JD.ID, the e-commerce joint venture of JD.com, is collaborating with nine renowned Indonesian designers to launch a fund-raising initiative named Designers Give Back to support the fight against COVID-19 in the country.
The designer selections are exclusively sold at JD.ID’s e-commerce platform. All the proceeds will be donated to the Kitabisa Foundation to purchase medical equipment for several government-sanctioned hospitals to treat COVID-19 patient.
The nine designers are Studio 133 Biyan, Sapto Djojokartiko, Aidan & Ice, Artkea Stripes, Lace by Artkea, Denny Wirawan, Ghea Panggabean, Sejauh Mata Memandang and Ikat Indonesia by Didiet Maulana.
“Together with designers, we are dedicated to making a positive contribution to society, through our work and creativity. Through fashion, we invite all customers to contribute and help restore Indonesia from COVID-19,” said Stephanie Susilo, head of JD.ID’s fashion business.
“At present, we are all facing a new situation (new normal) which is full of challenges. The global pandemic due to COVID-19 has affected our family, our friends, our community, and even how we live. Fashion, for example, is one of the industries that is most affected by this epidemic. However, through Designers Give Back, JD.ID wants to convey to the whole community that fashion is not just a matter of selling clothes and making a profit. Fashion is also a means for us to care and share with others,” said Susilo.
JD.ID has collected more than 100 special editions of fashion products. Each product is valued at Rp1 million (around US$68) per piece.
In addition to the designer project, JD.ID has also worked with the Kitabisa Foundation to launch the JD Care program #IndonesiaLawanCorona. The program is aimed at helping health workers who need Personal Protective Equipments (PPE), and homeless, informal workers who need masks, antiseptic fluids and medical devices.
J.Zao, JD.com’s in-house consumer goods brand, and Costa Coffee launched a co-branded reusable glass coffee cup earlier this month,, aiming to convince consumers to abandon disposable cups.
In recent years, the booming consumption of bubble tea, coffee and other drinks has resulted in the surge in the use of disposable cups.
The co-branded cup by JD and Costa is made of lead-free glass and is microwave-safe. To incentivize people to use it, in addition to standard discounts, J.Zao’s online flagship store is initiating a campaign where consumers who buy the cup will receive coffee coupons that can be consumed offline. Costa also offers big discounts for consumers using reusable cups to buy coffee in their coffee shops nationwide.
Through its J.Zao brand, JD is focused on developing quality C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) products at competitive prices that can better meet the specific demands of Chinese consumers.
Looking at the skyrocketing number of viewers, Fengju Qin, the head of Baishui county in China’s Shaanxi province, couldn’t believe that there were so many people interested in watching his livestream selling local apples. He acted like an experienced sales assistant, saying with enthusiasm: “Baishui apples, juicy, crispy and sweet. You’ll certainly not be disappointed!”
In two hours, his livestream on JD.com’s app attracted more than 210,000 shoppers and sold over 100 tons of Baishui apples.
Qin doing livestreaming on JD
Not only farmers, but many brands and retailers have turned to livestreaming during COVID-19 to help reduce the impact and losses from the epidemic. According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, there were more than 4 million e-commerce live broadcasts hosted in the first quarter of 2020.
“The epidemic is devastating brick-and-mortar stores, but it also brings opportunities. E-commerce giants like JD.com has used livestreaming as a new revenue generator for businesses.” says Guowei Zhang, head of JD Live, JD.com’s livestreaming business.
Livestreaming was already becoming a phenomenon in China, and COVID-19 has only accelerated the trend. According to iiMedia Research, the number of live streaming users increased 10.6% to 504 million in 2019, which accounts for more than half of China’s total 854 million netizens.
The rural explosion
Baishui is the first county in China to be honored as the “Hometown of Apples”, and has been selling to European and US markets. The outbreak of COVID-19 resulted in nearly 200,000 tons of unsalable stock which should have been sold out during the Chinese New Year sales season. To rescue the farmers, Qin contacted JD and went on the livestream himself, together with influencers introduced by JD.
Qin is not the only local official to pick up livestreaming during the period. Over 120 mayors, county heads, and other civil servants joined JD’s livestreams during the epidemic to act as anchors and promote local agricultural products. Total cumulative viewers have surpassed 100 million.
“Rural livestreaming is a more intuitive and transparent way for consumers to shop online. But in fact, many farmers don’t know how to use it at all, ” says Zhang.
