Japanese Furnishing Brand NITORI Opens Flagship Store on JD.com

Posted on by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

NITORI, Japan’s largest home furnishing chain, has officially launched its flagship store on JD.com, offering nearly 1,500 furniture products. This is the first NITORI online store in Chinese mainland to work directly with the brand.

The products first offered on this online store are selected according to Chinese consumer tastes and preferences from more than 30 different product series, covering mattresses, wardrobes, sofas, coffee tables, TV cabinets and others. NITORI also plans to launch home furnishing products this coming summer, with the number of products offered on the JD flagship store expected to reach 10,000 by then, providing a convenient one-stop shopping experience for customers. The prices offered on JD are the same as those sold in Japan, which acts as a competitive price guarantee for consumers. NITORI will also work with JD Logistics to provide fast and high-quality delivery services to customers around China.

NITORI will also work with JD Logistics to provide fast and high-quality delivery services to customers around China.

JD’s deep insights on consumer trends based on its over 360 million customers will help NITORI better understand Chinese consumers and help the brand reach lower-tier markets. JD’s unique advantages in logistics and supply chain also allows it to provide reliable logistics service for large-sized furniture. The company’s innovative marketing solutions can also help the brand’s offline store in digital transformation and omnichannel integration. In the future, NITORI will launch products that cover different price ranges to meet Chinese consumers’ diverse needs and work with JD on online and offline integration to improve the overall customer experience.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

Social Group E-Commerce: A Trendy Way to Shop on JD

Posted on by Tracy Yang

by Tracy Yang

After the outbreak of COVID-19, social group e-commerce 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. JD’s sales in social group e-commerce in the first quarter of 2020 has exceeded that of the entire year of 2019.

Social group e-commerce is particularly attractive to cost-conscious consumers seeking quality such as young moms, middle-aged women and others. Now, tour guides from travel agencies have also joined in the program. Recently, China Youth Travel Service, one of China’s leading travel agencies, collaborated with JD.com on social group e-commerce initiatives offering tour guides an opportunity of part-time work acting as a JD “shopping guide” in a WeChat group to recommend high quality products at competitive prices, fast delivery and guaranteed aftersales service to their friends, customers and others nearby. At present, over 3,000 tour guides have taken the opportunity to become shopping guides. Other travel agencies, including China International Travel Service and Caissa, have also partnered with JD on the same initiative.

JD’s social group e-commerce initiative is based on WeChat groups and Mini Programs, enabling participants to act as shopping guides to recommend products in the digital community. Consumer groups who seek affordable quality choose to join JD’s social group e-commerce initiative, primarily because of trust in JD built over time due to the company’s authenticity guarantee, delivery and service. The orders can be found in JD’s app and WeChat shopping entrance point, allowing users to enjoy the same services as that of JD, encouraging participants to provide recommendations to others with peace of mind.

The story of Weiwei is telling. A salesperson at China Youth Travel Service, her income was significantly affected by the pandemic. With experience in sales and as a loyal JD customer, she decided to test the platform and attended a special training organized by JD and China Youth Travel Service. Ultimately, she became a shopping guide in her WeChat groups, earning around RMB 8,000 yuan over the past two months through the initiative.

Jiarui Liu, head of JD’s social group e-commerce initiative said, “JD.com continues to recommend good products to Chinese consumers through innovative marketing models. Sales representatives and tour guides from travel agencies have something in common with young moms and middle-aged women. Their customers are highly targeted and have a strong sense of trust, which is consistent with the trust that JD.com has established over the years. JD.com highly values working with people who have a strong connection with their customer groups, and it is also a good way to explore new business scenarios. ”

As part of JD’s social group e-commerce initiative, JD’s cloud store solution helps offline stores resume work during the epidemic period. Cloud store registration can be completed at fastest within three days. After receiving a training, a shopping guide can easily generate orders. Since February 10th, JD’s cloud store solution has been connected with 187 brands, among which many brands, like IEF and others have already achieved strong sales results. Separately, 54,000 shopping guides in the fashion and home industry have also joined JD’s cloud store solution.

