JD Launches Blockchain Open Platform

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com, China’s largest retailer, is launching a new blockchain technology platform to help enterprise customers build, host and use their own blockchain applications for more secure, transparent and convenient operations management.

The platform, called JD Blockchain Open Platform, is built on multiple underlying technologies, and enables customers to create and adjust smart contracts on public and private enterprise clouds with ease. The technology can help companies streamline operational procedures such as tracking and tracing the movement of goods and charity donations, authenticity certification, property assessment, transaction settlements, digital copyrights, and enhance productivity.

The new platform is the latest expansion of JD’s Retail as a Service (RaaS) strategy, under which the e-commerce giant is opening its advanced technology and infrastructure to other companies and industries. JD Blockchain Open Platform is designed with “one-click deployment” so it is accessible to enterprises even if they don’t have the capabilities to develop their own blockchain solutions.

JD Blockchain Open Platform, a BaaS platform, houses an application store that provides multiple blockchain bottom layers, tools and software that are developed in-house and by Independent Software Vendors (ISV). JD implements stringent quality control over the offerings on the app store, enabling users to safely and conveniently customize their applications to suit their business needs. The company will continuously enrich its application offerings by introducing more ISV and creating a robust ISV community on the platform.

The first JD partner to use JD Blockchain Open Platform is China Pacific Insurance Company (CPIC), which used the platform to deploy a traceable system for e-invoices, or “fapiao,” the official receipts required in China for business. The system strengthens the security governance of e-invoices by applying unique blockchain IDs to each document, increasing efficiency and streamlining the accounting process.

“JD Blockchain Open Platform is a culmination of the expertise and experience in blockchain technology that we initially developed for our own operations, to provide more visibility to consumers,” said Jian Pei, head of big data and smart supply chain at JD.com. “As we continue to open our technology and infrastructure up to other companies, we are pleased to have CIPC as our first blockchain platform customer.”

“JD is an innovator in its field and we are confident its blockchain e-invoice system will create greater efficiency in our operations,” said Yanhong Pan, vice president and CFO of CPIC. “Blockchain technology is transforming the way companies do business, and we are pleased to have found a great partner in JD to guide and help us along the way.”

JD is a pioneer in the utilization of blockchain technology. Last year, the company introduced its blockchain tracing platform that enables customers to track and trace the source and development process of the products and food they purchase. To date, the company has implemented blockchain tracing for more than 400 brands and 11,000 SKUs on JD.com.

Separately, JD will work with software companies and certificate authorities home and abroad to explore the application of blockchain in their businesses, such as enterprise resource planning.

Read: https://jdcorporateblog.com/salvatore-ferragamo-brings-exclusive-catwalk-fashions-to-jd-com/

Salvatore Ferragamo Brings Exclusive Catwalk Fashions to JD.com

Posted on by Ling Cao

Salvatore Ferragamo launches its direct sales flagship store on JD.com platform, making JD one of China’s largest exclusive online channels for selling the brand’s goods. The store features Ferragamo’s integrated product categories, including footwear, leather goods, silk and accessories. In honor of the partnership, the Italian luxury brand has created limited-edition Salvatore Ferragamo Flower Heel flat shoes available exclusively for JD users. JD Salvatore Ferragamo store shoppers will enjoy JD Luxury Express, the company’s white glove delivery service.

Salvatore Ferragamo launches its direct sales flagship store on JD.com platform,

One of the most respected luxury brands in the world, Salvatore Ferragamo is famed for its exquisite Italian craftsmanship and commitment to the highest standards of quality. Founded by shoemaker Salvatore in 1927, the brand has gone on to earn the loyalty of high-end consumers all around the world, who prize the collections of the Ferragamo Maison for their elegant design.

Over the years, the brand has accumulated an array of famous fans, from classic stars like Marilyn Monroe to contemporary celebrities such as Zhang Ziyi and Tang Wei.

As global retail patterns continue to rapidly evolve, the field of e-commerce has become an important new driver for luxury brands. In recent years, JD has attracted a flood of well-known international labels, including Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta and Mulberry. At the same time, JD is leveraging its world class big data, logistics, internet finance and other technical capabilities to continuously improve the customer experience at every step of the shopping process.

Christian Louboutin Partners with JD.com’s TOPLIFE

Posted on by Ella Kidron

Christian Louboutin’s signature red-soles have tiptoed their way onto TOPLIFE.

