketch of the cartoonist Xiaotao Chen’s famous cartoon “Cheer Up, Hot & Dry Noodles”（hot & dry noodle is the most popular fast food in Wuhan）; the illustrated album “Wuhan Diary 2020” by illustrator Jing Li during her COVID-19 treatment at a makeshift hospital in Wuhan; and a 1.2-meter-tall JD courier sculpture titled “Hands and Hopes” (“手”望) created by an artist from Sichuan province who was deeply moved by their heroic acts, just to name a few.

“Cheer Up, Hot & Dry Noodles!” by cartoonist Xiaotao Chen

One page in Wuhan Diary 2020 by illustrator Jing Li (second from right, waving goodbye to medical workers)

A sculpture titled “Hands and Hopes” created by an artist from Sichuan province to pay his respect to JD couriers

JD Auction will host the campaign through the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Oct. 1^st this year. All funds raised from the auction will be donated to a foundation for the prevention and protection of young girls from sexual assault.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)