 

(tracy.yang@jd.com)

Chinese National TV Praises a Model JD courier for His Work in Wuhan

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

On April 18th, CCTV，the Chinese national television station, broadcasted JD courier Shun Li’s story, praising the couriers’ hard work for making the world  better. Shun Li has been working at Wuhan Jiangxia delivery station since the outbreak of COVID-19.

Li just married his wife during this year’s Chinese New Year and his wife is now six-months pregnant. On April 12th, Li requested a half-day off to accompany his wife to take wedding photos. Although he hadn’t had time to take care of his wife during the COVID-19 period, his wife fully supported him, and saying that the example he is setting is the best antenatal training for their unborn child.

To better protect his wife and family, Li has stayed away from home since the epidemic. He only saw his wife once during the period for her antenatal examination. Li went back to work on January 23rd, because he was living locally in Wuhan and the situation was bad during that time. Li told his wife,“ I need to go back to work now as I need to  deliver daily necessities for our customers.”

Chinese national television station, broadcasted JD courier Shun Li’s story, praising the couriers’ hard work for making the world  better.

Packages to be delivered increased a lot during that period, and Li worried about the risk of getting infected by the coronavirus. He was hesitant but clear in his decision to continue to work because customers needed him.

Yun Zhou, Li’s wife, said she didn’t understand his decision at first, until Li told her a story. “One customer was giving birth to a child in hospital. Her husband called me and ask whether I can help to buy diapers, baby cream and other baby products as they’d bought them online but the delivery route was suspended due to the coronavirus.” Li immediately helped them make the purchase and send them to the hospital.” Said Li.

“I’m a pregnant woman as well. I can understand how worried the customer was at that time, and the importance of my husband’s work. I whisper to my child, ‘your dad is helping more people on the frontlines’” Zhou added.

CCTV News has praised JD couriers three times during the epidemic. Other broadcasts include a courier who continuously gave rides to medical personnel in Wuhan, and the head of a delivery station in Beijing who is leading the station to prioritize the delivery of medical supplies.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD’s Wuhan Cargo Fleet Won Major National Award

Posted on by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

Today, JD’s Wuhan Asia No. 1 Cargo Fleet won a major award to be given by the Chinese government in recognition of its excellence and support for the people of Wuhan. A total of 15 groups are shortlisted in the anti-epidemic group category, of which JD was the only one representing the logistics industry. The other groups were from the medical, construction industry and charity institutions.

JD’s Wuhan Asia No.1 Cargo Fleet brings together employees who were working consistently to aid the fight against COVID-19, helping to transport emergency materials to hospitals and customers in a timely manner. To date, the fleet has delivered 6,000 tons of daily necessities to over 3 million people.

On the eve of Chinese New Year, the team received an urgent request to transport materials. They took immediate action to send the first batch from Wuhan’s Asia No.1 logistics park to local hospitals – all within three hours.

Further, the entire team returned to work on January 25th to continue providing needed support. Mingguang Yang, a young driver in his 20s’said, “We didn’t have time to think otherwise. We simply thought we could reunite with our families next year during Chinese New Year. This year, we had work to do to provide support during this exceptional period.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

Head of JD Live: Pursuing Both Effective Branding and Strong Sales in 2020

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

On April 18th, Guowei Zhang, head of JD’s live streaming business, JD Live, spoke at the social e-commerce summit jointly held online by Youzan (a Chinese merchant services company) and Ebrun (a Chinese e-commerce news portal). The following is an excerpt of Zhang’s speech, “The Turning Point of 2020 E-commerce Live Streaming”:

Guowei Zhang, head of JD Live

As a core business of JD.com in 2020, JD Live will see relatively large investment and development this year. In my opinion, the e-commerce live streaming market has just begun, and it is still in the early stages. Live streaming will be the standard configuration for online merchants and e-commerce platforms in the longer term. As for JD, our first party business model, close relationship with merchants, the high quality e-commerce experience and strength in supply chain and logistics are the prerequisites for us to leverage e-commerce live streaming.

