JD MRO Helps Digitize Hardware Industry

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

“JD MRO will create a digital industry system covering merchandise, service, supply chain, finance, and technology by leveraging our experience in technology and e-commerce operations.” Deming Ding, general manager of JD MRO, JD.com’s B2B subsidiary for industrial maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and services, shared at a Hardware Fair held on August 12th. The Fair gathered over 2,200 enterprises, covering categories in hardware products, power tools, mechanical and electrical products, including JD’s partners.

Compared with consumer products, the MRO products are normally long-tail and non-standard items, making industry digitization challenging. JD has helped solve the industry’s pain points by assisting to set up a leading library of standards of industrial product digitization. JD has also cooperated with over 1,500 hardware brands to combine these standards with products. DELIXI, the leading electrical distribution, industrial control automation, and household electrical company is JD’s important partner in MRO. Its sales has increased 511% y-o-y since joining JD MRO.

JD MRO has also helped enterprises resume production under COVID-19. YZW.cn, the e-commerce platform under China State Construction Engineering Group, is one example. By connecting to JD MRO’s digital purchasing platform, YZW.cn has upgraded its merchandise management and service capabilities.

Ding added, “In the future, JD MRO will work with more brands and manufacturers to accelerate standardization and digitization in the industry.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD Health Launches “Family Doctor” Telehealth Services

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

On August 18th, JD Health, the healthcare subsidiary of JD.com launched “family doctor” services based on an “internet +healthcare” model. This new type of telehealth service is tailored to the needs of an increasing number of Chinese families seeking more timely, consistent and comprehensive healthcare support. A launch ceremony was held at JD’s headquarters in Beijing on the day.

Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health

Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health

“The core value of the ‘family doctor’ product exists in that it can offer different medical service formats based on patients’ need and match medical resources more accurately. Gathering more quality medical resources around users is what is really needed now. This new experience and business model will set a new benchmark in this industry,” said Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health.

Up to eight family members may share a “family doctor” service package which includes unlimited 24/7 online medical consultation support with immediate response from a general practitioner, medical consultation with experts within 48 hours, making face-to-face appointments with famous doctors from 3A hospitals (Chinese hospitals are classified into 3 tiers with tier three being the highest and each tier is further classified into A, B or C sub-tiers. 3A represents the top-tier hospital.), getting constant and personalized health management advice and more.

Getting access to doctors from high-level hospitals is not easy for many Chinese people. JD Health’s “family doctor” services present an alternative for them to quickly connect with medical specialists and leading doctors online and offline, whose timely feedback could be of great help to improve the effectiveness of treatment and reduce medical expenses.

As one of the fastest-growing internet healthcare platforms in China, JD Internet Hospital is already contracted with over 50,000 practicing physicians on its platform who respond to an average of more than 100,000 consultations on a daily basis. JD Health has also recruited about 300 full-time doctors working as the core team for the “family doctor” services. 92% of doctors have more than 10 years of clinical experience.

JD Health has also recruited about 300 full-time doctors working as the core team for the “family doctor” services.

Developing specialized medical centers is a key area for JD Health’s internet healthcare exploration. To date, the company has opened 14 specialized centers dedicated to prevention, treatment and rehabilitation for several chronic health issues, such as the center for heart disease, ENT(ear, nose and throat), traditional Chinese medicine, and more. Nearly 100 renowned doctors have joined these centers.

At the same time, users can also book appointments via the “family doctor” service platform. It covers over 2,700 third-tier hospitals in large cities and 98% of 3A hospitals across China.

People who need special healthcare support such as pregnant women, elderlies who live alone, diabetes patients, and weight control patients, are good candidates for the “family doctor” program. Through making a personalized plan and adjusting it based on constant feedback from their doctors online, these patients can be more effective in achieving their health management goals.

One of the biggest benefits is that it can be used for individuals to manage their own health, as well as to have visibility into and be able to support health management for family members such as parents, from afar.

