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JD Cloud & AI Releases Edge Computing Portfolio for Enterprises

Posted on Apr 15, 2020Nov 9, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang and Ella Kidron

JD Cloud & AI has begun launching edge computing products to help enterprises develop innovative businesses in the era of 5G & IoT. The edge computing portfolio released includes a product named “Edge Physical Computing Service” which is focused on the delivery of customized bare-metal service and a product named “Distributed Cloud Physical Server” which is focused on the elastic provision of bare-metal service.

Leveraging JD’s mature public cloud computing R&D capability and data center infrastructure delivery and maintenance capabilities, JD Cloud & AI is extending its cloud computing ability to edge nodes.

JD Cloud & AI’s “Edge Physical Computing Service” provides enterprises with the access to high-quality edge node resources which are composed of computing, networking and storage brought down from the cloud to edge. It offers with low latency, high bandwidth and high real-time computing resources together with on-site operation and maintenance services, which can be customized according to the client’s needs. By using a management console, clients are also able to manage all kinds of resources and monitor the network traffic conveniently.

JD Cloud and AI’s “Distributed Cloud Physical Server” product is an extension of its bare-metal service called “Cloud Physical Server” in public cloud to edge nodes, providing users with the ability to obtain edge computing resources by self-service. It enables enterprises to quickly build and deploy cloud-edge collaborative applications to adapt to business innovation in new scenarios.

JD Cloud & AI’s edge computing products have already been acknowledged by clients, and are widely used in real business scenarios like Content Delivery Network (CDN), Live Video Broadcasting (LVB) transcoding, bullet screen recognition (a feature which allows real-time comments from viewers to fly across the screen like bullets) and more. With the advent of 5G, ultra HD Video on Demand (VoD) and online education are becoming more popular. At the same time, remote medicine, HD electronic surveillance and other enterprise applications are emerging. Innovative AV entertainment methods such as VR, AR and 3D are also being activated. These scenarios, which require larger amounts of data and require faster networking, are all the best potential usage/deployment scenarios of edge computing.

JD Cloud & AI is focused on connecting the physical and digital worlds. Through projects centered around the “new infrastructure”，which includes AI, data centers, 5G applications, cloud computing, IoT and more, JD is promoting the upgrade of industries to be more digitalized, networked and intelligent.

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

JD Provides One-Hour Delivery with Dada Group

Posted on Apr 15, 2020Nov 4, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

JD.com announced today that it will partner with Dada Group to provide JD’s customers with one-hour delivery service of daily necessities powered by Dada Now.

Through the latest cooperation with Dada Group (JD’s joint venture for local on-demand retail and delivery), JD customers can now directly buy over three million products from participating stores on JD.com and receive the products within an average time of one hour. Some products can even be delivered within 15 minutes.

To enable this, Dada Group will launch around 100,000 stores from JDDJ (JD Daojia, Dada’s local on-demand retail platform) on JD.com. A group comprised of nearly 100 chain supermarket and store brands, including Walmart, Yonghui Superstores, Better Life and BHG will be the first to join.

This cooperation is an expansion of JD’s Omnichannel Fulfillment supply chain innovation program. Launched in 2019, the program integrates multiple types of offline channels, including supermarkets, convenience stores and brands’ offline stores, enabling them to deliver orders that originate from JD directly. This improves the efficiency of the supply chain and shortens delivery time to an average of two hours.

For the stores and retailers that work with JDDJ, launching on JD.com provides them with a new channel for sales and attracting new customers, which can improve the stores’ sales performance and turnover rate. For customers, they now have the chance to enjoy even faster delivery service when shopping on JD; for JD, the JDDJ stores have brought many products from offline stores online, which significantly enhances JD’s product layout and can provide customers with more choices.

JD’s Omnichannel Fulfillment program has attracted many leading brand partners since launching, including Coca-Cola, Nongfu Spring, P&G, C’est bon, Budweiser, and others, covering offline stores in 242 cities across China. During the fourth quarter of 2019, some brands have seen their orders increase 300% y-o-y after joining the program. The program first covered heavy and bulky products, such as rice, flour, beer, due to storage and shipping challenges. Now, it has been expanded to include medicine sold by JD. Currently, there are around 13,000 offline drug stores in 157 cities across China, which are connected with this program, enabling Chinese consumers to get their medicine delivered within 30 minutes at the fastest.

In the future, the Omnichannel Fulfillment program will be expanded to categories including electronics, fashion, auto products and books.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD: Blue Ocean and C2M for Maternal and Baby Products

Posted on Apr 14, 2020Nov 10, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu

On April 13^th, JD held its annual strategy conference for maternal and baby category online. During the conference, the company announced that in 2020, the maternal and baby category will focus on new retail solutions, new channels, lower-tier markets and innovative marketing strategies to better drive its development on JD.com and in the whole industry.