2019 is considered to be the first year of e-commerce live streaming. By my calculations, the number of merchants doing live streaming increased at least four times while the number of MCNs* also increased over four times. Here are the reasons why the business is becoming so popular:

  • First, technologies such as 5G have continued to lower the threshold for doing live streaming so that everyone can become an influencer.
  • Second, merchants are equipped with private domain operation tools and channels.
  • Third, e-commerce platforms are in need of new marketing scenarios and they are willing to collaborate with merchants and MCNs on live streaming.
  • Forth, live streaming has brought a brand new shopping experience, from awareness (pre-purchase) to eventual purchase, especially for younger generations and consumers in lower-tier cities.

JD online clubbing

But the prosperity is also accompanied by a series of challenges, of which I have listed only four:

  • First is the imbalance in development of MCNs. Resources are focused on top institutions, so it’s harder and harder for others to acquire traffic and business.
  • Second is the relatively high product return rate. On the one hand, customers tend to shop impulsively watching live streaming; on the other hand, “brushing”* has made the market opaque.
  • Third is that most of the live streaming sessions lack good ideas and planning, resulting in low order conversion rate. It looks like everyone can be an influencer but the actual threshold is relatively high to do e-commerce lives well.
  • Forth is acquiring traffic has become more and more difficult and is a challenge that needs to be figured out by both merchants and e-commerce platforms. I’ve seen many merchants join the battlefield just because others are doing so.

I believe 2020 will be the year for the industry to reach new heights. After the initial surge in 2019, e-commerce live streaming has come to its “turning point”. There are three aspects that the industry will pay attention to: building the ecosystem, including the ecosystem for both merchants and MCNs and influencers; building the infrastructure; and generating quality content.

We will keep investing in this field, integrate JD’s internal and external, online and offline resources and develop in three directions: 1) building a scalable business; 2) building a healthy ecosystem; and 3) building a new ‘quality e-commerce live streaming’ model.

  • Building a scalable business: Live streaming will become standard for JD’s brands and merchants. We are targeting 100% of JD’s 1P business and 60% of JD’s third party merchants to do live streaming this year. To achieve this goal, we have introduced a large number of resources and supportive policies, for example, commission fees will be lowered to as little as 1%, and monthly promotions will be held to attract traffic. At the same time, we will provide a large number of coupons, JD points and other subsidies.
  • Building a healthy ecosystem: JD is currently optimizing the system for merchants and MCNs to solve problems related to business development, matching demand and supply, etc. For example, we will digitize every step of live streaming and open JD’s data technology to help reach targeted consumers. We will continue to research how to provide a better experience, functionalities and marketing tools. Leveraging technologies such as 5G and AR/VR, we will introduce virtual images and immersive experiences to JD Live.
  • Building a new ‘quality e-commerce live streaming’ model: We hope to make e-commerce live streaming not just a sales channel but a brand marketing scenario. Merchants should care more about their customers than about pure sales data, and make sales a natural result of brand marketing. In addition, we will bring live streaming from the broadcast studio out into the field, helping to visualize the supply chain and logistics. I also anticipate that pan-entertainment marketing will be the leading core area of live streaming. The industry should recognize professionally-generated content (PGC)* again. In the past, it was said that PGC does not bring conversion, but in fact, this is because the industry previously didn’t have a good way to leverage PGC.

At JD, we strive to make every live streaming, especially the most important ones, to be professional, popular and interesting, pursuing both effective branding and strong sales results.

 

*MCN: Multi-Channel Network, act as an agent to connect influencers and celebrities with brands, merchants and e-commerce platforms.

*Brushing: A deceitful technique used by sellers to create fake orders.

*PGC: Professionally Generated Content, which is more specialized than UGC is the content created by special groups with professional skills and technique.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD Forecasts 5G Phone Sales of up to 150 Million in 2020

Posted on by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

JD just released its latest Mobile Phone Industry White Paper which forecasts that the price of a 5G phone may fall to around 1,000 RMB, with 120 million to 150 million 5G phones to be sold in China over the duration of 2020.

