Other supplies and 200,000 RMB worth of masks in an hour

JD News Roundup: Vol. 1

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Aug 14, 2021 by Ella Kidron

By Ella Kidron

COVID-19 Response

Robots to the rescue: JD and GREE, a Chinese state-owned major manufacturing enterprise announced a partnership to develop disinfection and inspection robots to aid the fight against COVID-19. The indoor inspection robot can discern people’s temperature in highly mobile and dense areas, while disinfection robots (both indoor and outdoor types), can automatically spray disinfectant gas and liquid 24/7, increasing the efficiency of the process and protecting staff who conduct disinfection.

JD Health consultation platform goes global: Following the release of the platform in China at the start of COVID-19, JD went global with a bilingual version aimed at supporting over 60 million Chinese overseas who might be unable to return to China during COVID-19. Over 20 doctors can support requests in English and Chinese. There is also a bilingual psychological consultation service which can be accessed by dialing: 400-622-6108 via Skype or another similar software. Get the full story

Things are looking up in Hubei province: JD Logistics data shows that delivery orders in the epidemic epicenter of Hubei province during the month of March increased three times vs. this February. Recently, as COVID-19 has progressed, there has been a shift from buying daily necessities and indoor fitness equipment to buying clothing, cosmetics and travel accessories. JD expects that by the beginning of April, all Hubei employees will resume work. Furthermore, to support industry in Hubei that was dormant at the peak of COVID-19, JD is using its platform and tech to support impacted industries. The company has launched 10 initiatives, from merchant enrollment, to traffic, operations and logistics support, to aid the recovery of Hubei’s agriculture industry. In addition, as Hubei produces half of China’s crawfish, JD has announced a plan to sell a whopping 100,000 tons of crawfish from Hubei, worth RMB 6 billion.

JD Logistics employees in Hubei province

Emergency relief supplies donated to the UK: Richard Liu, Chairman and CEO of JD.com, and his wife, Nancy Zhang announced the donation of 50 invasive ventilators, 5 million medical masks, and 600,000 other items, including surgical gloves, medical safety goggles and protective gowns. Get the full story

Biz Highlights

Ongoing commitment to Responsible Consumption: On March 28^th JD joined in the global Earth Hour celebration. JD supported Earth Hour by launching a new round of its clothing recycling program in 94 cities across China, as well as continuing to recycle logistics packaging as usual. Pre-loved clothes and packaging can be handed back to couriers whenever they make a delivery, making it hassle free to treat the environment well and live with less. Get the full story

Joy turns 7: In light news, JD’s Joy, a loveable, happy image of a dog created by the company, celebrated his 7^th birthday. Joy represents integrity, and is an embodiment of JD’s commitment to providing authentic products and fast delivery to consumers in China. Joy has been featured in many brand and artist collaborations for products for sale on JD.com. Get the full story

JD’s Joy made from LEGO (right) and roses (left)

New product debuts: On March 29^th, Costa Coffee chose JD as the first online platform in China to sell its new ready-to-drink coffee. The product has been tailored specifically for the Chinese market, and is designed to make coffee, which has become increasingly popular in recent years, more convenient to drink. According to statistics, the coffee industry in China has grown substantially over the past 30 years, with a 15% YOY growth rate in 2019, compared to a rate of 5% in the U.S. JD is also the first e-commerce platform in China to offer pre-orders of Finnish fitness company Suunto’s latest wearable tech, the Suunto 7. Since joining JD in 2015, Suunto’s sales on the platform have increased four-fold, making JD one of the most important retail channels for the brand.