When Wenfeng Wang, the boss of Shouguang vegetable base in Shandong province, doing first livestreaming on JD, he had not had any professional equipment, like a microphone. “Farmers like me and my family have never done a live broadcast before. We just watched how other merchants do it and imitate.” He said, “I remember my first live broadcast was more like a casual talk. There was no prepared script. We went to the farm, introduced the crops, and even showed how to cook them to fill the 2 to 3 hour-long show, but there was almost no one watching or buying. ”
MIT Technology Review reported flower farmer Li Jinxing’s story. Through JD Live, he sold several hundred thousand flowers.
As early as during the Chinese New Year holiday, JD started to help farmers like Wang get their businesses online.
On February 13th, JD announced special support mechanisms for merchants and influencers doing livestreaming e-commerce to better support the rising demand for online shopping. For example, JD Live reduced the take rate to as low as 1%, provided extra traffic support, 24×7 training, and quick access to JD Logistics, which is among the few logistics companies still operating at the height of the epidemic. For projects specifically aimed at helping farmers, JD Live also provided special policies like fast enrollment and subsidies. Many influencers volunteered to provide free services to help farmers do lives too.
Wang benefited from this policy and his livestreams began to attract more and more traffic. “Gradually we can sell 1,000 to 2,000 orders each time. The influencer JD introduced helped us reach a larger fan base, and then the local county head also joined us.” Sales of Wang’s farm skyrocketed to RMB 200,000 yuan in February and to RMB 1 million yuan in March. The online channel accounted for almost 90% of Wang’s total sales during the epidemic when offline wet markets were closed and other logistics companies were suspended.
“I’ll keep doing livestreaming and working with the influencers.” Wang hopes he can bring more neighboring farm heads to join him to enjoy the benefits brought by livestreaming.
Bringing lifestyle online
The social “dis-dance”
One of the negative impacts of social distance is the closure of offline entertainment places. But livestreaming provided a way to cure loneliness, and parties, concerts and more all held online are going viral. It also provided a way to help brands, especially liquor brands who traditionally relied heavily on the offline scenarios put on pause by social distancing. JD’s “online clubbing” initiative was developed just for this reason – simultaneously benefitting customers and helping brands drive liquor sales.
Teaming up with multiple international liquor brands including Budweiser, Remy Martin, Carlsberg and Pernod Ricard, JD’s online clubbing initiative invites musicians and DJs to perform online, coupled with professional introductions to different kinds of liquors. Usually the live show will last three hours during which shoppers are able to purchase corresponding products directly from the livestreaming page.
Cynthia Yang (right) is doing livestream on JD
“45 brands joined the first “online clubbing”, but by the third show, there were over 200 brands joined,” said Guowei Zhang. “We now host such shows twice a week, and the schedule has been booked by brands to August.”
Several wine brands have cooperated with Cynthia Yang, a professional “wine purchaser” from JD’s wine business team, who has become a top influencer on JD Live. During her show, Cynthia typically holds a bottle of wine in her hand and introduces its unique characteristics and attributes. Her expertise on wine and deep understanding of Chinese consumers gained from working at JD have made her livestream quite popular, often attracting tens of thousands of viewers.
During one of the shows, sales generated from Cynthia’s livestream accounted for nearly 40% of total sales for the day.
At the same time, entertainment companies are trying to explore a new way to earn during the epidemic.
Musicians from Modern Sky on JD Live
Modern Sky is China’s largest independent record label. After streaming its past musical festivals online with China’s leading video sharing website Bilibili, it collaborated with JD to host “Modern Sold Out!” livestreams in April, participated by bands and independent musicians. While playing and singing their new songs, the musicians introduced their personal experiences of using selected products.
Different from influencers or celebrities, these musicians are recognized by their fans as “ideal defenders who are equipped with endless imaginations”. This creative way for them to do e-commerce livestreaming is no doubt a wonderful experience for their fans.
“I think it’s creating a new entertainment front, and a new model of business.” Said Liya Wu, vice president at Modern Sky.
From material needs to spiritual needs
Art is enjoying immense popularity in China especially for the younger generation. According to the National Cultural Heritage Administration, museums across China held about 26,000 exhibitions and 260,000 cultural events in 2018.
JD kicked off livestreams for cultural experiences collaborating with leading museums and galleries during COVID-19. to The livestreams invite curators conduct online tours for housebound consumers. A small section of the livestream will sell cultural products from those institutions.
