JD Supermarket Takes China Market Lead Less Than Two Years After Launch

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As JD Supermarket prepares to celebrate its anniversary on September 9, there is much to celebrate. In the second quarter of 2017, JD Supermarket seized the overall market lead in sales volume for supermarkets in China, online or offline.

At the beginning of the year, JD Supermarket announced its goal to help 10 brands surpass RMB one billion in GMV during 2017– and we are well on track! Seven brands on JD Supermarket including P&G, Merries, Wyeth and Danone have already surpassed RMB one billion for the year, and more than 100 brands have surpassed RMB 100 million.

And for 2018, we have set even higher goals: we want 500 brands to surpass RMB 100 million in GMV during the year.

JD’s growth with women consumers is a major contributing factor for JD Supermarket’s success. During the last 12 months, the number of women consumers on JD Supermarket has more than doubled, driving sales in the personal care and beauty categories, including female hygiene products, perfume and make-up products and baby and maternal products, such as diapers and milk powder.

JD’s strengths in supply chain, logistics and marketing is helping lower costs and drive sales for brands. Over 4,000 products from leading brands were launched on JD Supermarket in the first half year of 2017. The inroads that JD has been able to make into categories that have historically sold primarily offline are clear. Rice and cooking oil, for example, have increased sales by 80% in the last 12 months, due in large part to the added convenience that our superior logistics solutions afford consumers. Heavier products, such as beverages, have similarly shown a clear trend toward JD’s online channel, with sales increasing more than 60%.

Below is a range of key data from JD Supermarket:

Below is a range of key data from JD Supermarket:

Bridging the Islands: The New Era of Online Brand Building

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The internet has forever changed the way people shop, transforming the retail industry and forcing retailers to rethink how they engage with customers. And while the Internet is a powerful marketing tool without precedent, the often bewildering range of factors influencing e-commerce behavior makes it difficult for brands to engage meaningfully with consumers.

One of the biggest challenges in engaging with customers online has been the emergence of “data islands” – that is to say, data about customer behavior that is confined to only one app or platform. “Data islands” effectively prevent companies from tracing user behavior across different platforms and screens – and with only a limited picture of user behavior, brands often struggle to convert customer engagement into sales.

This problem can best be resolved through greater cooperation between companies in terms of data sharing, cross-platform integration and leveraging emerging technologies such as AI and big data. Only by mapping out user behavior across a range of “data islands” can companies achieve precision marketing – leading to better customer engagement & loyalty and higher sales conversion rates.

In order to better support brands’ online marketing – and to help overcome the “data island” bottleneck – JD.com has recently joined forces with Baidu and Qihoo, building upon our partnerships with Tencent and Toutiao, China’s largest news aggregator app. The combination of these partnerships gives JD the most complete data set of user habits of anyone in China’s Internet space – allowing us to precisely match products to users’ needs and preferences. For example, a user searching on Baidu for baby-related topics could be guided to advertisements from JD.com that offer related products; and users of Toutiao interested in cuisine may be served advertisements from JD.com for the items needed to make a recipe they have recently viewed. And as our data has clearly shown, customers that receive advertisements tailored to their personal interests enjoy a richer e-commerce experience, with a higher likelihood of making purchases.

JD Kepler in 2016 to help users fulfill their specific shopping needs directly within our partners’ apps while enjoying the full range of JD.com’s service offerings.

Working together with our partners, our powerful cross-platform big data resources, huge user bases and AI technology also allow JD to offer third party merchants powerful programmatic advertising solutions. Leveraging JD’s innovative bidding system LADDER which we leverage in our partnerships, merchants are able to maximize advertising ROI with targeted ad placements on the full range of our partners’ platforms. During our most recent June 18 shopping festival, our bidding system helped increase advertising revenue by more than 50%, with ROI up by as much as 17%. As we enhance our AI-driven advertising algorithms, we expect these figures to grow.

With the rise of the mobile internet, we have increasingly seen the need for online shopping solutions that are scenario-sensitive. For example, if a user spends significant time on a cooking app, chances are they will be interested in purchasing food items or kitchen appliances. Or if you are a frequent user of a running app it is likely you will be receptive to ads for the latest sneakers. However, until now there has not been a convenient way for apps to bring their users targeted e-commerce solutions.