Looking for more? Check out our recent long reads and data analysis:

In-Depth Report: The New Experience of Retail under COVID-19: With the rapid rise of the epidemic outside of China, there have been several discussions about what China can share based on experience earlier in the year. While having none of the answers, this piece provides a bit of insight into what JD has learned in the last few months figuring out how to adapt to the new normal under COVID-19. Get the full story
The Big Data: Employees embrace back to work, but proceed with caution: Looking at trends across 40 cities, JD’s Big Data Research Institute finds that products like electric lunch boxes reach an all-time high, as people head back to work still maintaining reduced human-to-human contact. At the same time, growth in purchases of products like cash registers indicate that more brick-and-mortar retail establishments are gradually returning to work. Get the full story
In-Depth Report: How JD Tackles Counterfeits (Part 3): This final piece of a three-part series, this in-depth shines a light on the technology behind JD’s approach towards counterfeits and ensuring authenticity. From buzzword technology like blockchain to self-developed mechanisms like Eagle Eye, these tools help JD’s team qualify intuition and tips through data. Did you know? JD’s Quality Inspection team clocked over one million air miles and conducted traceability checks on over 1,200 factories in 2019. Get the full story

In photos, recent moves by JD: https://jdcorporateblog.com/photo-gallery-this-week-at-jd-march-30-april-3/

(ella@jd.com)

Harvard Business Review Highlights How JD “Delivers” in the Fight against COVID-19

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Nov 14, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

Harvard Business Review this week highlighted how JD.com and other Chinese e-commerce giants responded to COVID-19 as the pandemic emerged in Wuhan, China and what can be learned from the experience.

The article highlights: “The experience from China suggests that the most valuable contributions will come both from leveraging their digital logistics platforms and their high-tech last-mile delivery capabilities and from quickly engaging newly available workers with transferrable skills from other sectors.” Multiple projects and approaches by JD were highlighted as best practices.

Regarding technology, the story highlights JD’s rapid action in deploying drones and autonomous delivery robots during this period: “JD.com and other retailers deployed their new automated technologies into Wuhan. They shipped smart vehicles to the Wuhan border, loaded the local map, and remotely operated (from Beijing, about 750 miles away) deliveries of donated goods to hospitals and household purchases to communities in Wuhan.” It added, “Delivering essential supplies to villages across Baiyangdian, a large lake in Hubei province, would take at least six hours by the small road or ferry that remained open. In a moment of creativity, JD’s local logistics team proposed deploying the drones, which did the job in just 20 minutes.” These contactless delivery methods also include lockers, which were mentioned by the magazine as well.

The magazine also introduces how JD’s 7FRESH offered employment during this period. It shares, “China’s e-commerce supply chains were suddenly confronted with a shortage of human resources.” While JD.com’s 7FRESH launched a “talent sharing” plan to hire short-term staff from restaurants, hotels, cinemas and other temporarily closed retail establishments. JD was “able to leverage these workers’ supply chain and logistics skills, which meant they only had to provide limited training to transfer the skills to the e-commerce context.”

The article also mentions JD’s efforts in providing online medical services. It shares, “JD.com ramped up its telemedicine business, quickly adding more doctors to its network. In a matter of days, it not only became a major channel for processing the purchase of medical products and standard telemedicine, but also turned itself into one of the front-line Covid-19 triage services for citizens all over the country. It added, “JD.com also rolled out a smart epidemic assistant to share official information about the virus and offered psychological service online.”

(ling.cao@jd.com)

JD Joins Chinese Medical Experts Sharing Anti-Virus Experiences

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Oct 14, 2022 by Hui Zhang

by Hui Zhang

JD Health CEO Xin Lijun joined Chinese renowned respiratory scientist Zhong Nanshan, epidemiologist Li Lanjuan, WHO Representative in China Dr. Gauden Galea, and other medical experts from China, South Korea, and Japan to share their epidemic fighting experience with the world during a webinar entitled, “COVID-19 International Experience Sharing and Exchange”.

Xin introduced JD Health’s efforts in fighting against COVID-19 by launching free 24/7 online consultation services. This includes a bilingual Chinese-English global free online consultation service launched in an effort to support the global fight against the virus. So far, the platform has received more than 5.85 million of views, and has conducted 130,000 overseas consultation requests, including over 8,100 in English.

