by Ella Kidron, Ling Cao and Yuchuan Wang

On June 1^st, JD.com kicked off its June 18^th Grand Promotion (“618”), which also marks the 17^th anniversary of the company’s founding. As the first large nationwide shopping festival post-epidemic, this year’s 618 is the sales promotion with the largest amount of discounts, the best shopping experience, the strongest brand growth opportunity, and the most new product launches ever. An estimated 200 million new products will go on sale during the event. Below is an infographic with sales highlights, followed by a more detailed explanation.

This is the 17^th 618 for JD to join hands with Apple. Transaction volume of all Apple products within the first hour on June 1 increased three times as compared with the same period last year. In the first 5 minutes, transaction volume of OLED TVs with a price tag of over RMB 10,000 yuan each increased over 6 times YOY. Of the TVs bought in the first over, over 70% of them were over 55-inch large screen TVs. In the first five minutes, transaction volume of highly popular Dyson vacuums increased over 6 times YOY. Transaction volume of Nintendo Switch products was 20 times that of the May average.

In the first 10 minutes, transaction volume of JD Pharmacy increased 10 times, vaccination appointments increased 19 times, and dentistry services increased 9 times. In the first half an hour, orders for JD Health’s online medical consultation services increased 6 times as compared with last year.

Beauty brands also performed well. In the first 10 minutes, transaction volume of SK-II, Lancôme, and Elizabeth Arden exceeded that of the whole of June 1^st last year. Luxury products realized a 400% increase in the first hour, achieving higher sales than the whole of the first day last year. Transaction volume of apparel within the first hour increased 500% YOY, while shoes and boots increased 422% YOY. Cross-border product sales increased by more than 500% YOY.

Within the first 10 minutes, transaction volume of true wireless earbuds increased 10 times YOY, while transaction volume of light and thin laptops in the first 30 minutes increased 188% YOY, among which JD C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) project, HP Zhan 66, increased 21 times compared with the previous period.

Sales of services are also a highlight of the first hour on June 1^st. Of the 1000 homes available through JD’s “First-Party”-level real estate initiative, 221 homes had already been reserved after the first hour. Online real estate consulting volume increased two times month over month, while online browsing increased four times.

In the first 10 minutes, JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, saw transaction volume exceed 300%. One thousand tons of cooking oil were sold, while sales volume of the rice, flour and oil category was 20 times that of the same period last year. In the first minute, transaction volume of alcohol increased 400% YOY. In the first five minutes, sales volume of the beer category was 10 times that of last year, and in the first 10 minutes, sales volume of the craft beer category was 10 times that of last year.

For the first hour on June 1^st, transaction volume of JD Fresh increased over 800% YOY, among which transaction volume of chicken and beef increased nearly 34 times and 12 times, respectively.

Transaction volume of the Home and Life category increased 150% y-o-y for the first hour. Smart door locks increased over 500% YOY for the first 30 minutes.

June 1^st is also Children’s Day. Transaction volume of baby and maternal products increased 200% YOY for the first 20 minutes. Sales of toys and musical instruments in the first five minutes were 800% of sales during the same period last year. Sales of “Blindboxes” (where customers don’t know what the product is when they buy it) were 27 times that of the same period last year.

The first order was delivered in just 9 minutes after Ms. Du, a customer based in the lower-tier city of Handan, Hebei province, placed it at midnight on June 1^st. Ms. Du ordered a selfie stick. This rapid delivery is made possible because JD leveraged big data to put popular products in JD’s forward warehouses in advance. Twenty more core cities will have this service. During 618, JD has already prior put over 1 billion products in 730 warehouses closest to customers, helping ensure that they receive them on time.

This year JD is providing RMB 10 billion yuan in subsidies, hundreds of billions of discounts and 10 billion consumption coupons during the 618 event. The company is leveraging technology, integrated resources and infrastructure to lead new consumption trends and boost overall post-COVID consumption in China.