In early July, JD.com teamed up with Christian Louboutin to set up his first online pop-up store hosted on JD’s luxury e-flagship platform TOPLIFE. The store features the full offering from the brand’s most recent collection. The pop-up marks the brand’s official debut on an e-commerce platform in China.

“JD’s TOPLIFE offers us a very rich and relevant platform to express Christian’s vision & creativity and develop a strong storytelling around his collections” said Alexis Mourot, Christian Louboutin Chief Operating Officer and General Manager.

To facilitate the success of the pop-up, JD is providing a full range of services, including marketing, logistics and customer service support. This includes the company’s signature white glove delivery service, JD Luxury Express, where professionally-dressed couriers drive electric cars to hand-deliver purchases to consumers’ homes, rounding out the online luxury experience with an offline, personal touch.

“No matter where you are, Christian Louboutin’s signature creations are ubiquitous with style, poise and individuality,” said Xia Ding, JD President of International Fashion and Head of TOPLIFE. “We couldn’t be happier to partner with him in bringing his beloved shoes to more people in China and are confident that our customers will take full advantage of the pop-up on TOPLIFE.”

The launch of the Christian Louboutin pop-up plays into JD’s Retail as a Service vision. The company’s state of the art logistics network fully developed in-house as well as its big data analytics capabilities, among other strengths, makes JD ideally positioned to help brands get online quickly and reach China’s eager luxury consumer base. JD has helped many other brands, both in the fashion industry and outside, seamlessly make their China e-commerce debut by leveraging its RaaS capabilities.

Christian Louboutin joins a host of leading brands already working closely with JD’s TOPLIFE. In addition to Fendi, JD has also welcomed Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Oscar de la Renta and Kiton to TOPLIFE, with more top international luxury brands expected to come online in the near future.

Unilever Chooses JD.com as Chinese Logistics Provider

Posted on by Ling Cao

Consumer goods giant Unilever has chosen JD.com as its logistics provider to expand its reach in China.

The company, which sells consumer products from brands including Lipton, Vaseline, Clear, Lux, OMO and others, will use JD’s network to move goods between warehouses, to be distributed to brick and mortar stores for retail partners beyond JD. Unilever previously worked exclusively with standalone logistics companies for its China distribution.

The partnership marks an expansion of JD’s Retail as a Service (RaaS) push, in which the e-commerce company is offering its technology and infrastructure to other companies and organizations outside of its own e-commerce platforms. JD already provides various combinations of warehousing, transportation and inventory management software to companies including Danone and Oldenburger in China.

Unilever, a long-time partner of JD, presents a massive new opportunity because the company still does the vast majority of its sales through offline channels in China—sales that will now be powered by JD logistics.

“After working closely with JD as a retail partner, it’s clear that its logistics network and technology are unmatched,” said Rohit Jawa, Executive Vice President of Unilever North Asia. “By opening that infrastructure to businesses outside of its own platform, JD will now help us bring our most popular products to the most hard-to-reach communities in China, securely and quickly.”

With over 300 million customers, JD is China’s largest retailer, online or offline. The company is the first large scale e-commerce company in the world to build out and operate a nationwide logistics network. With over 500 warehouses, 7,000 delivery stations, and fleets of drones and autonomous ground vehicles, the company is capable of delivering over 90% of orders same or next day, with reach to 99% of China’s population.

JD is also the creator and earliest adopter of many of the world’s most advanced supply chain technologies, which range from big data and AI for demand planning and transportation management, to automation for more efficient order fulfillment. The company was the first e-commerce company to commercially deploy delivery drones.

“By investing in our own network and in innovations for e-commerce, JD has built one of the world’s most extensive and efficient supply chains,” said Zhenhui Wang, CEO of JD Logistics. “We believe in sharing our capabilities, because everyone, including consumers, will benefit from the transparency, speed and efficiency of modernized global commerce.”

JD’s “LINE FRIENDS DAY” Highlights its Omnichannel Marketing Capabilities

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

Chinese fans of the wildly popular LINE FRIENDS characters will be flocking to JD.com to get their fill of the popular character-themed merchandise. To celebrate the promotion, the e-commerce giant has also released a new micro movie with its own mascot Joy joining in with the LINE FRIENDS characters.

LINE FRIENDS, a series of animated characters, originated as stickers on the messaging app LINE. The resulting character brand has amassed a global fanbase, especially in China, where consumers can frequently be found sporting LINE FRIENDS-themed merchandise or playing LINE FRIENDS-themed games.

