Top Industry Magazine Highlights JD’s Anti-epidemic Efforts

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

JD was highlighted in the June issue of Parcel and Postal Technology International, a London-based leading logistics magazine. The article focused on how major Chinese e-commerce companies like JD cope with challenges posed by COVID-19 by relying on “next-generation tech and community spirit”.

The article highlights that “delivery drivers have become a vital lifeline in the fight against Covid-19, and this could not be more true than for those in Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the epidemic.

Jun Fan, head of JD Express at JD Logistics, said in the article, “JD Logistics spared no resources to help livelihoods and transport medical supplies during Covid-19. Our couriers have been on the frontline during the entire epidemic. Ordinarily, they would deliver directly to customers’ doors. However, with the virus, in order to reduce human-to-human contact, we implemented numerous contactless delivery methods.” The article also highlights JD’s application of autonomous delivery robots in Wuhan to support last mile delivery, as well as prioritization of staff safety.

Post and Parcel Technology International also drew attention to the importance of demand prediction and scheduling in the supply chain to quickly adapt to changing needs. “JD scientists detected the path of the epidemic at a very early stage thanks to the integration of the SEIR (susceptible, exposed, infectious, recovered) disease model and demographic data in its supply chain management system. This enabled the company to ensure that medical materials were available to high-risk areas and to determine demand for specific products in specific areas,” writes the article. It quotes Fan: “To reduce delays at the peak, we leveraged our experience in logistics and our technology driven network to do rescheduling that ensured products were delivered in a timely manner.”

Supporting the community is also highlighted in the article as one of JD’s major efforts.  “To cope with demand and instead of relying solely on the stock in JD warehouses, the company used its omnichannel fulfillment platform to calculate which brick and mortar store nearest to the customer had the items in stock, and then sourced the inventory from there instead. This has enabled JD to speed delivery and in some cases products arrived within 15 minutes of the order being made.” To further cope with demand for grocery delivery, JD launched a new service in early February, Mobile Fresh Basket. Fan explains that JD launched the service “to provide a convenient and reliable way for people in Hubei province to get fresh produce that was already around them instead of it having to come from elsewhere.”

Going forward, “JD Logistics is working hard to improve its AI and 5G capabilities in the future. “Bing Fu, JD Logistics head of strategy, affirms in the article, if there is one positive to come out of the pandemic, it is the impact it has had on the implementation of digital solutions. “While COVID-19 is not welcomed, it has promoted the digitization of consumption, which concurrently drives supply chain upgrade. Only by shortening and digitizing the fulfillment process can we increase efficiency and access customers faster with increased precision,” he explains.

This magazine, with its print and online versions, has 21,000 professional readers in 135 countries and regions worldwide.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD CENTRAL Joins Online Trade Fair in Thailand

Posted on by Martin Li

by Martin Li

JD Central (JDC), the e-commerce joint venture of JD.com in Thailand, has joined the first online version of the country’s annual trade fair.

The Saha Group Fair Online is organized by Saha Group, the consumer goods conglomerate in Thailand. The annual trade fair is popular with Thai consumers because of attractive deals and clearance sales offered by many brands.

In its 24th year, this year the trade fair will be held online between July 2-5 in an effort to reduce human contact during the ongoing COVID-19 epidemic.

Rvisra Chirathivat (R), CMO of JDC, at promotion of the online trade fair.

Rvisra Chirathivat (R), CMO of JDC, at promotion of the online trade fair.

The online trade fair will feature more than 20,000 products from one hundred brands through JD CENTRAL, including beauty products, baby products, household, groceries, services and education.

“To deliver the best value to our customers, JDC will offer lower prices with our unique Share Buy feature through which customers can ask their friends to buy the same product together to get special offers,” said K. Rvisra Chirathivat, CMO of JDC.

In the meanwhile, customers can use JOY PAY app to promote the virtual fair on JD CENTRAL to earn extra income.

