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

JD Boosts Sales of a Cosmetics Merchant by 25 Times in Three Months

Posted on Sep 2, 2020Sep 22, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

One of JD’s cosmetics merchants experienced enormous growth in three months, from June to August, increasing sales by 25 times. As one of many merchants selling on JD at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the cosmetics shop Nanwu’s recent success has been fueled by increased reliance on online shopping in China, according to sales manager Yao Wang, who attended JD’s annual meeting of cosmetics merchants in Guangzhou, held on August 27^th.

Wang, who has been named a sales champion twice in the past three years of the offline shop Nanwu, said that 60% of Nanwu’s customers were local loyal customers, but the epidemic had prevented them from buying offline. In addition, the epidemic had decreased people’s reliance on makeup as masks became mandatory. “It made a lot of people more accustomed to showing only half of their faces,” she said.

In light of these circumstances, Wang and the store head decided they needed to adapt their approach, opting to move their business online and sell through JD. Additionally, Nanwu placed its inventory in multiple JD warehouses in Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Tianjin, to ensure faster shipping to more regions in China.

The move was risky, but paid off quickly—Nanwu’s daily sales online jumped from around 20 orders a day to an average of 180 nowadays — with peak times sometimes seeing as many as 500 orders.

He’en, another cosmetics company, also saw increased business for its online shop by making use of JD’s logistics services. Supported by JD’s warehouse and delivery service, He’en’s products are now sold nationwide, and even support same-day delivery for some orders. Since transitioning to use JD’s warehouse services, He’en’s average monthly sales have increased by 325%.

In March, Lei Xu, CEO of JD Retail, flagged that the company had observed much better performance from merchants who used JD’s warehouse and logistics services than those who didn’t during COVID-19.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Health Launches a One-Stop Service Platform for Traditional Chinese Medicine

Posted on Sep 2, 2020Oct 12, 2022 by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD Health launched an “online service platform for prepared slices of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)” on September 2^nd, and announced to strengthen its cooperation with TRT Health, the healthcare subsidiary of the time-honored Chinese pharmaceutical brand Tong Ren Tang.

The platform which is built on JD Health’s TCM center will provide customers with a one-stop service experience that covers online medical consultation with TCM doctors, filling prescriptions, preparing herbal decoctions and delivering the medicines to customers’ homes.

TCM is believed to be effective for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19. “We received a lot of requests from customers for TCM products,” said Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health.” Internet-based service is a good way to meet people’s demands for TCM, but inconsistent quality for prepared TCM medication has been the biggest pain point.” JD’s initiative is poised to address this challenge.

JD Health has set up a series of standards for medicine quality and service in collaboration with a number of leading TCM companies including TRT Health. Professionals from the platform will strictly observe these standards in preparing the TCM slices to ensure quality.

Five TCM business management standards have been introduced to JD Health’s platform. They are the “red line mechanism” for intolerable practices, TCM quality control requirements, strengthened GMP (Good Manufacturing Practices) for TCM slices production, control mechanisms regarding TCM production areas, a traceability system for TCM slices and standards for intelligent decocting center.

Based on the integrated services enabled by this new platform, JD Health will strengthen its cooperation with TRT Health to explore more online-to-offline TCM business models. The more than 300-year-old brand has already been working closely with JD on many fronts, such as cooperation on the first-party flagship store on JD, marketing campaigns, logistics and more.

Mr. Li Bin, deputy general manager of Beijing Tong Ren Tang Group and chairman of TRT Health pointed out that “JD Health is a widely trusted platform, and it is also China’s most complete health management platform so far, covering all the healthcare scenarios in this industry.”

According to Xin, with more partners’ participation in the “internet+TCM” ecosystem, TCM products will become more standardized with larger scale and industrialized production in the future which will be beneficial for patients and the development of the industry.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

Sealy Launches Japanese Arch-designer’s Crossover Mattress at JD

Posted on Sep 2, 2020Sep 18, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

The famous mattress brand Sealy launched its crossover mattress “BlueStar” at JD on September 1^st. The product is designed in cooperation with Shuhei Aoyama, the Japanese arch-designer and founder of B.L.U.E. Architecture.