In addition to seeing doctors online or offline, users can buy medicine on JD’s platform and enjoy its fast delivery service. There are over 220,000 healthcare products on JD Health ranging from OTC drugs, medicines for chronic diseases, medical equipment, and nutrition products.

The “family doctor” product is developed on JD’s platform that is home to over 400 million active users. JD Health will further open up its service ability to the national primary health-care system with community doctors at the grassroots’ level. In the next five years, JD Health’s “family doctor” services aim to serve 50 million Chinese families, according to Xin.

Prof. Yu Xiaosong, chairman of the Chinese Society of General Practice

Prof. Yu Xiaosong, chairman of the Chinese Society of General Practice

Prof. Yu Xiaosong, chairman of the Chinese Society of General Practice said during the launch event that the Chinese government has been promoting the construction of contracted doctor services in recent years with some major progress. But there is still a big shortage of approximately 350,000 general practitioners in the country. The telehealth services provided by enterprises like JD Health are important supplements to the existing system. They are effective means to improve doctors’ working efficiency and enhance medical service quality for society.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD Logistics Upgrades Its Brand

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

On August 18th, JD Logistics celebrated its eighth anniversary, following its official registration as a company in 2012. Zhenhui Wang, CEO of JD Logistics, sent a congratulatory letter (in Chinese) to JD Logistics employees, in which he announces the upgrade of JD Logistics’ mission and vision, organizational structure and brand image, to further its goal towards becoming a leading global supply chain and logistics company.

Below is a courtesy translation of Wang’s letter.

 

Seizing the moment and aiming even higher

A Letter from JD Logistics CEO

My dear brothers and sisters,

Eight years ago, we officially registered the logistics company.

Over the past eight years, with the upgrading of consumption and driven by the internet, logistics has become infrastructure for the whole society and the basic way to link people to a better life. JD Logistics has the honor to witness and participate in the creation of this golden era.

Over the past eight years, we have operated over 750 large-scale warehouses in China, with a total area of approximately 18 million square meters, storing over 6 million SKUs.

Over the past eight years, we have delivered a total of over 50 million tons of goods, equivalent to transporting enough water to fill nearly four West Lakes of Hangzhou. Our more than 200,000 brothers and sisters have been providing fast and more importantly, warm service to customers.

Over the past eight years, our logistics network has covered 100% of the districts and counties of Chinese Mainland, and has penetrated to the lower-tier villages and countryside. Technology-driven same-day delivery became an important standard of “China speed”.

Why have we become who we are today?

Do long-term things. Doing something long-term depends on determination and persistence. From the earliest opening of our warehouse in Beijing’s Fenghuangling (Phoenix Ridge), to today, when we are penetrating the lower tier cities with our warehousing network for the third time, the layout of our infrastructure extends from where sales happened to the origin of products, from warehouses to logistics hubs and to delivery stations, paving the way for shortening the chain from production to sales. From the operations of Shanghai Asia No.1 logistic park in 2014, to the launch of the world’s first fully-automated warehouse, and first 5G smart logistics park; from every real time delivery commitment to our consumers, to help our couriers optimize the delivery routes, our focus and investment in technology application and R&D continue to improve the customer experience and the efficiency of the whole process.

Do ordinary things. We believe that doing ordinary things well is the greatest contribution to the society. Ordinary is “order in the morning and receive it the afternoon”; It is every delivery-to-door service and continued delivery during Chinese New Year; It is daring to make provision of high quality services as the standard. Ordinary is the voluntary transportation channel for emergency relief materials during the pandemic; It is to ensuring the supply of medical supplies and daily necessities; It is to transport luggage for medical teams and distribute education materials; It is building the emergency materials supply management platform; It is the continued supply of Beijing residents daily food from Gaobeidian agricultural product base in Hebei. Ordinary is every parcel we have delivered with love and trust.