To overcome this hurdle, we established JD Kepler in 2016 to help users fulfill their specific shopping needs directly within our partners’ apps while enjoying the full range of JD.com’s service offerings. Bringing together the full suite of JD.com’s offerings including products, supply chain & logistics services, IT and big data to third parties and partners, JD Kepler has established partnerships with over 160 of China’s most innovative tech companies across key internet verticals such as shopping, search, news aggregation, telecom, security and hardware. Whether providing “first-level entry points” for purchasing JD products in popular apps like Mobile Baidu, or supplying full e-commerce solutions, such as  China Telecom’s customer-loyalty online purchase program, JD Kepler allows companies to leverage the full strength of the JD platform to benefit their users.

The internet has brought the retail industry into the modern age. Today, it is imperative for brands to incorporate big data and artificial intelligence into their e-commerce strategies and work with partners across a range of platforms. At the same time, new technologies are changing the way JD.com does business, including the adoption of delivery drones to connect with rural areas; the introduction of robotics in our warehouses; and use of advanced AI to better predict product demand.  As these technologies and platforms increasingly merge together, JD will continue to push the boundaries of the online shopping experience, challenging imaginations & driving value for both consumers and brands.

JD.com Announces Series of New Agreements for Drone Development

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Efforts lay out roadmap for JD’s national drone network, including urban testing

JD and Shaanxi government to host international UAV contest in spring

E-commerce giant JD.com, China’s largest retailer, has announced a series of new agreements with aviation companies, Northwestern Polytechnical University and local authorities in Shaanxi Province, laying the groundwork for the rollout of China’s largest and most advanced drone network.

JD will partner with Northwestern Polytechnical University to continue its development of logistics drones, including the planned heavy-load drones that will be able to carry over a ton. Northwest Polytechnical University is host to China’s top UAV Research and Development Base, making it an ideal partner. JD will invest in related studies and talent development with the university, while both parties will cooperate to develop, manufacture and test industrial-level drones.

JD will partner with Northwestern Polytechnical University to continue its development of logistics drones, including the planned heavy-load drones that will be able to carry over a ton. JD will partner with Northwestern Polytechnical University to continue its development of logistics drones, including the planned heavy-load drones that will be able to carry over a ton.

Separately, JD entered a strategic partnership with Guangdong Longhao Aviation Group, one of China’s leading service providers for a wide range of aviation needs, including airport construction, flight training and low altitude flight expertise. The two companies will build big data-powered logistics platforms that will manage JD’s drone network, the largest in China. The companies will cooperate on dispatching drones, air space control, flight route planning and other supervisory functions. The companies expect the infrastructure to be online and ready for use in Shaanxi by 2020, at which point they will adapt the system for nationwide use.

JD also reached an agreement with China West Airport Group, the second largest trans-provincial large-scale airport management group in the country. As part of the agreement, JD.com will leverage China West Airport Group’s airport network to build its drone logistics network across central China.

Meanwhile, JD signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the municipal government of Hangcheng, in Shaanxi Province, to set up the first urban drone delivery platform in the world. JD will explore the model and plans to test city drone delivery in Hancheng to evaluate its viability. Additionally, the company will also test its automated delivery vehicle and logistics facilities to build Hancheng City into a model city for smart logistics.

The company also reached an agreement with Linyou County, for the construction of a general aviation system serving the entire county, powered by JD’s smart logistics technology. New logistics capabilities will advance Linyou’s agricultural industry by modernizing the transport of agricultural products using drones.

“These agreements mark a significant step forward in the execution of our plan to build one of the largest and most advanced drone networks in the world,” said Zhenhui Wang, CEO of JD.com’s logistics business group, JD Logistics. “JD’s technology will help advance logistics infrastructure in China, paving the way for industrial development across the country well beyond e-commerce.”

As China’s largest retailer, JD.com operates the largest nationwide in-house delivery network in the country. JD has surpassed 92% of items it sells being delivered on the same or next-day as the orders are placed.

With more than 60 delivery routes nationwide, JD is the first e-commerce company in the world to put delivery drones to commercial use. As the company expands the capabilities of JD Logistics, it will continue making its technology infrastructure and services available to non-e-commerce shippers.

JD.com and the Shaanxi Provincial Government will also launch the China International UAV Contest for competitors from worldwide institutions, universities, enterprises, groups and individuals with prizes of up to hundreds of millions of RMB.