JD has designated August 10 as the inaugural “LINE FRIENDS DAY”. On the day, the JD.com homepage will temporarily be LINE FRIENDS-themed. In addition, discounts will be offered for a range of LINE FRIENDS merchandise, including LINE FRIENDS-branded products from some of JD’s brand partners. JD has also collaborated with LINE FRIENDS to design a series of limited edition travel cups that will exclusively be available for purchase on JD.

An acknowledgement of the widespread popularity of the brand in China, JD is also bringing its LINE FRIENDS celebration offline in Beijing, home of JD.com’s headquarters. In the city’s popular Sanlitun district, fans of the brand will have an opportunity to visit a pop-up store, where they can either make purchases in-store to take home immediately or place orders directly on JD.com, and benefit from JD’s rapid delivery logistics. In addition, hundreds of JD’s red delivery trucks and employee shuttle buses will bear an eye-catching LINE FRIENDS-branded design.

“We are sure that our first annual LINE FRIENDS DAY will be warmly welcomed from fans across JD’s huge user base”, said Jipeng Men, head of marketing at JD.com. “This event demonstrates how we combine our online and offline marketing capabilities to help brands tap into their fanbase and reach more consumers. Coupled with the universal appeal of the LINE FRIENDS characters, we are sure this partnership will be a huge success.”

Special promotions like LINE FRIENDS DAY are another way JD.com is helping brands boost sales to its over 300 million customer base. Last November, JD held a special promotion around the release of the highly anticipated Justice League film’s release in China. The event included a promotion on JD.com and a cameo in a Justice League-themed micro movie by JD’s Joy mascot.

JD Announces AI Accelerator Program to Bring New Intelligent Technology Solutions to Market

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com, China’s largest retailer, is launching a global AI Accelerator program to spur the development and greater use of advanced artificial intelligence technologies.

The new accelerator will actively seek out AI startups and early stage companies, offering training and mentoring in research and development, production, management, financing, legal, marketing, and other areas. The company will also offer additional resources including, technical support, guidance and, in some cases, funding.

JD AI Accelerator launches with an initial roster of 16 companies based in China, the UK and the US, that have the potential to transform business processes and drive improvements not only for e-commerce, but for other industries as well. More are expected to join in the months ahead.

JD will provide a wide range of technical support to the companies in the accelerator, including APIs, algorithms and databases, to facilitate technology improvements. Access to JD.com’s rich application scenarios from several facets of its business, such as retail and logistics, will enable startups to considerably grow in scale. Four months into the program, JD AI Accelerator will hold a Demo Day, where it will invite top venture capitalists to help startups access their next rounds of financing. JD.com may also opt to invest in startups whose businesses are highly relevant to JD’s own.

“Technology underpins every aspect of our business,” said Bowen Zhou, Head of JD AI Platform & Research and Vice President of JD.com. “We are always looking for new technologies that can be used to intelligently automate our processes and shape the future of global commerce.”

Among the startup companies initially joining JD’s AI accelerator are Silicon Valley-based Leap.ai, which makes job-matching tools; London-based MediaGamma, which uses machine learning and data science to understand digital user behavior for better marketing; and Beijing-based FaGouGou, which offers AI-based legal consultancy services. Other participants are developing ways to use AI in areas such as retail, finance, medical and education.

“We are excited to have a chance to work with a company like JD, which is putting the world’s most advanced technologies to use in real world scenarios,” said Alex Liu, CEO of FaGouGou. “Having the support of an AI powerhouse like JD is going to make it possible for us to take our innovations to the next level.”

To apply to join JD AI Accelerator, please contact: jdai.investment@jd.com

JD’s Unmanned Store Goes International

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com has just introduced its unmanned store technology overseas for the first time. Importantly, the JD.ID X-Mart, newly opened in Jakarta, is the first of its kind in Indonesia. The AI-powered experience store offers an unprecedented level of convenience for customers in the country – they can simply pick up whatever they want and walk straight out of the store without getting slowed down by lines or payments.

Located in the popular PIK Avenue shopping mall, the 270-square meter state-of-the-art retail space is the largest store to leverage JD’s unmanned store technology to date. The JD.ID X-Mart in Jakarta offers an expanded product selection, including fashion and apparel, as well as FMCG and beauty products. This means that customers can even try on a pair of jeans in the fitting room and walk out of the store wearing them without having to visit a single checkout counter.

