by Ling Cao

Mead Johnson, the world’s leading international pediatric nutrition company, launched a new milk powder product globally and exclusively on JD this week. The milk powder, created by JD and the Mead Johnson together using the “Customer to Manufacturer”(C2M) model, belongs to the BoruiQuanyue (铂睿全跃) series.

According to data from JD, Chinese mothers primarily choose milk powder based on the quality of the source, absorption, whether it can boost brain function or vision, and safety. “We did a lot of thorough preparation including R&D, before finally launching today. We kept mothers’ key concerns in mind when designing the product, and tried our best to provide something innovative to match their preferences,” Lizhen Liu, president of JD FMCG said during the launch event.

The product marketing head of the new milk powder at Mead Johnson praised JD for creating such a popular new product for customers. “JD Super has been our long-term strategic partner for China’s baby and maternal market since 2016, helping us accelerate social e-commerce, providing us a lot of support during promotions and sales, and facilitating high quality sales growth.” During the first hour on June 18, sales of Mead Johnson’s top-end series reached 25 times that of the same period last year.

The success of the C2M initiative between the two companies has set an example for the market as a whole.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Martin Li

JD’s social group e-commerce program had brought incomes to almost two million people by July 20, including fresh college graduates, mothers, the unemployed, retirees, migrant workers, farmers, and disabled people.

Named Super New Star, the program encourages people to share links to product promotions and discounts on JD’s e-commerce platforms via Wechat groups and mini programs. Promoters earn affiliate marketing commissions from each transaction while JD provides the inventory, logistics, and after-sales services.

Participants in the program has exceeded 1.7 million, the majority of which are females between 30 and 50 from lower-tier cities. Around 69% of the products sold via the program in the first quarter of this year were valued below RMB100 yuan.

A woman working in a primary school in Hengshui City, Hebei province and mother of a two-and-half-year boy joined the program six months ago with the goal of earning additional income. “I hope to make a better life for my children,” said the woman, who is going to have another baby soon. “I don’t need to worry about product quality, diversity, or product services because JD handles them all,” she said. The woman made around RMB 200 yuan each month when she started, but that has since grown to 20,000 yuan.

There were over 48 million people engaged in social e-commerce in 2019 and the market size exceeded RMB two trillion yuan, according to statistics from the Internet Society of China.

It is predicted that such a self-employment economy could see robust growth in 2020. Large e-commerce players like JD are expected to play a bigger role in building the infrastructure of the new economy.

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

The pandemic has accelerated many industries’ transition to doing business online. Internet retail has played a key role in the resumption of sales in the home appliance market. Among internet retailers, JD has seen large growth in the home appliance sales, and rose to comprise 28.86% of the market share, according to a report published this week by the China Center for Information Industry Development entitled “China’s Home Appliance Market in the First Half of 2020”.

Home appliance industry has been heavily affected by the pandemic due to delays in production, transportation restrictions, post-sale problems, and delayed new product launches. Despite this, the industry has been helped by online channels, which provide a contactless shopping experience for both enterprises and customers. Platforms like JD also provide an omnichannel integration strategy and livestreaming.

According to the report, “Online channels became the most important channel for the home appliance industry in the first half of the year, up 7.23% y-o-y and accounting for over 51.84% of total market share, marking the first time it rose to over half of sales.”

The report also detailed the total retail sales of the nation’s home appliance market, which reached RMB 248.6B in Q2, doubling the amount in Q1 and up 2.64% compared to the same period last year. Two key factors contributed to the growthare International Labor Day and the 618 Grand Promotion. E-commerce platforms like JD provided massive resources and benefits for customers, and also boosted customer sentiment.

Data from JD showed sales of home appliances on May 1^st doubling in volume compared to the same day in 2019. On June 18^th, air conditioner sales surpassed RMB 500M in  two minutes, while refrigerator and washing machine sales hit RMB 500M in three minutes.

The report indicates that in the second half of the year, the total market size of China’s home appliance industry will likely be equal to last year. They believe that manufacturers, brands, and platforms will join together to provide good products and service to customers, driving future growth industry-wide.