JD.com and Qihoo 360 Team Up on Integrated, Data-driven Advertising Partnership

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Qihoo 360 becomes the latest internet giant to support JD’s integrated e-commerce efforts, following Tencent, Baidu and Toutiao

China’s largest retailer, JD.com, is teaming up with the country’s leading internet security provider, Qihoo 360, to roll out precision marketing initiatives across Qihoo 360’s suite of products. As part of the partnership, consumers will be able to make purchases from JD directly within Qihoo 360 apps without ever having to leave, creating a highly-integrated user-friendly experience.

Qihoo 360 and JD.com will cooperate to integrate precision marketing and shopping into a wide range of Qihoo’s products, including:

●   360 Mobile Security, its hugely popular mobile phone security app

●   360 Secure Browser, one of China’s most popular browsers used by more than 400 million people every month

●   360 Search(so.com), the popular search engine with a range of hardware products including 360 phone, drive recorder and  smart watches, among many others

By applying big data analytics to Qihoo 360’s vast data sets, as well as combining its own unique and highly-specialized insights on consumer behavior, JD will offer Qihoo 360 users a highly-tailored and personalized experience across the Qihoo 360 ecosystem.

Qihoo 360 and JD.com will cooperate to integrate precision marketing and shopping into a wide range of Qihoo’s products,

Users of Qihoo 360’s mobile security app will also benefit from a first-level entry point to the JD e-commerce platform from within the Qihoo 360 mobile app. This means that they can buy items on JD within the Qihoo 360 environment, making the shopping experience much easier and more convenient. Content creators on Qihoo’s platforms will also be able to embed product links to JD.com within their own content, making it easier for their audiences to find and buy recommended products, shortening the path for consumers to make their final purchases.

The cooperation extends JD.com’s leadership in offering brands unrivalled insights to help retailers reach the right target consumers quickly and effectively, providing outstanding ROI.

The partnership with Qihoo 360 follows the announcement of similar partnerships with Baidu, China’s most popular internet search provider, and Toutiao, the most popular social content recommendation platform. Alongside its long-running strategic partnership with Tencent, including marketing initiatives on Tencent’s wildly popular social messaging platform WeChat, JD’s big data capabilities now offer by far the most nuanced and sophisticated understanding of the Chinese consumer of any company in the market.

JD’s integrated marketing solutions now enable it to seamlessly target consumers where they spend their time on the internet, be it social, search, maps, news or security. The strategy enables brands to sell products to consumers based on their interests and demographics, even during parts of the day when they do not explicitly begin their internet experience with a shopping intention.

JD.com and Baidu Partner on Data-Powered Precision Advertising and Marketing

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E-commerce giant JD.com, China’s largest retailer, and Baidu, China’s leading internet search provider, today launched a strategic partnership leveraging both companies’ powerful big data resources, huge user bases and AI algorithm technology to give consumers and advertisers a more tailored and rewarding e-commerce experience.

As part of the partnership, Mobile Baidu, the company’s flagship mobile search app, is providing JD “first-level” access points to the hundreds of millions of mobile users in China who use Baidu to connect with the information and services they need, from its core search platform and suite of products ranging from mapping, music and video, to its popular chatroom platform Baidu PostBar (Tieba). The access points allow users to make purchases of JD products without ever needing to leave the Baidu apps, providing consumers a seamlessly integrated user experience.

E-commerce giant JD.com, China’s largest retailer, and Baidu, China’s leading internet search provider, today launched a strategic partnership leveraging both companies’

Using the companies’ data and sophisticated AI algorithm technology, Baidu and JD are developing cost-effective marketing opportunities that will increase conversion rates. A key focus will be enabling content partners to embed products from JD.com directly in their own content distributed on Baidu platforms, enabling readers to purchase items immediately from JD within the Baidu apps.

JD’s industry-leading insights on consumer behavior, combined with the reach of Baidu will help the companies effectively target consumers better than ever before. The partnership creates a powerful engine for brands and retailers to better understand their target markets.

As Baidu continues to strengthen its mobile foundation and leadership in AI, the company is looking to open multiple core AI capabilities and explore new applications for the technology to create more value. The partnership with JD.com is a major step forward in applying Baidu’s excellent big data and AI capabilities to practical business use cases.

JD has been at the forefront of integrating e-commerce into apps from leading internet players. The company’s entry point in Tencent’s WeChat has proven to be the global industry standard for combining mobile chat and e-commerce. Since that cooperation began, JD has launched additional partnerships with a number of leading Chinese internet players to provide brands precision marketing solutions.