 

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

by Tracy Yang

Every year, JD Books will launch a promotion event ahead of JD’s June 18 Anniversary Grand Promotion as a warm-up，and this year was no exception. This year, JD released its another C2M project in the books category, three “Super Box” giftsets designed by JD.com, meant to help effectively reach target consumers and achieve emotional resonance with readers.

Using JD’s strong consumer insights and advantages as a cross-category platform, JD underwent a comprehensive analysis of shopping habits of the target consumer group, and worked with well-known media platforms Ximalaya FM, Fandeng Read, and What is Worth Buying, to choose a variety of products, books, accessories and classes to be boxed together. The sets are tailored for different needs are divided into childhood, growth and life categories.

Take the Childhood Super Box as an example. It includes a 20-book set of picture books selected by Suzuki Picture Books, satisfying children’s rich imaginations; a Xiaoya Nano smart speaker, which is the only AI speaker product in the industry that focuses on voice-on-demand content development, and integrates Ximalaya’s rich audio resources, including more than 18,000 children’s stories, more than 50,000 nursery rhymes, and more than 5000 children’s albums; and a pencil case and VIPKID stationery gift box.

On May 27^th, sales of books grew 168% year on year, among which 4.9 times as many children’s books were sold as compared with last year.

 

(tracy.yang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

On May 27^th, Shanghai Animation Film Studio (SAFS) opened its flagship store on JD.com, the very first of its kind on the internet. A number of art designs with SAFS’s cartoon IPs are launched on shelves ranging from garage kits, notebooks, earrings to baby bibs. Beautifully designed pieces with nostalgic cartoon characters’ ornaments immediately resonate with many customers, especially Chinese millennials, namely the post-80s and post-90s generations.

Flagship Store of Shanghai Animation Film Studio on JD.com

Shanghai Animation Film Studio, founded in 1957, is known as China’s Disney given its longest history as the largest producer of Chinese animation works. Over the past more than six decades, SAFS has generated numerous animation series and won over 200 awards at home and abroad.  In the minds of many Chinese people, the classical characters from its works, such as the Monkey King, Nezha, Black Cat Sheriff, and Calabash Brothers are no less than Marvel Heroes.

To bring new life to these traditional characters from people’s childhood memories, JD and SAFS co-produced a short film named “JOY STORY III: Returning to No. 618” this May, telling a story of JD’s iconic JOY dog traveling back in time on a challenging mission to encounter cartoon heroes and bring them to real life. The film put many people in a melting mood on Chinese social media as they share their original aspirations, courage, passion and dreams.

As part of the store opening event, a special livestreaming session was arranged on JD Live on the same day, with a virtual anchor Chu Tiange, another popular animation character from SAFS’s work “Music Up”. Over 378,000 viewers participated in the live show to interact with their loved idols and enjoyed discounts to buy their favorite IP products.

Virtual anchor Chu Tiange in JD live session to open SAFS’s online store

Empowered by JD’s open platform, SAFS’s IP assets can connect directly with many brands to develop a full cycle of partnership from derivatives designing, making, marketing and sales, creating a win-win situation in which both the IPs and the brands’ value are enriched and drawn closer to more fans.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

It is 9 o’clock in the morning, and in one of the many meeting rooms at JD’s Beijing headquarters, a daily meeting is in session. The room is crowded with people with notebooks, and everyone is focusing on an elegant woman sitting at the end of the table.

She has well-groomed curly hair. When speaking, she sounds very gentle and firm. She is listening to different team members reporting on the performance of the business, and when she sees a problem, no matter how small, points out immediately and digs out the reason behind it; and when a team performs well, she gives an encouraging smile and remind other teams to learn from them.

This is Carol Fung, the head of JD’s newly formed FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) Omnichannel business group. Before the internal meeting, she has arrived in the office at 7:30 am to review the business of previous day and attend the executive meeting. This is how has started her day at JD every day for the past over 6 years.