Curator is touring in Guanfu Museum
On March 10th, Guanfu Museum’s session attracted over 200,000 visitors in just two hours. Sales of the Guanfu Museum flagship store increased about 460%. In another session, sales of the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art’s store doubled compared with the day before.
Boosting sales for international brands
With travel restrictions imposed, it has become difficult for Chinese consumers to buy international brands via personal travels or daigou (overseas buyers). The temporary closure of brick-and-mortar stores also greatly affected the sales of international brands.
On April 22nd, brands including Clarks, TUMI, PHILIPS and Havaianas executed a two-hour cross-category livestream on JD releasing 2020 Spring & Summer products and invited young actor Sun Jian to interact with visitors. The livestream attracted an astonishing 1.35 million online shoppers. Transaction volume of Clarks increased 2178% on a monthly basis while transaction volume of TUMI increased 2368% compared with the daily average of the previous week.
On March 19th, luxury fashion brand PORTS did a nine-hour long live stream gathering over 10 brands’ products from the group, featuring young celebrity Jeffrey Dong – nephew of Jackie Chan, and the fashion editor of ELLE. Over 1.3 million customers visited the livestream and PORTS’ sales surpassed RMB 10 million on that day.
Although “nine-hour” sounds exaggerated, Zhang said: “We always recommend merchants doing longer than 2 hours. Usually the influencers will live 3 to 6 hours with a prepared script determining what to do and what to sell each time block.” This way brands can reach a wide variety of users since consumers on e-commerce sites differ each hour.
“We have seen an increasing number of brands doing livestreaming on JD this year, especially the big ones. They are quite sensitive to the latest market trends and have a higher requirement for their shows in terms of idea, process, etc.” said Zhang.
Post-COVID-19: Not only for sales, but also for effective branding
At a time when acquiring new customers is progressively costly, live streaming is helping retailers and brands rapidly obtain quality traffic at low cost.
Zhang mentioned that compared with 2018, the Growth Merchandise Volume (GMV) of e-commerce livestreaming in 2019 increased at least six fold, the number of users increased at least ten fold, and the number of broadcasts increased five fold. “A single broadcast generating RMB 10 million sales has become quite common, even 100 million is typical. I’ve seen sales generated from livestreaming increase from negligible to 2%, 5% and to nearly 10% of e-commerce’s total sales,” said Zhang. “But merchants should do it in a long-term way, and care more about customers than about pure sales data, and make sales a natural result of brand marketing.”
In February, as people in China gradually resumed work, JD and Procter & Gamble jointly launched a one-week-long series of live broadcasts called “Science Lab”. Not focusing on sales, it invited internet celebrities, P&G’s scientists and doctors to introduce personal protection guidelines. Both companies believe e-commerce livestreaming should not be just a sales channel, but a brand marketing scenario.
JD x P&G Science Lab
In about one hour, the “Science Lab” attracted a million people to watch, and viewers were quite active in interaction with the hosts. “Most of the people are potential buyers who recognize and favor P&G’s brand image. Through livestreaming, we made purchasing part of a natural process.”
“Brand marketing will no longer be difficult to quantify, but more efficient and sensible.”
“E-commerce livestreaming will certainly generate greater value for commerce,” said Zhang, “Not 10% or 20%, it could be much higher. But I dare not predict as it’s developing too fast.”
As of now, JD Health has become the largest pharmaceutical retail channel in the country. It not only provides comprehensive, smart and convenient drug purchasing and other services for consumers, but also provides brands with an integrated solution for online marketing, empowering the entire pharmaceutical industry supply chain.
This month marks four years since JD Pharmacy officially launched, and the business has since grown to become the largest retail pharmacy in China. Over the duration of that time, the growth rate of JD Health’s pharmaceutical retail business is four times higher than the industry average.
According to the 2020 White Paper on the Development of Pharmaceutical E-commerce in China released by EqualOcean, one of China’s leading research firm, the scale of China’s pharmaceutical circulation and pharmaceutical e-commerce market has increased each year from 2013 to 2018. In 2018, China’s market for the circulation of pharmaceutical goods reached RMB 2.1586 trillion, an increase of 7.7% over the same period last year. E-commerce, as one of the key channels for the circulation of pharmaceutical goods, benefits from the growth trends provided by omnichannel retail. The market size of pharmaceutical e-commerce reached RMB 97.8 billion, an increase of 32.7% over the same period last year.
