by Ella Kidron

The results are in for this year’s JD Beer Festival, which is somewhat of an online version of ‘Oktoberfest’（the world’s largest funfair held in Munich）, was held across one month from July 13^th to August 13^th. The event brought the world of beer to Chinese consumers, both online and omnichannel. Leading domestic and international brands such as Budweiser and Tsingtao participated in full force to make the event a success, demonstrating the JD platform’s important role in fostering brands’ development in China.

During the peak period of the festival, from August 1^st to the Super Category Day held on August 5^th, JD saw sales volume increase over 57% year-on-year. Craft beer has continued its impressive growth streak, increasing 120% YOY, while high end beer also saw 148% growth year on year.

This is the first year for JD to have a designated IP (including logo, slogan, and more) for the beer festival, and the increased awareness made a difference in helping to attract new customers. The number of new users coming to JD (from outside of the JD platform) through the event increased 227% YOY, indicating the success of both JD and brand partners’ omnichannel marketing campaigns.

Omnichannel integration has been a major focus for JD Super this year – the beer festival included. JD’s 7FRESH offline supermarkets and JD Liquor world franchise stores both participated in the event to enable delivery of cold beer to consumers in 29 minutes in selected regions. Thanks to JD’s Omnichannel Fulfillment program the fastest offline delivery was made in seven minutes. 7FRESH, JD’s offline supermarkets, also had a strong showing with in-store sales increasing 3 times YOY.

In the lower-tier cities, a target growth market for JD, transaction volume increased 300% YOY, with the lower-tier cities accounting for more than half of the orders. JD saw new users from lower-tier cities double. More than 10 types of beer saw transaction volume of over RMB 100 million from the lower-tier cities alone.

More data on the beer festival can be found in the infographic below:

(ella@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

Ms. Zhiling Dou owns a JD Computer and Digital store in Hunchun, Jilin province in northeast China. As traffic in offline stores was hugely impacted by COVID-19, Dou started to do livestream on JD Live. Sales reached RMB 3.6 million yuan in July, which is more than 7 times her previous average monthly sales.

Dou has over 10 years of experience running her own business. She founded a computer sales company, and then opened a JD Computer and Digits store as a franchiser. The city of Hunchun borders Russia and DPRK, and before COVID-19, her store was even frequented by Russian customers, and monthly sales can reach an average of RMB 500,000 yuan. However, when COVID-19 struck, her store had zero traffic and no income. Thinking that her 12 employees are waiting for their paychecks, she decided to move her business online.

Dou is an energetic and outgoing person who is curious about new things. She led her employees to open accounts on Douyin and Kuaishou, but the results were not very satisfying. Because these platforms are primarily for entertainment, it’s harder for ordinary people like Dou to gain traffic without the help of celebrities.

As JD’s annual 618 Grand Promotion (June 18)  was coming, Dou opened a livestream channel on JD Live, and she was able embrace her advantages as a product expert to give viewers detailed introductions about product functions and answer questions. She has a great sense of humor, which seems to be an innate talent for many people from Northeast China, and her style of livestreaming soon became popular. For a while, Dou and her employees were doing livestreams for 10 hours a day.

Dou even sold her products to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest of China, over 4,000 km away from Hunchun. A customer from Xinjiang became a loyal fan of Dou’s livestreams. Every once in a while, the customer would come to her channel to discuss the newly launched digital products with her. Some customers also talk to her about their personal issues, such as relationship problems, hoping to get some advices. “To make friends with customers and help them solve their problems is how I gained their trust.” said Dou

Dou believes that although livestreaming has helped significantly increase the sales of her store, she would still put a lot of effort into running the offline store. The need to touch and feel products before ordering will not disappear, and the integration of the online and offline will provide a better customer experience.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

Huawei and JD.com held a grand sales event dedicated for Huawei fans and launched a series of marketing activities On August 25^th. The sales event was held to celebrate the number of fans of Huawei’s first-party store on JD surpassing 40 million on August 18^th.

During JD’s Annual Mobile Phone Festival held from August 1^st to 18^th, transaction volume of Huawei increased 111% year-on-year.

For Huawei and JD, providing better services and products are as important as providing attractive promotions to the growth of brand fans. The two parties have been collaborating in “consumer operation”.