Shuhei said, “The bed is the heart of the house…An ideal home is a place that you feel a sense of belongings.” Shuhei’s idea is highly consistent with Sealy’s philosophy to create high quality products, as well as JD’s philosophy of providing customers with a high quality home furnishing experience, as well as leading industry trends.

As a leading platform for buying home furnishing, JD’s big data and active customer base has helped imported mattress brands expand in China’s market. Since Sealy joined JD in 2017, it has maintained a fast growth rate. Sales increased over 60% y-o-y in the first half of the year despite the epidemic.

Xinyun Zhou, e-commerce head at Sealy said, “As a leading mattress brand, we will continue to work with JD and more top designers to provide customers a consistent quality lifestyle.”

Jing Zhao, general manager of furniture at JD said, “We want to meet customers’ demand for a healthy sleep experience by partnering with top brands like Sealy and famous designers like Shuhei.”

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD and Partners: Splendid Mooncakes are Coming

Posted on Sep 2, 2020Sep 28, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

Mooncakes started as a treat traditionally eaten during the mid-autumn festival, but have since in their own right become a phenomenon. They can be found in sweet and savory varieties, and boxed in all different types of ornate packaging. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find mooncakes in Chinatowns in cities such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles and London, all year round. In China, both retailers and brands go through immense lengths to prepare for the frenzy of mooncake buying ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival (August 15^th on the lunar calendar), JD included.

In advance of the holiday, which coincides with National Day in China (October 1^st ) this year, JD Super, JD’s online supermarket brand, hosted a press conference and unveiled its upgraded strategy for mooncake sales on August 31^st. The company also took the opportunity to share its big data-based findings on mooncake consumption.

During the press conference, Liu Hui, Chief Data Officer of the JD Big Data Research Institute introduced key findings from the “Mooncake Consumption 2020 Report”. Among the findings of the report, core consumers of mooncakes appear to be highly-educated and high spending customers, yet there is a gradual increased consumption from younger consumers and those from lower tier cities, where growth rates of mooncake consumption by Generation Z, youth from small towns and middle aged consumers from small towns are as high as 56%, 56% and 41% respectively.

JD’s Chief Data Officer Liu Hui shares insights on mooncake trends from recent report

Xiaojun Wang, general manager of Packaged Foods, JD FMCG Omnichannel, said, “In the past, with the help of our partners and consumers, we had the best growth rate in mooncake sales in the industry.” He added that in the future, JD plans to focus on improving results from eight dimensions: brand upgrade, strategy upgrade, resource upgrade, consumption upgrade, data sharing, data co-creation, brand co-creation and mutual benefit. “We will make full use of JD’s core platform advantages to promotion brand growth and provide consumers with higher quality products and more personal services.”

JD and brand partners launch alliance for mooncake sales

As shared during the event, 2020 has brought new challenges to mooncake brands and increased requirements concerning product quality, marketing ability, service level and more. JD Super has formed an alliance with famous Beijing snack brand, Daoxiangcun (稻香村), Guangzhou Restaurant (广州酒家), traditional Peking duck chain Quanjude (全聚德) and other brands. Under the alliance, members will have access to five major types of resources provided by JD, such as customization through the C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) initiative.

C2M is a key initiative to boost performance of mooncake products this year. As such, JD has launched hundreds of customized gift boxes with mooncake brands, providing a wide range of choices in terms of packaging, flavor, gifting needs vs. personal consumption, and more, to fully meet diversified consumer demand.

(ella@jd.com)

JD Launches Services to Make Buying Large Home Furniture Easier

Posted on Sep 2, 2020Sep 22, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

JD launched services for customers who buy large home furniture such as beds, sofas, cabinets, doors and more last week, to make their shopping experience easier. The services include 11 items such as AR shopping, free measuring and installment, home delivery, and 30-day return policy. The “JD Furniture Service Platform” was also launched to make the whole shopping experience more transparent.