To ensure medical supply, JD’s has leveraged its supply chain advantage to make sure at least 2 million disposable medical masks available for sale daily via its first-party stores. This is an increase of 600% compared with February. Other kinds of masks, such as KN95, KF94, can be purchased whenever consumers need on JD.

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

Photo Gallery: This Week at JD (March 30-April 3)

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Nov 15, 2022 by Yuchuan Wang

On April 3^rd, JD.com announced the company is donating 150,000 COVID-19 test kits, 5,000 sets of medical protective clothing, 5,000 pairs of goggles and 20 ventilators to Uzbekistan to assist in the country’s fight against the epidemic.

On April 2nd, JD.com’s fresh food e-commerce business JD Fresh announced a plan to sell 100,000 tons of crawfish from Hubei province worth RMB 6 billion. Hubei, epicenter of the COVID-19 epidemic, produces half of China’s crawfish. Since mid-February, JD Fresh has already helped sell 1,800 tons of local fresh produce nationwide, using its retail and supply chain capabilities.

JD expects that by the beginning of April, all of Hubei employees will resume work. As part of its effort to ensure a superior customer experience, JD has worked with nearly ten cities in Hubei to help couriers, warehouse workers, and drivers return to work by arranging ground transportation.

JD.com and Gree formed a strategic partnership to develop three unique types of robots for disinfection and inspection purposes to aid the fight against COVID-19 around the world. The indoor inspection robot can discern people’s temperature in highly mobile and dense areas. The disinfection robots, both indoor and outdoor types, can automatically spray disinfectant gas and liquid, respectively, for 24 hours a day.

JD and WeChat Pay partner in “reverse logistics”. JD Logistics will pick up WeChat payment terminals from merchants and deliver to WeChat Pay to process return or exchange. JD couriers will check the serial number of each and take photos at each step in the process to ensure traceability. The service can already cover many cities within mainland China.

On March 30^th, JD’s JOY celebrates its 7th birthday. A symbol of JD’s mission to deliver trust, JOY has represented JD at events all around the world. JOY participated in cross-brand collaborations and JD’s JOY STUDIO has developed tons of merchandise featuring JOY and friends too.

On March 29th, leading international coffee brand Costa Coffee chose JD to be the first online platform in China to sell its new ready-to-drink coffee. JD will also support Costa to achieve digital transformation through big data analysis, omnichannel operations and customer management.

JD Donates Medical Supplies to Uzbekistan

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Sep 4, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Hui Zhang and Ling Cao

JD.com is donating 150,000 COVID-19 test kits, 5,000 sets of medical protective clothing, 5,000 pairs of goggles and 20 ventilators to Uzbekistan to assist in the country’s fight against the epidemic.

The medical supplies will be sent to the Agency for Sanitary and Epidemiological Well-being under the Ministry of Health of Uzbekistan with the assistance of the China Charity Federation.

JD has relocated more than 1.5 billion RMB in the donation of protective and medical relief supplies both in China and overseas.

The company has supplied local consumers in Indonesia with 10 million masks for sale without raising prices at a time when the price of medical supplies soared in the country, and the price of face masks alone rose to 10 times the original price.

In addition, JD’s Customer Service team has helped consumers from 49 countries and regions, including Russia and Italy, purchase supplies such as alcohol wipes and thermometers on JD.

(zhanghui36@jd.com; caoling@jd.com)

JD Cloud & AI Partners with Digital China to Advance Cloud Service Ecosystem

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Oct 18, 2021 by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

Today, JD.com announced that its core technology service business, JD Cloud & AI, has signed a strategic partnership agreement with Digital China, a leading cloud service and big data application solutions provider in China. Digital China will become the agency representative of JD’s public cloud service, enabling the two parties to further explore the cloud service ecosystem.

The partnership will leverage Digital China’s IT network and technology capabilities to help JD further build its cloud service ecosystem. The ecosystem will have four developmental directions: sales, R&D, consultation and services, which seek to empower partners in the ecosystem with products, programs and marketing. The collaboration between JD Cloud & AI and Digital China will lead the smart cloud service system to advance the industry’s overall digitization.