Do things together. Only when we work together can we have a long-term future. We are firmly committed to our opening-up strategy. Over the past three years, moving from serving JD Retail to serving hundreds of thousands merchants and social institutions, more and more clients have gradually handed over all their logistics business to us. Many also use our technology and services. Cases of our cooperation model have even made it into our client enterprise’s show rooms. Having opened up our integrated supply chain to society and serving more consumers and clients, we have gained many more like-minded partners. Let us drive the progress of the industry through a symbiotic ecosystem approach, and jointly improve the efficiency of the supply chain.

We are like a youngster, full of vitality. JD Logistics always adheres to the value of “customers first”, constantly improve service quality, and gain the trust of more customers. In order to more effectively move towards becoming the world’s leading supply chain logistics company, we are making three upgrades:

Mission and vision upgrade. JD Logistics’ mission will be upgraded to “Powered by technology for global efficient circulation and sustainable development.” Our vision will be upgraded to “become the most trusted service provider of supply chain infrastructure.” We firmly believe that the determination of establishing a self-built logistics network to provide a better customer service that has taken us to where we are today, our opening up strategy, technology-driven and global perspective will take us further.

Organizational structure upgrade. We have well-organized 7 big regions nationwide. We will achieve sustained high quality growth with a more solid organizational foundation, driven by technology we will achieve revolutionary technological improvements and the realization of a global dream.

Brand image upgrade. JD Logistics will present an even younger, more technical and more open brand image to the public. In “JDL”, “JD” represents JD.com, which is the root of JD Logistics’ development and provides guidance for our values. “L” represents Logistics, and also Lead, Link, Less and Love. Our continued pursuit is to offer simpler products and more cutting-edge technology, linking more entities and providing more warm services.

Eight years have passed; a better eight years are on the way

For the next eight years, JD Logistics will improve the customer experience and industry efficiency by building integrated supply chain services and high quality logistics products, guided by our upgraded mission and vision. We will work with more partners to accelerate the transformation of the industrial supply chain by building an omni-scenario logistics technology system and through digital empowerment. We will promote the penetration of the internet in lower-tier markets and the connection of production and sales, to contribute to the national strategy of supply chain and dual circulation development policy, and actively explore the road for China’ logistics to the world, to become a world’s leading supply chain logistics company.

 

Zhenhui Wang

CEO of JD Logistics

August 18, 2020

Coach and JD Deepen Partnership in China’s Market

Posted on by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

Coach opened a flagship store on JD on August 16th. The opening of the store marks a further expansion of JD’s partnership with the American brand, following the hugely successful operation of JD’s first-party Coach store.

“We’re thrilled to take the next step in our partnership with Coach,” said Kevin Jiang, President of International Business, JD Fashion and Lifestyle.  “With offerings ranging from entry level to luxury, Coach is one of the most well-known luxury brands in China, and the brand has had consistently had outstanding performance on JD. Furthermore, Coach’s has strong and flexible design and manufacturing capabilities, meeting our rigorous supply chain standards. I’m looking forward to what’s to come in us continuing to work closely together.”

Coach is one of the most well-recognized luxury brands in China. Many consumers in China have fond memories of their exposure to Coach. Several mentioned buying or receiving their first Coach bag, which in most cases was also their first designer bag, as well as stories of upgrading to more premium Coach products as both they, and their lifestyles have matured. Likewise, JD’s consumer base on Coach is very broad, encompassing the younger consumers who select Coach for their starter luxury bag, especially consumers in the lower-tier cities, as well as more affluent consumers who seek the brand’s latest more high-end product lines.

As such, the store on JD is focused on meeting a diverse range of needs at all price points. Collections on offer include the classic Parker, the Tabby, one of the hottest styles this year, and the Hutton series including the China Collection with graffiti style “Rexy” emoticons by artist Guang Yu, as well as the latest fall/winter 2020 offers, a wide range of accessories, and more. In honor of the upcoming Chinese Valentine’s Day, a special floral bag collection is being sold exclusively on JD.

Coach opened a flagship store on JD

JD has already partnered with nearly 200 luxury brands this year alone. With a longstanding commitment to quality, proven experience in consumer operations, and unmatched supply chain and logistics resources, the company has repeatedly proven to be a clear choice for both brands and consumers in the luxury brands.