Although the penetration rate of domestic pharmaceutical e-commerce is increasing every year, the share of pharmaceutical e-commerce in the United States accounts for 33% of the overall circulation of pharmaceuticals in the US market while the share of Chinese pharmaceutical e-commerce accounts for only 3.9% of the China market. The growth rate of pharmaceutical e-commerce is much faster than that of the entire market, while China’s pharmaceutical e-commerce still has a lot of room for growth.
JD Pharmacy is a good example. Its core concept is to combine doctors and medicine founded on retail principles, and introduce doctors and pharmacists through Internet hospitals to fill the service gap between “diagnosis and treatment” and “drugs”. Therefore, it can provide comprehensive, convenient and professional drug purchasing expertise and drug use services for patients. JD Pharmacy has formed an online “doctor + medicine” closed-loop model, establishing a new entry point for patients to buy drugs.
The outbreak of COVID-19 served as a test for pharmaceutical e-commerce and Internet medical services. As an important part of JD Health, JD Pharmacy not only ensures the circulation and supply of drugs in China during the epidemic, but also solves the challenges for chronic disease patients needing to revisit and renew prescriptions across the country. This highlights the strengths of JD Health’s pharmaceutical supply chain and channel value of pharmaceutical e-commerce.
ifenxi, China’s leading analytics agency, released its latest ranking of China’s top digitized procurement service providers last week. JD Business, JD.com’s enterprise procurement business, ranks first followed by Alibaba’s 1688 and Going Link (甄云科技).
Based on thorough research and interviews, ifenxi evaluated the companies across six aspects: comprehensive strength, track record, products and services, sales and pricing, customer success and product strategy.
Leveraging JD.com’s e-commerce platform, supply chain and logistics and technology capabilities, JD Business provides a one-stop solution for enterprise procurement. It now serves 428 of Fortune 500 enterprises in China and has increased average procurement efficiency by 45%. About 490 of Fortune 500 companies have operations in China.
During the epidemic, JD Business has supplied over 14 million anti-epidemic supplies to more than 10 Fortune 500 multinational companies, including Michelin and BOSCH.
With people returning gradually to normal life after the epidemic subsides in China, residential compounds are increasingly allowing doorstep deliveries as before. As of May 11th, over 80% of compounds can allow JD couriers to enter and provide delivery services.
JD has long provided doorstep delivery service to customers’ homes, which is an essential part of how the company puts customers first, one of the core values of JD.com. JD couriers also proactively apply for access to different compounds to continue providing the same service.
“Delivering parcels by hand to customers’ doorsteps is part of what makes us unique,” said a JD spokesperson. “With the situation improving, we will try to recover our existing services while simultaneously checking with customers if they prefer to send parcels to lockers or other locations at their convenience. Some of the compounds even provide us with exclusive delivery access.”
Recently, JD launched an integrated service center for high-end business buildings, which can provide customers with different pick up and parcel delivery services. Services include pick up and parcel delivery, food takeaway and delivery, laundry, and others.
JD.ID‘s latest virus-fighting effort by helping Indonesia procure large quantity of medical equipment in China has led to 37 media outlets to report .
Local mainstream media including Jakarta Post, kurio.id, swa.co.id and Antaranews.com published articles or photos about the initiative.
Photo report by Jakarta Post
JD.ID, E-commerce joint venture of JD.com, helped the Indonesian initiative Relawan Anak Bangsa (RAB) (Nation’s Children Volunteers in English) procure around US$2.7 million worth of medical supplies via the parent company in China in April.
The initiative is composed of 24 large-scale companies in the country. RAB will donate the medical supplies to a state-owned humanitarian foundation, Yayasan BUMN Hadir Untuk Negeri, which will distribute them to those in need.
“We are glad to take advantage of JD’s strong supply chain capability in China to procure this large quantity of medical supplies for Indonesia’s state enterprises within a short period of time,” said Zhang Li, CEO of JD.ID.
Handover ceremony at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on April 30th
JD.ID handed over the medial supplies to the Ministry of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport in Jakarta on April 30th. The supplies were received by Erick Thohir (R), Minister of the SOEs
Zhang added that, during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, e-commerce companies can play an active role in ensuring supply of daily necessities to people, who are confined to their homes.
“Plus, we are actively helping offline retail businesses, which are suffering from the lockdown, weather the crisis by providing them digitalized solutions,” said Zhang.