Since the beginning of this year, many leading handset brands have chosen to launch their latest 5G phones on JD, including HUAWEI P40, HUAWEI Mate Xs, OnePlus 8, OPPO Ace 2, Honor 30, vivoS6, Redmi K30 Pro and others. In early April, JD partnered with three telecomm carriers in China and leading mobile phone brands to launch consumer promotions specifically for 5G phones. To improve the consumer experience, JD also provides services including rebates, broken screen insurance, extension insurance, and 5G top-up payment service, which have effectively acted as stimulants for consumers to try new 5G products.

In February, JD helped an assortment of brands that turned to online approaches due to COVID-19 to hold new product launches via JD Live, particularly 5G products. Xiaomi, Huawei, Samsung, vivo and Honor have all launched their new products through online press conference. In 2019, JD also successfully established China’s first 5G ecological alliance and 5G service alliance with telecomm carriers and brand partners to lead the overall development of the industry.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

 

JD Serves Customers in 105 Countries and Regions

Posted on by Martin Li

by Martin Li

JD.com has been supplying medical supplies and daily necessities to overseas customers in 105 countries and regions since January this year.

Joybuy.com is the outbound e-commerce platform of JD.com. It covers more than 200 countries and regions and houses several thousand merchandisers.

Among the countries and regions are Japan, South Korea, the United States and Southeast Asia.

The number of global coronavirus cases has exceeded 2.3 million so far, leading to supply shortages for medical supplies like masks, hand soap, medical alcohol and disinfectant.

JD has allocated RMB 1.5 billion yuan ensuring supply of preventive and medical products, as well as transportation and delivery services at home and abroad.

A Chinese man who studies in South Korea bought masks for less than two yuan each on joybuy.com and received his parcel within just one week.

Starting March 9th, the Korean government only allows each resident to buy two masks, for RMB 5 yuan each, per week on the condition that the buyer has local insurance.

Joybuy.com has become a shared “special channel” for Chinese students in South Korea to buy masks, the man told customer service staff of Joybuy.com online.

JD has been cooperating with cross-border e-commerce players to transport masks and daily necessities overseas to meet heavy demand.

The COVID-19 outbreak has reduced the number international cargo flights by 90 percent. However, JD has managed to ensure cross-border transportation by rail, sea and transfer flight.

In addition, cross-border merchandisers on joybuy.com are receiving discounts on global delivery. Customers in selected countries enjoy free delivery for certain products.

 

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

COVID-19 Testing Service Can be Booked Online on JD Health

Posted on by Rachel Liu

by Tracy Yang and Rachel Liu

JD Health is partnering with Beijing KingMed Diagnostics Laboratory to book COVID-19 nucleic acid testing services online, becoming the first platform in China for consumers to book  this service Online. Users can search for the booking service through JD’s app place the purchase and make an appointment with the testing service provider.

In order to improve epidemic prevention and control work, the city of Beijing has issued a series of policies for people returning to work from outside the city. There are five categories of returnees who need to demonstrate negative results on a nucleic acid test before entering the city. They are: confirmed and suspect cases, people who have had close contact with confirmed cases, people returning to Beijing from Wuhan, and from abroad. Returnees who were on business in other provinces who stayed in hotels are also required to show a negative test result before reentry to Beijing. The tests are seen a prerequisite for people returning to Beijing.

Appointed by the Beijing Municipal Health Commission, Beijing KingMed Diagnostics Laboratory is an official designated institution providing nucleic acid testing of COVID-19 for groups and individuals. At present, there are two test sampling sites in Beijing. They are located at Grand Skylight Catic Hotel Beijing in Chaoyang District and Beijing Tylfull Hotel in Haidian District. All personnel entering Beijing can purchase testing services in advance, make an appointment for testing and conduct sampling through JD’s app. After the sampling is completed, the test results report can be obtained within 24 hours.

 

(tracy.yang@jd.com, liuchang61@jd.com)