 

(ella@jd.com)

JD.com Tests “1+1+1” Livestreaming Model

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

Over the last two months, JD’s New Markets, the suppliers of JD’s convenience stores, has cooperated with Cofco Coca-Cola Beverages, the beverage company jointly formed by Cofco and Coca-Cola, and the third party joint warehouse, on two livestream events.

The “1+1+1” models by the three parties has received good performance, which all largely exceeded expectations. The livestreams are held in the joint warehouse, which not only provided small shops with high quality and cost-effective products, but also helped brands and the joint warehouse to accelerate business scale.

Located in Chengdu, Sichuan province, the joint warehouse is mainly for storage of milk and beverages. The first livestream saw good sales performance, hitting RMB 100,000 yuan in sales. Guanze Wang, head of the warehouse said, “Normally daily sales are just over RMB 10,000. With livestream, sales are ten times higher, which is amazing.”

After the first successful trial, the three parties regarded this as an important initiative and quickly decided to devote larger resources to holding a second one.

A representative of Cofco Coca-cola said, “At first it was only a trial. We didn’t realize it would be so successful. Once we saw the value behind this new model, we could get the support of the company.”

JD New Markets team helped the partner and the warehouse team to prepare the livestream

The initiative has resulted in a record over RMB 200,000 yuan in sales.

Wang from the joint warehouse said, “Many brands have come to us after the two livestream events. The new model has increased our income and confidence.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD and Trip.com Partner to Provide More Travel Benefits to Chinese Consumers

Posted on by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

On August 16th, JD and leading travel services provider Trip.com announced a new partnership. According to the agreement, 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.

As the largest retailer in China, JD will bring 8 million enterprise customers and nearly 400 million individual customers to Trip.com. At the same time, the cooperation will help JD continue to promote the diversification of its business, and enrich its supply chain capabilities in travel, given it even more strength to serve domestic and foreign industry brands, urban cultural and tourism industry construction and consumer travel service quality.

Despite significant impacts to tourism under COVID-19, JD has maintained an optimistic attitude towards China’s tourism industry and has continued to promote the development of the sector. In 2019, China saw over 6 billion domestic tourists, with tourism accounting for 11.05% of total GDP. Tourism has become a key expenditure item for national consumption.

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)

Highlights: JD Executives on Q2 2020 Earnings

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

by Ella Kidron and Yuchuan Wang

On August 17th, JD.com reported second quarter 2020 earnings results. Net revenues grew by 33.8% in the second quarter. Annual active customers for the twelve months ended June 30, 2020 reached 417.4 million, up 29.9% compared with the twelve months ended June 30, 2019. On the earnings call to discuss the results, JD’s management team emphasized the company’s commitment to its partners, the integral role of supply chain across its businesses, as its unrelenting effort to provide the best possible experience for customers and clients alike.

On JD’s Q2 performance, CFO Sandy Xu said, “We are proud that JD played an important role to help our suppliers and users in this extraordinary time and contribute to society. As domestic consumption is still recovering from the disruptions brought by the pandemic, both the release of pent-up demand and a structural shift of consumers’ purchasing behavior from offline to online have added to our strong performance in the quarter.”

Among the highlights, general merchandise grew by 45% year over year, led by key categories such as supermarket and healthcare, demonstrating JD’s position as the leading reliable, full-category platform for consumers in China. Ms. Xu said, “Our supermarket category, including FMCG and Fresh Produce, became the single largest product category by revenue in first half of 2020, surpassing mobile phones, home appliances, and computers, our former champion categories… this steady shift demonstrates our strengthened brand recognition and consumer perception as an everything-store with increasingly broader selections.”