“The overall economy has been weak since last year,” Thammarat Chokwatana, executive vice-president of the fashion and beauty marketing arm of Saha Group, was quoted by the Bangkok Post as saying in a report on June 23rd.

“Despite the fourth phase of loosening restrictions from the government, we have to monitor the trading situation month-by-month, and expect relatively weak consumer purchasing power to be prolonged over the next few years, “ said Thammarat.

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

 

 

JD News Roundup Vol. 5

Posted on by Ella Kidron

Company updates

JD’s 618 Grand promotion demonstrates resilience of its consumers and showcases opportunity for international brands: As JD’s 618 Grand Promotion (held June 1-18) came to a close, JD.com announced that it had experienced transaction volume on the platform of over 269.2 billion, during the sales period, up more than 33.6% year on year. 618 was originally exclusively a celebration of JD’s birthday, but has since transformed into the largest mid-year shopping holiday, celebrated not only by other players in e-commerce but offline establishments as well. The key words for this year’s Grand Promotion are international brands, lower-tier cities and livestreaming. A more in-depth look at trends and highlights, including a detailed infographic here: https://jdcorporateblog.com/final-report-of-618-jds-in-depth-analysis-of-rmb-269-2-billion-the-face-value-and-whats-behind-it/

From left to right, JD 618 decorations, HKEX celebration ceremony, and JD’s 618 data screen

JD celebrated its 17th anniversary with a secondary listing on the main board of Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the ticker, 9618.HK. To understand more about JD’s plans for the listing, check out the transcript from JD CEO Lei Xu’s exclusive conversation with Bloomberg: https://jdcorporateblog.com/jd-retail-ceo-lei-xus-interview-with-tom-mackenzie-of-bloomberg-at-jds-headquarters-in-beijing-on-june-15-2020/

On June 12th, at an event at JD’s headquarters, simultaneously broadcasted online, JD President of FMCG Omnichannel Carol Fung shared that even in post-COVID lockdown China, paper products are still surprisingly still in high demand. Fung mentioned that every year, the team identifies products in some categories and sets a sales target of RMB 20 million per day. One of those products is a bag of tissues that Fung’s team shipped over 500,000 boxes of on a single day. More highlights from Fung’s session here: https://jdcorporateblog.com/carol-fung-jd-fmcg-omnichannels-role-in-helping-customers-eat-drink-live-better/

 

COVID-19 related

The last few weeks have seen several COVID-19 cases emerging from an outbreak in Beijing’s Xinfadi wholesale produce market. In order to convenience employees who have to travel around and outside of Beijing, JD has set up designated nucleic acid testing stations for its employees in China’s capital. The move follows JD’s announcement that all of its delivery couriers, truck drivers and cold chain fresh food warehouse employees were undergoing free nucleic acid testing, and underscores the company’s commitment to keep its employees, and by extension customers and partners, safe while the virus still looms. Over 2,000 frontline employees have already completed the testing. JD is the first platform in China to offer online nucleic acid test booking services during COVID-19. Since early on in the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, JD Health has worked with several providers to make booking testing appointments easily available to people in at least 31 cities. The full story here: https://jdcorporateblog.com/jd-establishes-designated-nucleic-acid-testing-center-for-its-employees-in-beijing/

 

Business specific

JD has announced the first fully-integrated smart and flexible production logistics park in Asia. The warehouse in Tianjin’s Wuqing District, the warehouse is most suitable for fulfilling and managing orders spanning multiple categories at a large scale. In another first for Asia, earlier this month, JD also introduced the very first automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) for bulky items in Asia’s e-commerce industry. The system located at the company’s highly-automated Asia No. 1 logistics park in Langfang, Hebei province is one of three new highly automated Asia No. 1 parks JD put into operation during this year’s 618 Grand Promotion. More on this here: https://jdcorporateblog.com/jd-opens-first-automated-storage-system-for-bulky-items-in-asias-e-commerce-industry/