Based on new customer insights, in 2020, JD will continue to help maternal and baby brands to continue to win in Chinese market, focusing on four aspects: 1) Develop more niche and blue ocean product categories to expand the product selection on the platform, and help brands develop C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) products that can better meet the specific demands of Chinese consumers, 2) Continue to develop omnichannel solutions and leverage JD’s smart supply chain to help brands develop through maternal and baby stores, 3) Conduct more refined customer operations and continue to attract new customers in lower-tier markets, as well as develop more diverse products to suit the different needs of customers in those markets, and 4) JD will leverage its user asset management capabilities, new content development with KOLs and entertainment resources to gain better knowledge of its customers and provide a better shopping experience for parents who shop on JD.

According to JD data, post-90s customers account for 70% all customers of maternal and baby products on JD, and they have become the main customers for the category. The proportion of post-90s customers in lower-tier market is even higher. Post-90s parents prefer trendy products and are less price sensitive. They also prefer to watch livestreams and short videos. In Q1, in the maternal and baby category, the viewing time for livestream and short videos increased 135% on JD, and the amount by which the livestreams drive sales increased 417% YOY – something that would not be possible to achieve without the contribution of post-90s customers.

JD.com is China’s top retailer for maternal and baby products and also the world’s top retailer for leading international brands including Wyeth, Mead Johnson, Unicharm, Kao and Abbott. A report on maternal and baby industry trends released by Nielsen during the conference shows that, in terms of e-commerce penetration rate, JD is leading the category. Among all customers who used mobile apps to buy maternal and baby products in 2019, 51% of them used the JD app.

During COVID-19, JD’s logistics and supply chain capabilities have made it a trusted platform for Chinese parents. As demand for baby products during the pandemic is high, JD uses its resources to ensure continuous delivery, and cooperates closely with brand partners to ensure supply. From late January to March, sales of daily necessities for babies, such as infant formula and diapers, increased 10 times YOY on JD, and health-related baby products increased 600% YOY. –JD’s unique advantages also helped it attract new parents during the pandemic – new customers in the category increased 110% YOY.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

JD & Nankai Tie the Knot and kick off Internet Hospital

Posted on Apr 14, 2020Sep 20, 2022 by Tracy Yang

by Tracy Yang

JD Health and Tianjin Nankai Hospital jointly launched the “Nankai-JD Internet Hospital” on April 13^th.

The partnership is focused on building a new medical service model, integrating online and offline and covering all stages of diagnosis. Services include follow-up visits, health consultation and checkups for patients in Tianjin and across China. Patients in Tianjin with medical insurance can also take advantage of the online service to handle payment for consultation and medicine.

The Nankai-JD Internet Hospital is fully integrated with JD Health’s online consultation platform. Patients can conveniently receive integrated online and offline medical service on both platforms, the first of its kind in China. In addition to consultation and medicine purchasing, patients can also enjoy additional unique services, such as making an appointment for a health examination, Traditional Chinese Medicine, home service and others.

The partnership is mutually beneficial. JD Health’s online consultation platform provides Tianjin Nankai Hospital with a unified and comprehensive one-stop medical service and health care solution, and also strengthens the operational capabilities and product offering for the hospital. JD Health benefits through enhanced medical resources provided by Tianjin Nankai Hospital.

Indeed, the partnership provides 49 doctors from Tianjin Nankai Hospital to join JD Health’s online consultation platform, providing free services during the pandemic. As of April 12^th, the platform has provided online consultation services for a total of more than 8.6 million inquiries.

(tracy.yang@jd.com)

JD’s Head of Autonomous Driving on Hardware, Data and Algorithm

Posted on Apr 14, 2020Oct 19, 2022 by Martin Li

by Martin Li

Qi Kong, Chief Scientist and Head of Autonomous Driving at JD Logistics, was invited to share the role that autonomous driving technology plays in the fight against viruses like COVID-19 at a press conference organized by the Beijing Municipal Government on April 13^th.

“The virus has demonstrated the advantages of autonomous driving technology like unmanned delivery robots and unmanned airplanes in reducing human contact and easing labor shortages,” Kong said at the press conference.

Regarding unmanned delivery, Kong pointed out three outstanding challenges: consistent and stable hardware, rich data for road scenarios and algorithm upgrades, and regional commercial mode trials.

It took only three days for JD to deploy a robot on the streets of Wuhan to deliver medical supplies in February. On Feb.5^th, the robot completed its first delivery from JD’s Renhe Delivery station to Wuhan No.9 Hospital. In addition to delivering medical supplies, the robot also delivered goods to residential communities located along the same route.

Qi Kong, Chief Scientist and Head of Autonomous Driving at JD Logistics.