In online shopping, the home furnishing category usually has higher-than-average complaint rates. This is mainly because customers are not satisfied with the logistics and installment services. Traditionally, the furniture is delivered from the factory to the local warehouses by one logistics company, and from the local warehouses to customers by another. The products need to be moved on and off the truck five-to-seven times during one delivery cycle, making it more likely for them to be damaged upon arrival. Customers are not able to see the delivery process either. The service quality of the local installment teams is sometimes unsatisfactory, which can impact customers’ feedback.

The JD Furniture Service Platform can effectively solve these issues as it gathers all of the information from merchants, logistics companies and installment companies in one place. With the platform, customers are able to see the whole logistics process. Now the platform has over 30,000 merchants, over 300 third-party carriers, 170 logistics companies and 40 installment companies. Customers can also rate the service providers on the platform, and merchants can choose service providers with higher ratings to work with to improve customer satisfaction.

The JD home furnishing team also works with JD Logistics to explore one-stop service for customers. JD Logistics will support the entire logistics process, and products only need to go from the factory to the warehouse, delivery station, and then the customer, so they are less likely to be damaged. JD Logistics also provides high quality installment services. The service is already available to support deliveries from Foshan, a city famous for its furniture industry in Guangdong province, to other cities in China. A customer in Beijing is now able to order and receive furniture and have it installed in just four days.

Chao He, general manager of JD Lifestyle said:” We always focus on providing more efficient and higher quality home furnishing service for customers. The upgrading of furniture-related services and the launch of JD Furniture Service Platform will provide a transparent and convenient experience for customers.”

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD Promotes Premium Wuchang Rice through Online Shopping Festival

Posted on Sep 2, 2020Oct 5, 2021 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

On August 30^th, JD and the government of Wuchang, Heilongjiang Province, jointly initiated the first “Wuchang Rice Online Shopping Festival”, to bring premium rice originated from Wuchang to more Chinese customers, and support local farmers and brands to develop further by going online.

The city of Wuchang now is China’s only “Five Star” production area for rice. It has a special fragrance and flavor that makes it unique compared with rice grown in other areas, and is thus very popular among Chinese consumers.

Jian Yang, Major of Wuchang city said: “Wuchang has advantageous natural resources to grow high-quality rice. We hope to increase the sales of the rice and improve the confidence of farmers and enterprises through the shopping festival. We will continue to work with JD not only on retail, but also logistics, financial services and more, to build a better future for the city.”

Xiaojun Wang, general manager of Packaged Foods, JD FMCG Omnichannel said:
“With JD’s over 417 million active customers and leading supply chain and technology advantages, we hope to help Wuchang city to promote the brand around the country and improve the situation of local farmers after COVID-19.”

Based on the Online Shopping Festival, JD and Wuchang city will expand the partnership to omnichannel fulfillment, key account procurement, JD cloud warehouse and Yihaodian (No.1 store), JD’s online membership store.

The shopping festival is the latest of several initiatives in which Wuchang rice has leveraged the JD platform for more exposure. This April, JD and the Wuchang government reached a partnership agreement and established the Wuchang rice first-party and flagship store. During the June 18 Grand Promotion (618), government officials from Wuchang city joined JD Live, JD’s livestream channel, to promote the iconic rice in person. Over 1.3 million viewers joined the livestream, and sales generated from the livestream increased 319%.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD Logistics Head of Strategy: Building the Agile Supply Chain to Deal with Uncertainties

Posted on Sep 1, 2020Nov 1, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

Bing Fu, head of strategy of JD Logistics made a speech at the annual meeting of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association held on August 20^th. Fu highlighted the critical role of agile supply chain in guaranteeing supplies under COVID-19 and its potential in helping deal with future uncertainty.

Compared with lean supply chain (LSC) which focuses on the stability and reduction of costs and supply chain waste, an agile supply chain requires rapid response to client’s demands. During the pandemic, the agility of JD’s supply chain made it possible for the company to quickly respond to emergencies and ensure the recovery of production capability.