JD’s AR shoes try-on feature has officially come online. As a next step, the company is currently working with Sony Semiconductor Solutions Corporation to develop a function to use AR technology to measure foot size. The function to be released soon will leverage Sony’s ToF (Time-of-Flight) distance measurement technology so that customers can simply use their mobile phones (need to be equipped with a ToF camera) to measure their foot size by scanning the front and side angles of their feet. More on this story here: https://jdcorporateblog.com/jd-com-explores-ar-foot-measurement-tool-for-online-consumers/

JD is supporting the first ever digital London Fashion Week, which will be available free to fashion lovers around the world. JD invited Mr. Hu Bing, the ambassador of London Fashion Week, to have conversations through video interviews with brand partners A-COLDWALL*, Paul Smith and SMYTHSON to bring the latest British fashion insights and products to Chinese customers, and share the brands’ successful cooperation with JD.com. Earlier this year, JD announced its support of the “BFC Foundation Fashion Fund for the Covid Crisis” via its sponsorship of the BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund.

Last week’s 618 frenzy at JD in photos: https://jdcorporateblog.com/photo-gallery-this-week-at-jd-june-15-19/

 

(ella@jd.com)

Sales of JD Worldwide Increased 110% Y-O-Y on June 18th

Posted on by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

JD Worldwide, JD’s platform for imported products, has become the No.1 choice for many Chinese customers to buy imported products. On June 18th, sales of JD Worldwide increased 110% y-o-y. Imported pet products increased nearly 400% y-o-y, imported beauty products increased 180% y-o-y, and imported electronics products, maternal and baby products, health care products, fashion products have all increased over 100% y-o-y.

On JD Worldwide’s designated promotion day during the festival, June 14th, sales of JD Worldwide increased over 170% y-o-y. To mark the occasion, JD Worldwide also welcomed Ms. H.E. Clare Fearnley, New Zealand Ambassador to China; Mr. Luis Schmidt and Ms. Natalia Cortés, Chilean Ambassador and Commercial Counsellor of the Chilean Embassy to China via a livestream show to introduce popular products from their home countries to JD customers, which attracted over 7 million viewers.

JD Worldwide also witnessed the sales increase of many international brands. From June 1st to 18th, over 30% countries saw sales of their products more than doubled. JD Worldwide has introduced over 1,000 new brands as of May 2020, and welcomed over 500 stores on third-party platform, including Abbott, Nestlé, as well as international chains such as South Korean department store AKPLAZA and Japanese drugstore Daikoku Cosmetics. During this 618, sales of the stores increased over 100%.

This 618, JD Worldwide introduced 30,000 new international products to JD customers. On June 18th, sales of new products were 15 times that of the average daily sales in May. From June 1st to 18th, sales of over half of the new products increased over 200% compared with same period of May.

The amount of JD Worldwide customers increased most rapidly in lower-tier markets, more than doubling year-over-year. Customers from lower-tier markets like to buy infant milk powders and bone health-related products.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

 

JD Establishes Designated Nucleic Acid Testing Center for its Employees in Beijing

Posted on by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

In order to convenience employees who have to travel around and outside of Beijing, JD has set up designated nucleic acid testing stations for its employees in China’s capital. The move follows JD’s announcement that all of its delivery couriers, truck drivers and cold chain fresh food warehouse employees were undergoing free nucleic acid testing, and underscores the company’s commitment to keep its employees, and by extension customers and partners, safe while the virus still looms. Over 2,000 frontline employees have already completed the testing.

Stations are available at JD’s headquarters in Yizhuang, in the south of Beijing, as well as its office in the north near the Olympic stadium. As an added convenience, employees’ family members can enjoy the service if accompanied by a JD employee. The appointment is made in advance internally and employees can purchase the testing online via JD Health at a discount. Business travel-related testing can be reimbursed by company through the standard business trip reimbursement process.