“We have launched a monthly activity called ‘Fans Day’. On the 25^th of each month, JD and Huawei will provide exclusive benefits for brand fans that have long been supporting us,” said Yang Xu, head of content operations of JD Mobile Devices. “Our deep cooperation in consumer operations has helped Huawei become the first brand to reach 40 million fans on JD.”

JD and Huawei have a long history of collaboration and have made a lot of achievements. When Huawei debuted its flagship product Mate9 in 2016, sales on JD reached RMB 100 million yuan in just one minute. In the same year, JD launched a special one-hour delivery for Huawei’s Porsche design mobile phone. In 2018, Huawei joined hands with JD in IoT which made it possible for Huawei’s products such as mobile phones, routers, computers and more to be controlled by JD’s IoT system. Huawei store fans on JD surpassed 10 million during that year’s Singles Day (November 11^th) sales.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

JD Super, the online supermarket brand under JD.com, announced the formation of an Organic Alliance on August 20^th. Over 10 companies have joined the alliance, including Milk Deluxe (特仑苏), Bellamy’s (贝拉米), ORGANIC (圣牧), Abbott (雅培), Anchor (安佳), FIRMUS (飞鹤), Shiyuedaotian (十月稻田), Wyeth (惠氏), Junlebao (君乐宝), Gerber (嘉宝), Qianhe (千禾), Beichun (北纯), and Seamild (西麦), among other well recognized domestic and international brands. JD hopes to establish an organic industry ecosystem through the optimization of industry standards for organic products as well a wide range of support for organic brands to grow their appeal among Chinese consumers.

JD holds press conference to mark formation of organic alliance with leading brand partners

With the COVID-19 pandemic defining much of 2020, many consumers have started to pay more attention to food quality and general health management. Recognizing the role that organic foods play in overall health and wellness, JD has taken it upon itself to become the go-to destination for consumers to buy organic, as well as for brands selling organic products to prosper in the e-commerce space.

JD Super and members of the alliance plan to work together with government bodies, channel merchants, and inspection institutes to collectively build an “organic traceability” mechanism. The mechanism will be able to record all important information concerning the lifecycle of an organic product all the way down to the origin, to ensure it is indeed organic. IoT and blockchain can ensure the whole process can be traced and that the data cannot be tampered with.

JD Super will also provide resources to support brands with organic labeling, as well as growth on the platform through marketing and omnichannel initiatives. Furthermore, JD’s big data insights can help brands gain insight into their target consumer base and improve customer loyalty.

(ella@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

As 2020 has been anything but an ordinary year, the data indicates that some consumers are making up for lackluster Valentine’s Day (February 14^th) and “520”, Chinese Internet Valentine’s Day held on May 20^th celebrations under COVID-19 with this year’s Qixi Festival. During the week of Qixi (July 7^th on the lunar calendar, falls on August 25^th this year), the frequency of valentine’s gift-related search keywords increased 280%, of which “gift”, “chocolate” and “gift girlfriend/boyfriend” were among the most popular.

According to the data, ahead of Qixi, home goods, outdoor and luxury products, among other categories saw sales increase by about 20-30%. Jewelry and handbags were among the most popular imported products. According to data released by JD’s Home & Life business group (which includes fashion, beauty, home and other categories), the number of users in the ’85-’95 age group increased significantly compared with last year and was about 20% higher than the JD.com platform average.

Ahead of Qixi chocolate and candy grew around 30%. Mid-to-high end cosmetics products have proved to be very popular in the lower tier cities. Furthermore, as a traditional Chinese holiday, gifts with traditional Chinese characteristics are also popular. Sales of traditional Chinese jadeite jewelry (翡翠类珠宝) increased 53% YOY. Investment in precious metals has become popular with consumers this year, also growing well during Valentine’s Day and 520. Ahead of this year’s Qixi Festival, investment-grade gold and silver rose 148% compared with the week before Qixi last year.

According to data from JD’s Yihaodian (No.1 Store) membership store, on the eve of Qixi, red wine and imported steak were on the rise, perhaps suggesting that more people are opting to prepare a romantic candlelight dinner for their loved ones rather than go out.

In top-tier cities, Qixi consumption is led by females in middle-to-high income families and strong spending power. On the whole, the most spending on the festival came from first-tier cities in China, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou.

Some say it would not be a proper Valentine’s Day without fresh flowers, and the data seems to indicate as such. On JD 70% of fresh flowers were bought by men, mainly in the ’85-’95 generation. However, the proportion of women buying fresh flowers in this age group was 40% higher than the platform average, indicating boldness or a break from tradition in younger women.