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

On July 27^th, JD’s social e-commerce platform Jingxi signed a cooperation agreement with the honeydew melon production zone in Minqin county, Gansu province. According to the agreement, the two sides will jointly build a melon planting demonstration base, and through direct-from-the-farm sales initiative on Jingxi’s platform, the cooperation will help local farmers and merchants to expand their marketing channels, effectively boosting local economic growth.

Minqin county is landlocked and 90.34% desert by area, located north of the city of Wuwei in the northeast of the Yellow River Western Bank Corridor. Despite its difficult environment, the dry weather and large disparity in temperature between day and night create the perfect conditions to grow high-sugar honeydew melons. In the past 50 years, growing and selling honeydew melons is a traditional source of income for the local people.

Mr. Zhang Yulin is one of the Minqin melon farmers who used to be under the national poverty line. However, in recent years his life was radically changed since he began participating in e-commerce training and selling melons on the internet. With the customer traffic and supply chain support from the e-commerce platform, only one week after the fruits are ready for the market, Zhang has sold over 5,000 kilograms of melons this year.

“It was impossible in the past. I wouldn’t have even thought about it,” Zhang said. In the past, due to the barriers of transportation and lack of sales channels, Minqin melons were sold at very low prices to middlemen who then sold them at a significant markup.

In recent years, the local government introduced e-commerce into Minqin county’s melon industry, sending melon prices soaring from RMB 0.45 per jin (USD 0.107 per kilogram) in 2017 to more than RMB 1 per jin (USD 0.238 per kilogram) in 2019. Thanks to the online marketplace where melon prices and quantity of sales are both higher compared to offline wholesale channels, the incomes of local farmers improved significantly. By October 2018, the Minqin county was removed from the national list of poverty-stricken counties.

Under the partnership, Jingxi will offer four supportive measures for the direct-from-the-farm sales initiative including precise farmer support plans, sales underwriting, platform empowerment, and the construction of infrastructure in production zones.

On the consumer side, Jingxin recently launched a “Melon Tasting Festival”, offering more than 2,000 tons of melons to customers across the country for free. This not only gave Minqin’s honeydew melons valuable exposure, but also drove sales of all kinds of seasonal melons in 11 production zones across China.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

The number of JD Home Appliance Stores, JD’s offline home appliance stores for lower-tier markets, has surpassed 15,000 by the end of June, 2020.

JD began building JD Home Appliance Stores in 2016. In just four years, the number of stores surpassed 15,000, and the stores now serve 25,000 towns and 600,000 villages around China. During the 618 sale, sales at JD Home Appliance stores increased 240% y-o-y. “We are now updating the stores’ image, brand, product, service, and marketing. Our aim is to build a customer-centric, trustworthy retail platform with high-quality products, good service, and strong operations,” said Jun Liu, head of the JD Home Appliance Store program.

Customer demand for high-end home appliance products in lower-tier cities is growing. During the 618 sale, sales of the 75-inch ultra-size flat screen TV in JD Home Appliance Stores increased 500% y-o-y, and sales of Casarte refrigerators and washing machines increased 600% y-o-y. JD Home Appliance Store is now increasing the proportion of high-end products offered, and aims to have high-end products account for 30% of total products by the end of this year.

Additionally, JD Home Appliance Store is updating its stores’ image and decor to attract customers and improve the customer experience as well as sales turnover rate. In the first half of 2020 over 2,000 stores completed the redesign, and another 4,000 will finish by the end of the year.

Besides home appliance products, JD also introduced products from over 10 leading lifestyle brands including Micoe Solar and ASD to provide more choices for customers in home-related products.

The JD Home Appliance Store also launched a special insurance service for customers. The insurance service is provided by a partnership of JD Home Appliance and Allianz JD, an insurance company jointly developed by JD and Allianz, a German insurance company. The insurance service can provide customers a more convenient experience in product maintenance and after-sale service.

(liuchang61@jd.com)