The site for the new testing station at JD Headquarters in Yizhuang

The site for the new testing station at JD Headquarters in Yizhuang

JD is the first platform in China to offer online nucleic acid test booking services during COVID-19. Since early on in the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, JD Health has worked with several providers to make booking testing appointments easily available to people in at least 31 cities. Following the sudden resurgence of COVID-19 at Xinfadi, Beijing’s largest vegetable and seafood wholesale market, demand for nucleic acid testing has surged and online booking has become an essential convenience. On June 13th, the number of users who either followed or browsed the nucleic acid testing booking service on JD Health increased by 385%. On the same day, sales of nucleic acid testing services increased by 460% compared with the day before.

 

(ella@jd.com)

JD’s Cloud Store Solution Helps over 370 Brands during 618

Posted on by Tracy Yang

by Tracy Yang

JD’s social group e-commerce initiative has made good achievements during 618 Grand Promotion. From June 1st to 18th, sales of JD’s social group e-commerce and cloud store solution exceeded RMB 1 billion, an increase of more than 10 times compared with the same period last year. There were more than 1.5 million social groups. JD’s cloud store solution has helped more than 370 brands and empowered more than 100,000 shopping guides.

According to Q1 2020 data, the main drivers of JD’s social group e-commerce initiative are mainly post-70s and 80s married female users in first-, second- and third-tier cities, and most of them are senior white-collar workers with college degrees. These people have a certain degree of spending power and mature social circles.

JD’s social group e-commerce initiative is based on the relationship between people and achieves more connectivity through the social group. Based on this close connection, consumer demand can be more accurately captured and the recommendation of acquaintances also reduces the cost of selection.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, as part of JD’s social e-commerce initiative, JD’s cloud store solution help brands expand their market penetration and find business breakthroughs, and also provides a guarantee for their employees in the offline retail industry.

Liping Ma is a shopping guide at one of Bailisi’s stores, China’s leading home textile brand in Xixiangtang District, Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. At the beginning of the year, the shopping mall where the offline store is located closed. As a salesperson who depends on performance commission, the closure of the mall means a reduction in income. To alleviate the pressure on employees, the shopping mall began to actively look for innovative solutions and ultimately chose to work with JD’s cloud store solution and help their employees to transform into “online shopping guides.”

Liping Ma said: “At the end of February and the beginning of March, the company trained us on JD’s cloud store solution. Through the cloud store Mini Program, we can not only do live streaming, but also share links to products in WeChat Moments, allowing customers to place orders online. Our income has gradually increased.” From offline shopping guide to online shopping guide, Liping Ma found a new career path as an omnichannel shopping guide, and she will continue to use JD’s cloud store to work as an online shopping guide in the future.

 

(tracy.yang@jd.com)

Terry Wang: Achieve Sustainable Development of JD Beauty

Posted on by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

The past JD’s 17th June 18 Grand Promotion has seen sales increases across all categories on JD, and beauty products are no exception. Though not daily necessities like rice or cooking oil, beauty products are becoming essential for many customers in their daily lives. On June 1st, sales of beauty products were 2.5 times the same day last year. High-end beauty products performed exceptionally well, with a 5 times y-o-y increase in the first hour of June 1st.. On June 18th, which is the peak day of 618, sales of high-end beauty brands such as SK-II, Lancôme, Elizabeth Arden and whoo increased 2.6 times, 5.8 times, 2.9 times and 2.2 times respectively.

“Many brands used to think offline channels are most important, but now they are attaching more importance to online,” said Terry Wang, general manager of JD Beauty. “They are working closely with JD and have seen great success during this 618.”

 

Premiumization of beauty products

Like in many other categories, there has been premuimization in the beauty category – customers’ skin care and makeup routines are more complex, and they are using more high-end products. Sales of facial essence and eye cream increased on the first day of June, and so did foundation and perfume.