“The programming and maintenance of the robots deployed in Wuhan were handled by our team in Beijing. We simply provided the local couriers with ones that were already programmed well,” added Kong.

The robots have been deployed successfully in Wuhan for over two months now.

“The fight against COVID-19 provides us a chance to deploy unmanned delivery technology. We notice recent growth in the number of orders delivered by robots in Wuhan, which reflects gradual resumption of daily life,” he said.

Kong also shared his personal perspective on the commercial use of autonomous driving technology.

“First, the real commercialization and scalability of autonomous driving can only be achieved without needing to be operated manually. Second, the future application of autonomous driving at a large scale has to be managed and deployed on a Cloud-based platform. Third, ensuring the technology is open and multi-stakeholder collaboration is crucial to the development of the entire industry,” Kong advocated.

In addition to delivery robots, JD flew two drones to spray disinfectant in the High-Tech Industrial Development Zone of Ordos City, an important industrial city of Inner Mongolia, China on February 16^th.

The city of Beijing has been holding this press conference on a regular basis to brief the public on virus prevention and control as well as to answer media questions.

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

JD Big Data: Consumers Seek Home Fitness and Enjoy Coffee under COVID-19

Posted on Apr 13, 2020Aug 17, 2022 by Ella Kidron

by Ella Kidron

The JD Big Data Research Institute reveals that even as more people are going outside following a period of lockdown and strict home quarantine across the country, the demand for home gym equipment, especially high-end, professional-grade equipment, in China continues to rise.

From April 1^st-6^th, transaction volume of large exercise machines, such as rowers, elliptical and treadmills increased more than 133%, 91% and 96% YOY respectively. At the same time, data from the China Tourism Academy reveals that China’s scenic spots have rebounded strongly, receiving over 43 million visitors during the three-day Tomb Sweeping holiday period from April 4^th to 6^th.

Increased consciousness about health and hygiene has been a trend throughout the COVID-19 period. As most gyms across the country have not yet reopened, consumers have opted to invest in home gym equipment. In addition to smaller and more portable equipment such as pullers, dumbbells, yoga gear and jump ropes, consumers are gradually tending towards buying more professional, large-scale fitness equipment with unit prices of several thousand yuan, and even as high as nearly 10,000 yuan.

The trend is not exclusive to China alone. With the increasing severity of COVID-19 around the world, high-end home fitness solutions are becoming increasingly popular as people look to stay in shape during quarantine. Gyms and fitness studios have quickly adapted to offering classes online via numerous livestream platforms, from Instagram Live to their own apps. Hardware + software combinations such as home-use “smart” exercise bikes that offer classes via an app saw a sharp increase in sales at the end of March.

Spending more time at home also appears to have given rise to an at-home coffee connoisseur culture. JD’s data reveals transaction volume of that coffee sets during the Tomb Sweeping holiday period increased 130% compared to the holiday period last year, while number of items sold increased over 80% YOY. The transaction volume of coffee grinders and milk frothers nearly tripled as compared with the same period last year, while transaction volume of coffee pots and cups increased by 110% YOY.

(ella@jd.com)

Lixil Launches Flagship Store on JD.com

Posted on Apr 13, 2020Sep 7, 2022 by Rachel Liu

by Rachel Liu and Tracy Yang

Lixil Group, the water and housing products giant, launched a flagship store on JD.com on April 9^th, announcing the collaboration through an online signing ceremony.

This is the group’s first online store that integrates four of its leading brands, namely GROHE, American Standard, INAX and Lixil Kitchen. The store selected a total of around 150 popular products and sets from across the brands covering shower, ceramic bathroom products, bathroom cabinets, and others to provide one-stop kitchen and bathroom decoration solutions for Chinese consumers.

During COVID-19, Chinese consumer demand for high-quality home products has increased in-step with spending more time at home. JD data indicates that demand for health, wellness and smart home products are on the rise. GROHE, INAX, and Lixil Kitchen have all chosen the flagship store for the online debut of their new products for the China market. On opening day, American Standard provided the most competitive prices for customers who are members of JD PLUS, JD’s premium membership program. Lixil’s professional designers will also provide free design solutions for JD customers.

The cooperation with Lixil Group significantly enhances JD’s offering for mid to high-end smart kitchen and bathroom products. The partnership is also beneficial to JD’s home decoration supply chain, providing one-stop solutions for its customers. Lixil group will provide an overall solution that can better meet the complex needs of high-end customers.

In the future, JD and Lixil Group will deepen cooperation in digitization, omni-channel solutions, empowering offline stores and C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) products.

The market outlook for home decoration is strong. China’s home decoration market is expected to reach RMB 3.2 trillion by 2023, and Chinese consumer demand for high-end home decoration products is on the rise.

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