 

“Queen” of FMCG

During her time spent at JD, she has led JD FMCG to build the largest online or offline supermarket in China – JD Super, which has become the No.1 online or offline retailer for infant formula and diapers, milk and beer, and other categories. In 2017, annual sales of JD FMCG surpassed RMB 100 billion yuan and has continued to grow steadily since then. During COVID-19, she also led JD FMCG to provide much needed daily necessities in time to customers across China: From Jan. 20^th – Feb. 28^th, JD supplied 120,000 tons of rice and flour , over 20 million bags of instant noodles, nearly 50 million liters of cooking oil, million bottles of disinfectants and 160 million bags of tissues. In JD’s annual celebration of outstanding talents in 2019, she also received the “Outstanding Contributor” award from a company-wide vote.

Fung has over 20 years of experience in the retail industry, including 12 years of experience at Walmart China. In her role as VP of Walmart China, she managed multiple categories in the merchandising department, from clothing, home furniture, fresh food to home appliances, and played a significant role in Walmart China’s growth from just nine stores to becoming the largest offline retailer in China. Then she became the VP of Tencent e-commerce and led the successful integration between e-commerce and the largest messaging app in China, WeChat. However, in all of her rich experience throughout her career, it is the year 2019 that has made her proudest.

 

Fung at World Economic Forum 2020

 

Leading the innovation of the industry

In 2019, the sales and profit JD’s FMCG team achieved both exceeded the company’s expectations. But for Fung, this is far from enough, and not what makes her proudest.  “My goal is never just to break a sales record,” Fung says, “but to lead the innovation of the FMCG industry around the world.” In 2019, she launched JD’s industry-leading supply chain innovation program, Omnichannel Fulfillment, which is the first of its kind globally. The program expands JD’s extensive supply chain network, by integrating multiple types of offline channels, including supermarkets, convenience stores, some brands’ offline stores, and JDDJ (JD Daojia), China’s leading crowdsourced delivery company. When customers buy a product on JD which is also available through one of the offline channels, JD’s system will analyze and determine the most efficient source for the inventory, whether it is the JD warehouse or an offline channel. If an offline channel is chosen, the product will be packed and delivered to the consumer.

The program is based on JD’s highly advanced and successful inventory integration project with Walmart, where Fung herself worked for 12 years. Since the program can effectively improve the turnover rate for offline partners, it has also attracted many world-leading partners, including Coca-Cola, Unilever, and Chinese beverage brands Nongfu Spring and C’est bon. JD and JDDJ also deepened the cooperation to shorten delivery time to just one hour. “The program has improved the efficiency of the supply chain by leveraging offline resources. It has saved over 20% of the brands’ supply chain costs, and 30% of JD’s. We also enabled faster delivery to our customers. It is beneficial to all parties in the program, and I believe this is the true value of the program,” Fung said.

Another of Fung’s goals is to make JD Super into a powerful brand – the first stop for the everyday needs of consumers across China. JD started its business from electronic products, and has consistently been the first choice for Chinese consumers to buy electronics. Fung believes daily necessities is next in line. In 2019, JD Super has completed a brand upgrade and launched the new slogan “Always authentic, Always affordable”, which indicates its determination to provide products with the highest quality and most competitive price. It has also put forward its new “TOUCH” strategy which focuses on Targeted customer operation, Omnichannel solutions, Unique products, Competitive prices and Holistic marketing. During COVID-19, the ability of JD Super to continuously support the demand of Chinese people has been recognized by consumers and brand partners. “Customers have formed the habit to buy daily necessities online and on JD,” said Fung: “We believe this habit will continue even after the virus.”

 

A team to be proud of

No achievement can be made without an outstanding team. “What I am most proud of for my team is that they always do the best in all aspects and aim for outstanding performance.” Fung said. Her team is known for having great passion and confidence. This is also a key characteristic of Fung herself. Although she has an elegant appearance, Fung is very tough on the inside. Born into a military family in Shenyang, she was taught to strive to do her best all the time. “I always tell my team: we may not win every time, but we have to do our utmost every time.” Fung said: “Our past was not always smooth, but our team has always been positive that we can get through the difficulties. We do not find excuses for ourselves, but rather simply do our best.”