For example, JD Logistics quickly increased the inventory in its various front warehouses based on consumption big data to make sure that goods were placed nearest to customers and could be delivered as soon as possible. After the lockdown in Wuhan, Hubei province, JD also launched an emergency plan to quickly deploy logistics staff and introduced automated delivery robots to minimize human contact when delivering supplies. JD even helped Hubei province set up a supply chain management platform, making emergency supplies such as masks, goggles, and protective clothing easier to manage, distribute and trace. All these quick responses have reflected the critical role of agility in supply chain construction.

According to Fu, the business environment has undergone immense change and a simple supply chain can no longer meet the increasing needs of various scenarios and channels; in the meantime, changes in the consumer market have resulted in not only an SKU (stock keeping unit) quantity that is far more extensive than 10 years ago, but also the shortened life cycle of SKUs. Clients will prefer enterprises that can respond more quickly in the future.

Fu said, “The past 20 years have seen the rapid expansion of globalization. There may not be more disasters than there were 20 years ago, but the impact of disasters on the supply chain is definitely much greater. With the deepening of globalization, the whole manufacturing and even the whole logistics industry will face unprecedented challenges. It is imperative for enterprises to improve supply chain agility and increase their risk management ability when faced with uncertain events.”

Fu also gave his suggestions for enterprises eager to improve supply chain agility.

On the one hand, enterprises can identify the unstable factors influencing supply chain in medium-and long-term planning, and also quickly adjust the supply chain network and supply capacity according to environmental changes; leveraging flexible and repeatable processes, enterprises can also manage assortment, inventory structure and inventory level. On the other hand, enterprises can quickly match supply plan with consumption demand based on big data, which can not only integrate upstream and downstream data, but also enhance the transparency of the supply chain, and thus speed up response to abnormal situations.

Fu suggests that in order to make the supply chain most agile, enterprises should:

Build a digital twin model for the existing supply chain and recognize the unstable influencing factors of supply chain in medium- and long-term planning.
Discover the respective demands of multi supply chains of an enterprise using data, and then set up a dedicated supply chain model.
Use data that accurately reflects market conditions to enhance the ability to perceive market changes.
Establish a digital planning system that can adjust supply chain based on front-end demands.
Make your supply chain visible and able to handle abnormal situations.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Chinese National TV: JD “Greened” Before National Guidelines

Posted on Sep 1, 2020Sep 28, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

On August 28^th, the Chinese national television station CCTV interviewed Jerry Duan, head of the Green Stream Initiative at JD Logistics. CCTV highlighted that before the national guidelines were announced, JD had already begun using green packaging.

In late July, eight departments including the State Administration for Market Regulation and National Development and Reform Commission released guidelines titled “Strengthen the standardization of green packages for express delivery”. The instructions state that by 2022, China’s express delivery system will be subject to a strict and binding system for green packaging. CCTV also interviewed other representatives from logistics and e-commerce companies.

Years earlier, in 2017, JD Logistics launched the Green Stream Initiative (GSI), which aims to work closely with JD’s upstream and downstream partners to build a green supply chain for environmental protection. To date, the company’s recyclable boxes have been used 160 million times in over 30 cities around China through its supply chain, equivalent to every one of Chengdu’s 16 million residents purchasing ten packages from JD.

“We are also communicating with brands and manufacturing enterprises to carry out green design of commodity packaging and logistics packaging at the sourcing end, which will enable those packages to directly meet the requirements of the logistics environment. There will be no need for additional packaging in the transportation and delivery phases. At present, about a dozen brands have begun to do this with us,” Duan said in the interview with CCTV.

However, the price of degradable materials for express packaging is about 3-5 times that of traditional materials, which makes it difficult to popularize green packaging. Duan pointed out that “The benefit of the degradable packaging also needs to be carried out by the entire industry chain, not only for the packaging itself, but also afterward within facilities for industrial composting, waste sorting and more. All need to be considered and implemented.”

At present, there are over 30 manufacturers of green packaging materials in China with an annual production value close to RMB 50 billion yuan. As the industry continues to scale up, the manufacturing cost for green packages will likely go down. Within 5 years, the whole market is expected to expand to RMB 100 billion yuan.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)