“Relying on JD’s rich experience and technological advantages in retail, logistics and finance, JD Cloud & AI will continue to provide diversified, effective and trusted solutions and services for our clients,” said Bowen Zhou, Chair of JD’s Technology Committee, President of JD Cloud & AI. “We will fully integrate our capabilities to achieve business breakthroughs.”

“In recent years, Digital China has explored deploying cloud computing and has applied leading digital solutions in the fields of automotive, fast moving consumer goods, intelligent manufacturing, and others,” said Haiqiang Ye, Executive Vice President of Digital China. “JD Cloud & AI has acquired profound experience in AI, Internet, big data and other cutting-edge technologies. Through our joint efforts, we will effectively promote the application of new technologies and promote the further development of digital transformation.”

As JD’s fourth core business to provide technology services (apart from JD Retail, JD Logistics and JD Digits), JD Cloud & AI is one of China’s top 10 public cloud IaaS providers, with a year-on-year growth of market share for cloud of 512%, the fastest in the industry.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Wall Street Journal Highlights JD Health’s Online Consultation

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Aug 31, 2022 by Tracy Yang

by Tracy Yang

An article entitled “Telemedicine, once a hard sell, can’t keep up with demand” was published by the Wall Street Journal yesterday. The article discussed the huge demand generated from COVID-19 for telemedicine and how various companies in the world, like Teladoc, Doctor on Demand and others tried their best to add doctors and bandwidth to meet the demand from users.

JD Health’s initiative to launch the online consulting services to connect Chinese doctors with 60 million overseas Chinese was highlighted in the article. It also mentioned that the doctors on the platform have first-hand experience in combating the coronavirus.

In JD Health’s eyes, the pandemic has sped up the adoption of telemedicine by Chinese consumers by five years. The article also mentioned that the telemedicine industry faces challenges such as government regulation, insurance and reimbursements and patients’ trust.

(tracy.yang@jd.com)

JD’s View on Robots Shared on WEF Virtual Roundtable

Posted on Apr 3, 2020Sep 5, 2022 by Ling Cao

by Ling Cao

On April 1^st, during a virtual roundtable hosted by the World Economic Forum entitled “Opportunity and Outlook of Automated Vehicles under COVID-19”, Qi Kong, Chief Scientist and Head of Autonomous Driving at JD Logistics, shared his insights on what JD has learned about the autonomous driving industry during the pandemic.

According to Kong, there are three key insights to share regarding the autonomous driving industry from JD’s perspective, namely:

To make commercial application of the technology a reality, companies need to ensure robots on the road are not accompanied by human operation – that they can operate independently. Powered by L4 level autonomous driving technology on public roads, JD has achieved this.
To operate at scale, the technology needs to be scheduled and integrated into a digital management platform, ensuring safety and greater monitoring capability.
Stakeholders should promote the shared development of the industry for its future and encourage collaboration among industry partners. JD has experienced the benefit of opening up its capabilities in autonomous driving and providing autopilot kits to partners. The need for shared development is true even beyond logistics scenarios, such as cold chain logistics, security support, disinfection and inspection. A specific example of partnership for the greater good in tackling COVID-19 around the world is one JD recently announced with GREE in robotics.

In terms of how to address challenges, Kong shared that it is critically important to accumulate more data from real-life scenarios to continuously upgrade technology. JD relies on its self-developed cloud simulation platform leveraging data from JD’s in-house logistics network, which largely reduces modification time.

Lastly, Kong shares that he believes logistics will be the first industry to achieve autonomous driving at scale, with power to change people’s lives by promoting next-generation infrastructure for the benefit of society.

On February 5^th, JD quickly deployed its autonomous delivery robots in the epicenter of Wuhan to address unmet needs for contact-free delivery. The R&D for this technology is developed remotely from JD’s team in Beijing, and the company is able to provide this technology at just the right time because of its significant experience in autonomous driving.

(ling.cao@jd.com)