JD Retail CEO Xu Lei emphasized: JD Super has already become China’s largest supermarket online or offline. Going forward, we will further strengthen the establishment of our middle platform supply chain capabilities to satisfy consumers in different scenarios and provide more competitive prices. In addition, we (JD Super) will collaborate with JD Logistics on warehousing, including investments in cold chain logistics, to improve fulfillment efficiency and lower fulfillment costs. Lastly, we will keep promoting our omnichannel (strategy) to provide our supply chain capabilities to create more values not only for JD’s first-party businesses but also hundreds of thousands of offline stores.

In terms of key strategic priorities for JD Retail, Xu added that: First, we will keep opening up our supply chain. Second, we will further develop in lower-tier city markets and industrial belts. Third, we will keep promoting the building up of omnichannel capabilities. Fourth, we, including the whole JD.com group, have been strengthening our investment in technology and services and we will continue collaborating with enterprises on the business side.

JD Logistics was also a strong driver of profitability improvement from new businesses. CFO Ms. Xu mentioned on the earnings call that JD Logistics turned profitable on a non-GAAP basis in the quarter, driven by high order volume during the peak season and technology-driven productivity gains thanks to JD’s “best-in-class” fulfillment capacity. CEO of JD Logistics, Zhenhui Wang said: JD Logistics has attached great importance to the FMCG category this year. We will place more warehouses in the lower-tier markets, enabling more goods to reach customers and more customers to experience better JD Logistics services. In addition to our same- and next-day delivery program, we will provide one-hour delivery service for different categories and cities, letting our customers to choose for themselves.

For JD Health, on top of online pharmacy sales, which saw strong top line growth in Q2, JD’s online medical consultation service volume delivered 400% growth YOY as more users are aware of and get accustomed to the new service. User engagement was a key growth driver, especially lower-tier city users. In Q2, over 80% of new customers came from lower-tier cities, an improvement from previous quarters.

In terms of investments at the group level, CSO Jon Liao reiterated the company’s commitment to investing in companies which are complementary in terms of scale, scope, capability and long-term business value to build long-term strategic value. He also mentioned the company’s strong continued investment in lower-tier cities, supply chain and infrastructure.

 

*Note that all statements above are based on JD’s Q2 earnings call, and are under the Safe Harbor statement in the press release, available here: https://ir.jd.com/news-releases/news-release-details/jdcom-announces-2020-second-quarter-and-interim-financial

 

(ella@jd.com; yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Logistics Releases Digital Twin Supply Chain White Paper

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

On August 14th, JD Logistics and China Federation of Logistics & Purchasing jointly released the “Digital Twin Supply Chain” white paper (in Chinese) at the “2020 Global Logistics Technology Conference” held in Shanghai.

One of the biggest benefits of digital twin technology is its ability to improve effectiveness of processes. “We hope the white paper could be a for reference for the industry,” said Wenming Zhe, chief architect and head of logistics R&D Architecture at JD Logistics. “The essence of supply chain and logistics is the optimization of resources, but the cost of trials in the physical world is often very high. Through digital twin supply chain, we hope to move the trials for optimization and simulation from the physical to digital world, which will ultimately assist the improvement of efficiency and cost in the physical supply chain.”

JD Logistics technology conference

A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical asset and/or process that relies on real-time data to mimic any changes that occur throughout its lifecycle. The development of digital twin technology is dependent upon the progress of innovative technologies such as 5G, cloud computing, IoT, AI, blockchain and robotics.

As digital twin technology is being applied in more and more industries such as smart city, the white paper, for the first time, introduces the concept of “digital twin supply chain”. The white paper introduces the definition of digital twin, fundamental technologies, applications in supply chain and suggestions for further development.

A digital twin supply chain integrates forecasting technologies and decision-making tools with digital twin technology, thus improving supply chain efficiency and lowering costs.

As early as 2019, JD Logistics created its own digital twin supply chain platform “LoMir”, which is short for Logistics Mirror. The platform was first applied in JD’s Beijing Asia No.1 logistics park, and now covers over 8,000 transportation routes in JD’s self-owned logistics and warehousing network and provides accurate capacity forecasting and alert for sales peaks such as 618 and Singles Day (November 11th).

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)