by Martin Li

As a result of the new cooperation, leading UK organic baby food brand Little Freddie forecasts 60% growth on the e-commerce platform, JD.com.

On September 12^th, Little Freddie and JD entered into a cooperation agreement with a view to leveraging their respective strengths to accelerate the growth of premium complementary baby foods and to increase Little Freddie’s category penetration on JD.com.

“JD has always paid high attention on the quality of products, which is also a high priority for Little Freddie,” said Jiang Longwu, general manager of JD’s mother and baby product procurement department. “We hope Little Freddie makes full use of its strength to build up its connection with customers by articulating its brand story regarding high quality raw materials, nutritious recipes, world class technical standards and fully traceable product safety.”

Taslim Ho, Little Freddie founder, stated that Little Freddie will continue to invest on JD.com as there remains so much untapped potential given low penetration rates vs. more developed Western markets.

“JD will become an even more important partner to Little Freddie,” she said. “In 2021, we will focus on expanding our market size and continue working together with JD to enhance the consumer offering.”

According to JD.com’s data analysis, complementary baby food is the fastest growing category in the mother and baby products market and customers tend to prefer premium, imported and organic brands.

China’s complementary baby food market increased from RMB 10 billion yuan in 2012 to RMB 40 billion yuan in 2019 with an average 10% growth rate, according to a domestic industry report.

 

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

by Martin Li

JD MRO, JD.com’s B2B subsidiary for industrial maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and services, announced a series of new initiatives today at the ongoing 22nd China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai, including an app for procurement of industrial products.

The app is named after VIPMRO, which was acquired by JD MRO earlier this year. It’s aimed at providing a factory-to-business procurement platform, and is expected to connect more than 10,000 quality factories and 100 industrial areas.

JD MRO’s exhibits at the 22nd China International Industry Fair (CIIF) in Shanghai

JD MRO also unveiled a program to connect offline stores with brands by JD’s digital solution, through which brands can deliver products directly to offline stores while providing related services. JD MRO will provide customized solutions to help offline stores go digital.

“JD MRO is dedicated to building a digitalized ecosystem of industrial products by completing industry infrastructure, connecting industry chain dots by digital means and building an integrated professional service system,” said Chunzheng Song, vice president of JD.com and president of JD Business, at today’s launch ceremony.

Standardization is one of those infrastructures, Song noted. Industrial products have complex categories without universal standards, which makes it hard for buyers to find what they need based on product references. Take screw nuts as an example: there are several standards including GB in China, DIN in Germany, JIS in Japan and ASTM in the United States.

In an effort to address this problem, JD MRO also launched a database of industrial product standards. This database won an information technology award at the fair.

In addition to the other initiatives, JR MRO signed a cooperation agreement today with six industrial product service providers to offer services including procurement consultation, product installment and maintenance.

“Increasing digitalization of the industry has largely changed enterprises’ way of management, production and sales,” Song said. “JD MRO will continue innovating solutions to make the industry digitalized and intelligent.”

 

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

by Kelly Dawson

JD.com’s more than 280,000 employees come from a wide range of backgrounds and areas of expertise. In the next installment of our JDer Lab series, we speak to another JDer about what it’s really like to work for China’s largest retailer.

 

 

For Alex Rudnicki, associate director of platform ecosystem and corporate development at JD.com, there’s a certain kind of day that hits the sweet spot: when a breakthrough happens after months of pulling to get there, he told us.

“It could be [with] a new partner or a new business; it could be an existing partner and a new business. I love that kind of brainstorming and especially making that breakthrough where both sides are like, ‘Yes, we should totally do it,’” he said. “It’s just an awesome feeling.”

A second breakthrough often follows when management finally signs off and the project becomes more than an idea, he said.

Rudnicki has experienced his own share of breakthroughs in his time with JD.

After four years in Silicon Valley, Rudnicki came to China in 2017 for the Tsinghua-MIT MBA program. During that time he interned with JD as a project manager in international partnerships, eventually taking the leap to join the company full-time after graduation.

He spoke little Chinese at the time. In fact, when he and his wife first arrived in China he had about “five hours of Chinese class under my belt,” he told us. “I had just learned that there are these things called ‘tones’, which is about as rookie as it gets.”

Over time he’s leveled up his Chinese language abilities, now attending daily meetings and reporting to managers in Chinese. “I’m not really sure how it happened,” he said. “That will be something I’m proud of for the rest of my life.”

The openness and kindness of his JD coworkers have played a big role in making the process easier for him, he said. “I’ve been really impressed with how open people are, and especially coming in as a non-Chinese person in a non-Chinese company which doesn’t have many foreigners. It has been really eye-opening at how welcoming people are, and willing to forgive, whether it’s a language mistake or a cultural misunderstanding.”
Additionally, Rudnicki thinks JDers are some of the hardest working people he’s ever encountered.

“Coming from San Francisco and Silicon Valley where people work really hard, I think that there’s another level here,” he said. “It impresses me day in and day out to see the energy that people put into their work. I thought I was a hustler, and I constantly have to raise my own bar here.”

 

(kellydawson@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

JD will kick off this year’s Singles Day shopping festival on October 21^st. The event, which will last nearly one month, will consist of four key sales periods: pre-sales from October 21^st to 31^st, special sales from November 1^st to 8^th, peak sales from November 9^th to 11^th, and ongoing sales from November 12^th to 13^th. JD will provide important measures to support merchants in providing consumers with high quality and cost-effective products.

Simon Han, a vice president at JD.com said, “JD will serve as a guardian for merchants during Singles Day, creating value for the industry and partners, and providing trusted service and products for customers.”

JD will provide all-round support for merchants, covering five areas of marketing, tools, finance, logistics and benefits. In terms of tools, starting from October 1^st, JD will open up four additional visual design tools to merchants to use for free, in addition to the existing six free visual design tools, which is expected to save RMB one billion yuan for merchants.

JD also provides financial support for merchants. JD will reduce the commission fee for merchants for them to do CPS (Cost Per Sales) advertising via Kuaishou, Zhihu or Weibo, or do livestream on JD. JD will also provide over 10,000 qualified merchants with as high as RMB one million yuan in financial support, helping them increase ROI.

To guarantee that customers enjoy a good shopping experience during peak session, JD will introduce measures such as 15-day price protection, strict detection of artificial price reductions and refunds for delivery delays.

In areas covered by JD Logistics, JD will provide free pick up service for refunds, and issue the refund as soon as the JD courier picks up the parcel from the customer, pioneering a new type of convenient refund service in the industry.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)