Despite the lift of lockdowns, this year seems to have more long-distance lovers enjoying Qixi. The week before Qixi, the number of intercity orders for flowers across the country rose 33% YOY. Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai and Hebei led in placing intercity orders, while Hainan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Guangxi and Hebei led in receiving of such orders.

(ella@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

August 25^th is Chinese Valentine’s Day, also called Qixi in Chinese, which falls on July 7^th on the lunar calendar. A special wedding proposal was made on an airplane from Beijing to Sanya, Hainan province. Mr. Wang, who is over his 50s, proposed to his wife Ms. Gao whom he has been married to for 28 years.

Half a month ago, JD Travel and Capital Airlines initiated an event to help a couple to have a wedding proposal on an airplane. Customers can submit their love stories, and the couple with the most touching story will win a “proposal package” that includes return tickets from Beijing to Sanya, a free hotel room, a photo shoot, a camera and flowers worth RMB 20,000 yuan in total. Mr. Wang’s son saw the event and signed up on behalf of his parents. Hundreds of couples submitted their stories, and Mr. Wang’s story was selected by the judges.

To enable this proposal, JD Travel, a department under JD’s Life & Services business group, worked with Capital Airlines and brand partners including Fujifilm and the Sanya Narada Resort. JD Travel provides booking services for plane and train tickets, hotel booking and more.

Mr. Wang and his wife got married in 1992. At that time, they didn’t have relatively deep pockets to have a decent proposal or wedding or a honeymoon travel. After they got married, they didn’t have many opportunities to go on trips together as they are both busy working as Chinese calligraphy and painting artists. Mr. Wang has been longing to have a chance to compensate his wife a memorable proposal ritual to show his love and appreciate to her for taking care of him and the family. Today, surrounded by romantic decorations, light music and excited passengers, Mr. Wang turned to his wife with roses in hand and “proposed” to her.

Mr. Wang said to his wife: “You have devoted yourself to take care of the family. Our life got better off every day because of your efforts. Let me have the chance to tell you that I love you. I want to be by your side for the rest of our lives. Will you accept this long-delayed proposal?” She replied with tears in her eyes: “I do.”

“Times flies, we have spent 28 years together. I have always felt sorry to my wife because I was not able to propose to her properly. I hope to take this chance to make it up to her,” said Mr. Wang: “Qixi is a very special day for Chinese people. Thanks to JD and Capital Travel for making this proposal possible.”

“I hope we can continue to support each other not only in our life journey, but also in our artistic journey. I am very hopeful for our future ahead.” said Ms. Gao.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

On August 25^th, Nikon’s new full frame mirrorless Z5 camera launched exclusively on JD in China. The product was available for pre-order on JD starting August 11^th and was greatly welcomed by customers. During the first week of the launch, JD also provided customers with services such as 30-day return and price insurance. On August 25^th, sales of Nikon on JD increased 400% YOY.

The Nikon Z5 collection is an entry-level full frame camera priced under RMB 10,000 yuan, so is suitable for young customers and new photography addicts. The camera is equipped with a 24.3 MP full frame CMOS sensor to capture detailed images even in a low-light environment. It is powered by Nikon’s EXPEED 6 image processing system and 5-axis VR image stabilization system for high-quality, high-clarity photos. Its Eye-Detection Autofocus can quickly find subjects’ eyes and follow them as they move. The 273 focus points can easily focus on the subject wherever it is in the frame. Those features actually make Z5 also a good choice for vloggers and professional filming teams.

JD has also been the first choice for many electronic brands to launch their new products, and has a vast group of high-end, young customers who demand high-quality products, which is the reason for Nikon to choose JD for the launch of its Z5. To help Nikon better promote the new product, JD also prepared gift boxes for customers including SD card, camera cleaning products and a backpack. The company also hosted photography professionals on a series of livestreams over the course of one week.

“I think Nikon Z5 is a great choice for those who have just started to learn photography. Its full frame lenses can capture more image area, and the stabilization system makes it easy to handle. The price of Z5 on JD is also very competitive for a full frame camera. I started to buy cameras and accessories on JD years ago because of the fast delivery and great service,” said Ge Shi, an experienced extreme landscapes photographer.

(liuchang61@jd.com)