Being the navigator of the team, Fung’s diligence and confidence has made her the role model for her team. She often needs to fly between Macau and Beijing on weekends to meet her family, including two lovely children who are primarily taken care of by her husband, something Fung really appreciates.  Still, she is the first to arrive in the office every day to check the sales performance of the previous day. “Our work is very intense and pressure is high,” Fung says:” Every day the sales data will show you if you did well. You have to keep surpassing yourself and being innovative to achieve better performance.” She never allows the pressure to discourage her team. “We simply think, if we can’t do it, no one else can either.”

Fung believes that only when the whole team are clear about the goal and work together, can they make great achievements. It’s not easy for a team of over 700 people. However, she insists to hold a daily meeting and weekly meeting, as well as a meeting for the whole team every half year to communicate the strategy and goal of the business. She also believes that the team should have an open spirit to learn from each other and trust each other. Every day at the daily meeting, she encourages team members to share their good ideas or successful cases, so the team can grow together. Under her leadership, the FMCG team won the “Best Team of JD” award in 2019.

Fung and her core team members

Fung’s team has also become most popular team among JD’s management trainees, and she is proud to see the growth of the young employees. In 2019, the proportion of post-1990s in mid-level management roles on her team increased 23% as compared with 2018, and in key management roles, the proportion of post-1985s increased 7%, post-1990s increased 11%. Fung likes the passion that the young employees show. Their full dedication of their work has moved the whole team and brand partners, especially during big sales promotions. The young employees can learn things quickly, and better deal with pressure. Fung finds that whenever there is an open position, she sees people on her team grow into the role in just a few months. “I am confident that I will always have enough talent on my team, especially given our growing number of young leaders we have.”” Fung says. “Cultivating young talent will be my priority in 2020.”

This year marks Fung’s seventh year at JD. Looking back, she feels gratitude to JD for providing her a platform to make achievements in the industry, and to her team for their support and hard work. Now, she is ready to her new role and take on new responsibilities. The FMCG Omnichannel team integrates the FMCG team, 7Fresh, new markets and Yihaodian, covering the online and offline business meeting customers’ daily needs. The new team provides Fung more opportunities and resources to make industry-leading innovations.

For Fung, her vision for the future is to build the most powerful omnichannel supermarket in China, and even in the whole world. She dreams of enabling Chinese customers to buy anything they need anywhere and anytime. To achieve this, she will lead her team to focus on building a strong supply chain that can always provide the most suitable and affordable products to customers, and optimize supply chain efficiency between online and offline. The upcoming 618 Grand Promotion will also be the first big one that her new team faces. Fung is ready to make history again, and provide a fully upgraded shopping experience for JD’s over 380 million customers.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Tracy Yang

Jianjun Yang, Deputy General Manager of Moutai Group, visited JD.com on May 18^th. He had a deep discussion with Carol Fung, president of JD FMCG Omnichannel on further strengthening cooperation in products, marketing, omnichannel and supply chain.

Concerning future cooperation, especially during JD.com’s 618 Anniversary Grand Promotion, the two sides reached a multi-faceted agreement covering many business levels: implementing converged marketing, jointly developing marketing initiatives through new channels and new methods, and comprehensively optimizing products to educate young customersand to promote omnichannel sales.

At the meeting, Yang pointed out, “JD.com is one of the key partner enterprises of Moutai and the two sides should cooperate closely this year and jointly develop in a market-oriented and sustainable way.”

Fung said that the cooperation between JD.com and Moutai is a deep and comprehensive, all-channel cooperation, and the two sides should work together to expand the breadth of the partnership and strengthen joint innovation and development. JD.com, as a supply chain-based technology and service enterprise, will make use of its technology and service advantages to provide consumers with a high-quality and efficient shopping experience and promote a new round of growth in consumption of high-end liquor, represented by Moutai.

 

(tracy.yang@jd.com)