Male customers also care about their appearance. On June 1st, sales of male facial cleansing products increased 282% y-o-y, and male skincare sets increased 260%.

 

Professional livestreams to save customers’ time

Livestream has become a phenomenon since the outbreak of COVID-19, and during this 618, JD held over 300,000 livestreams and saw 31 brands achieve sales of over RMB 100 million yuan from their live shows. JD Beauty held 10,662 live shows during this 618, with over 1,200 merchants and brands starting livestreaming. Total livestreaming time exceeded 32,000 hours.

“Our livestreaming has two unique points: one is that we use professionally-generated content (PGC) to help our customers to select most suitable products in the shortest amount of time. Also, we encourage our brand partners and merchants to join livestreaming because it is a good way to get direct contact with customers and improve customer loyalty.” said Terry Wang: “Our livestream goes beyond entertainment. We want customers to save time by watching our livestreams.”

To provide more professional livestream experience for customers, JD Beauty set up its official livestream program to only promote products selected by its beauty purchasers. After being established for one year, the program has become one of the top programs on JD Live. During this 618, JD’s beauty purchasers also started to do livestreams twice a day to recommend the best products to customers based on their professional knowledge. What’s more, during this 618, almost all brands and merchants hosted over three-hour live shows every day, including OLAY which hosted 7-hour show every day and Carslan which hosted a 14-hour show. Many brands saw sales generated from livestreaming exceed 20%.

 

AR and AI boost customer experience

Recently JD Beauty launched an AI skin evaluation service in JD app – with one simple scan of the skin, customers can see the analysis of their skin condition based on different metrics, such as skin tone, brightness, eye circles, etc. Since the launching, hundreds of thousands of customers have tried AI skin evaluation, and over 50% of customers who try it add products into their shopping carts. JD’s AR makeup testing is also being constantly upgraded, and can now accurately match what a customer might see if they actually tried the makeup on their own faces.

“The ultimate aim of leveraging of AR and AI technology in JD Beauty is also to save customers’ time. With detailed analysis of customers’ skin condition and their shopping preferences, we can recommend suitable products to them, providing the most professional shopping experience.” said Wang: “With big data on customer feedback, we also hope to provide brands more insights on Chinese customers, and help brands develop C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) products. “

For Wang, 618 is just a short-term activity, and what he values most is the sustainable and quality development of JD’s beauty business. It cannot be achieved without deep cooperation with brands, and he thinks JD Beauty is more than a sales channel for brands, it’s also a marketing and data partner for brands to jointly build brand reputation, and a customer management platform to help brands improve customer loyalty and gain deeper insights on Chinese market. He believes that good strategy needs to be practiced continuously, and the sustainable development of JD Beauty will attract more partners and customers.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD Provides Free Nucleic Acid Testing for its Couriers in Beijing

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

JD is providing all of its couriers, truck drivers and cold chain fresh food warehouse workers in Beijing free nucleic acid tests. Over 2,000 employees have already completed the testing.

The initiative is based on guidance from the Beijing municipality government to ensure safety of last mile delivery service during the latest wave of the epidemic outbreak in China. In addition, JD has guaranteed continuous supply of masks, thermometers and disinfectant to its employees.

In addition to ensuring safety, JD is also ensuring supply of fresh produce in Beijing even as many of the large markets remain shut down. On June 20th, JD cooperated with an agricultural distribution center in Gaobeidian, Hebei province to provide logistics service for transporting agriculture products from Hebei to Beijing. JD has allocated 200 regular and cold chain transportation vehicles there, and the first batch of vegetables and fruits were transported to a fresh food supermarket in Beijing’s Haidian district the next morning.

Furthermore, JD continues to provide contactless delivery services for residential compounds based on Beijing’s anti-epidemic needs, including lockers, fixed point pick-up as well as setting up mini stations outside of compounds to send and receive packages more easily.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)