Since launching its first unmanned convenience store in its Beijing headquarters in October 2017, JD’s unmanned store technology has become increasingly sophisticated, expanding the range of goods that can be purchased. The unmanned stores leverage cutting-edge technologies, such as RFID, facial recognition, and image recognition, to track retail activity. Cameras placed throughout the space recognize customers’ movement and generate heat maps of the activity to monitor traffic flow, product selection and customer preferences to help optimize inventory, product displays and all facets of store management. JD’s recently upgraded unmanned store in its headquarters is now using advanced computer vision technology to track a range of shopping behaviors.

In the last year, JD has made a significant push in developing offline store technology as part of its boundaryless retail vision – the idea that consumers should be able to buy whatever they want, wherever and whenever they want it – online or offline. JD now operates over 20 unmanned stores across China. During its June 18 anniversary sales period this year, transaction volume for JD’s unmanned stores increased nearly 600% compared with the daily average.

The opening of the new store in Jakarta is key to JD’s Retail as a Service strategy – it is the first time that JD is empowering overseas markets with its unmanned store technology. It also marks a new milestone for JD’s growth in Indonesia after launching its online shopping platform in the country in March 2016. Now, the e-commerce platform is selling more than 350,000 SKUs and serving 20 million consumers nationwide. It is supported by nine warehouses across seven islands of the archipelago covering 483 cities and 6,500 counties. With the plan to build more warehouses, JD is expecting 85% of orders to be delivered the same or next day.

Karen Murrell-JD.com Partnership Brings New Zealand Glamor to China

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

Chinese consumers shopping on JD Worldwide can now enjoy top-quality lipstick made with natural ingredients thanks to a new partnership announced this week between China’s largest retailer, JD.com, and New Zealand’s top selling lipstick brand, Karen Murrell.

Karen Murrell promises its customers organic, environmentally-friendly cosmetics with a premium user experience. The company guarantees its products are never tested on animals, and are made using only the finest natural ingredients, including avocado oil, evening primrose oil, candelilla, carnauba wax, cinnamon, and sweet orange. The brand’s use of natural ingredients provides lips with moisturization and nourishment with every application, unlike other lipsticks brands, which can cause drying and discoloration after long-term use.

JD will leverage its capabilities to help Karen Murrell further its development in the Chinese market, which has long been the focus of the company’s overseas expansion strategy. The partnership will include several SKUs available via direct sales and the opening an online flagship store, both on the company’s cross-border e-commerce platform, JD Worldwide.

JD.com, and New Zealand’s top selling lipstick brand, Karen Murrell.

The flagship store will allow Karen Murrell to increase its brand awareness and introduce new products to the Chinese market, while its main line of lipstick products will enjoy the full force of JD’s capabilities in logistics and market reach. The two companies will work together on marketing and advertising, while ensuring that inventory is adjusted to meet the rapidly rising demand among Chinese consumers for Karen Murrell’s uniquely sustainable cosmetic goods.

Lipstick sales in China almost doubled last year, outstripping growth in other categories of the fast-growing cosmetics industry, including eye and facial makeup. Sales of lipstick on JD’s online platform have also surged, growing 187% year-on-year during the company’s recent June 18 annual sales anniversary period.

“We are delighted to welcome Karen Murrell to JD Worldwide’s growing selection of top brand international cosmetic goods,” said Ye Yang, General Manager of JD Worldwide. “Karen Murrell’s natural lipstick is free from coal tar, carmine, mineral oils, triclosan, and parabens, ensuring that the JD brand remains a guarantee of both safety and quality in the eyes of our users. With growing concern among Chinese consumers about the environmental impact of their purchases, Karen Murrell’s proven commitment to sustainability makes them a perfect partner for us to meet this rising demand for green products.”

“The Chinese market is a top priority for us right now,” said Karen Murrell, CEO of Karen Murrell Enterprises. “JD’s capabilities, from marketing to logistics, give us a huge advantage in reaching Chinese consumers with our products. With sustainability and natural sourcing at the heart of our brand, we’re thrilled to partner with a company who shares our commitment.”

JD has been actively introducing more sustainable products on its platform to reflect the increasingly discerning preferences of Chinese consumers. In 2017, the total volume of green products available on JD increased by more than half (54.5%). The total volume of green purchases made on JD increased by 71%, contributing to 15.1% of total sales on the platform during the same period.