Every year, May 10th marks China’s online “Chinese Brands Day” shopping event. This year, coinciding with the cyber holiday, JD’s Big Data Research Institute released a trends report looking at consumption of domestic brands in 2020. According to JD’s data, from January to April this year, transaction volume for 572 brands on JD’s platform surpassed RMB 100 million, of which 490 are domestic brands. Transaction volume for 230 brands surpassed RMB 300 million, 79 of which are domestic brands. Among the 151 brands that surpassed RMB 500 million, 125 are domestic brands.
Below are some of the key takeaways from the report, followed by an in-depth analysis.
Domestic brands gradually become Chinese consumers’ top choice as quality keeps improving.
Proportion of domestic brands consumption increases year-by-year in 1st-tier cities as more well-educated and well-paid consumers buy more.
Female consumers aged below 25 pay more for and pay more attention to domestic brands.
Consumers are still more aware of domestic mobile phone brands.
In 2019, the year-on-year growth rates of domestic brands in terms of the amount of products, brands, and orders are all 20%+ higher than those of international brands. In Q1 of 2020, impacted by COVID-19, the growth gap was further expanded to 30%.
In Q1 2020, transaction volume of domestic fresh food on JD increased by 156% compared with the same period last year, of which the transaction volume of meat (pork, beef and mutton), vegetables, poultry and eggs increased by 655%, 183% and 166%, respectively. At the same time, the consumption proportion of meat, frozen food and instant deli increased the most. For example, the proportion of meat transaction volume increased by more than 20%, and has become the top fresh food category, exceeding fruit and seafood.
Transaction volume for bakery supplies increased over 10 times on a yearly basis as people choose to cook at home during quarantine. The transaction volume of computers and office products also increased 109% year-on-year.
Thanks to the local supply chain for protective products, transaction volume of masks in the first quarter increased over 10 times compared with the same period last year. Family care products, masks and glucometers became the top products in the healthcare category.
In addition, SMEs are benefiting from social group e-commerce, which has been pulled under the spotlight as a trendy new way to shop in China while stuck at home through recommending products to friends, customers and others in close proximity. In the first quarter, the number of orders from domestic brands through this new way of shopping was 20% larger than that of international brands.
In terms of looking at transaction volume for domestic vs. international brands for the whole of 2019, the proportion of domestic brands in categories including maternal and baby, sports and personal care increased rapidly. In particular, facial cleaning products, female care products and other categories exceeded over 150% on average. Imported products grew the most in categories such as toys and musical instruments, cleaning and paper products.
In 2019, e-commerce channels continued to help domestic brands reach the lower tier markets. Fifth and sixth tier cities remain the primary driving force of consumption of domestic brands. That said, the situation is quietly changing in first tier cities. For example, in the Shanghai area, domestic brands are embracing domestic brands more. Looking at the growth in proportion of consumption made up by domestic brands, Shanghai is already in the top five despite the fact that transaction volume of international brands in Shanghai remains second only to Beijing.
In terms of occupation and consumer groups, the proportion of goods from domestic brands purchased by medical and financial professionals is growing rapidly. In general, domestic brands are attracting more high-income consumers. From an age and gender perspective, young female consumers born after 1995 pay increasingly more attention to domestic brands.
In 2019, 94.27% of consumers of domestic brands were shown to be sensitive to product reviews, indicating emphasis on product quality and the general pursuit of high-quality consumption.
32% of the top 20 key words searched were directly related to brands, among which domestic brands accounted for 10% more of the search terms than international brands. According to search word data from Singles Day (November 11th), recognition of domestic mobile phones is relatively high.
Looking at the top 20 keywords used in product reviews, brand quality and use experience are of top of mind for consumers, followed by price and service.
Zhao Ping, Director of the International Trade Research Department at the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, believes that lower tier markets have huge consumption potential, and that compared with consumers in first and second tier markets, they will have higher requirements in terms of performance-to-price ratio for goods. At the same time, they are an “acquaintance society” (meaning that familiarity with a person or brand may have a better chance to drive a purchase), so the word of mouth regarding the product’s quality is particularly important. She adds that Chinese brands, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises can invest in bringing more goods with a favorable price-to-performance ratio to seize the opportunities presented by the lower tier markets, bringing them both a clear development path and a way to deliver more value to consumers.
Photo report by Jakarta Post