JD.com Provides Glimpse Into the Future of Retail with Expansion of Offline Experience Shops

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JD.com, China’s largest retailer, is expanding its offline reach in China.

The company, which rose quickly to become China’s largest retailer, online or offline, through its e-commerce business, is looking to leverage the advantages of an offline experience to further expand its lead. It is rolling out offline “JD Retail Experience Shops”, where customers can touch and feel products ranging from digital and home appliance products, to books, JD’s DingDong smart speaker and baby and maternal products, all of which are sourced from JD.com. The selection is focused on products that consumers often like to feel and test in person before buying, and tailored on a store-by-store basis using the big data that we have from each neighborhood’s shopping habits.

Using a franchise model with centralized oversight and quality control, the shops will be powered by JD’s cutting-edge retail technology for demand planning, inventory management and targeted marketing, making the storefronts more efficient and adaptable to market changes than any traditional retail business.

The shops provide a glimpse into the way e-commerce will change the future of retail. JD is working together with service partners to adapt their supply chains to increasing demand from customers for better and faster service.

One of the biggest pain points for retail in today’s fast-moving consumer culture is inventory management. Unlike e-commerce companies, brick-and-mortar retailers have to keep many physical storefronts stocked with products, leading to inventory bloat when they overestimate demand, and lost business when they underestimate it. JD’s technology, powered by predictive analytics using big data, will keep offline stores stocked with recommended categories and suggested amounts of products, while localizing the selection depending on consumer buying preferences in each location.

“JD spent over a decade building out the logistics infrastructure for China’s largest retail operation out of necessity,” said Shengli Hu, President of JD Electronics. “Today, we are the only large-scale e-commerce company in the world that can deliver more than 92% of orders same or next-day. And after honing all of our processes with the most advanced technology, from procurement to transportation, quality control and more, we are putting that technology at the forefront of a new revolution in retail.”

So far, there are 92 JD Retail Experience Shops with nearly 15,000 SKUs that are stocked and replenished using JD’s smart supply chain management systems. The number will increase to 300 by end of this year. JD Retail Experience Shops, some of which feature children’s play areas and massage areas for the elderly, are built as 200 square-meter spaces within stores operated by JD’s service partners. In Changping, a Beijing suburb, one JD Retail Experience Shop generated 1,096 orders worth RMB 1.23 million on its opening day.

“By expanding our offline business, and eventually, offering retail-as-a-service to other companies, we believe we can make shopping both online and offline better for both service partners and consumers,” Mr. Hu said. “Our technology can be a solution throughout the retail industry, and beyond.”

Walmart-JD Omni-Channel Shopping Festival Sets Sales Records

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Walmart and JD.com’s ongoing cooperation in areas including reaching more customers, inventory management and logistics efficiency has notched a major success with the conclusion of the Walmart-JD Omni-Channel Shopping Festival. The day’s combined transaction volume for Walmart’s e-commerce channels on JD.com increased 13 times compared with the previous 24-hour sales record, and Walmart physical stores also experienced a significant increase in traffic. The strong performance during the shopping festival underscored the synergies the companies have achieved through cross marketing over the last year.

The Walmart-JD Omni-Channel Shopping Festival is the most recent collaboration in the increasingly close partnership between the two companies.

The Walmart-JD Omni-Channel Shopping Festival is the most recent collaboration in the increasingly close partnership between the two companies. Through the ongoing integration of the two companies’ customer bases, platforms, and inventories, Walmart has extended its reach to the 99% of China’s population covered by JD’s industry-leading delivery network. JD, meanwhile, is now able to offer its user base of over 236.5 million consumers access to a vast selection of high-quality international products from Walmart and its subsidiaries Sam’s Club and ASDA.

Other key takeaways from the festival include:

●   Female shoppers are driving growth

Female consumers accounted for more than half of all shoppers, underscoring JD’s continued progress in the key demographic for the company as it further expands in categories traditionally stronger with women. During the festival, the most popular brands among women shoppers included Pampers, Jinlongyu, Great Value, Lego, and Nestle. The most popular products among women included diapers, cooking oil, shampoo, beer and toys.

●   Imported products on JD continue gaining steam 

The average basket size across JD.com’s Walmart Flagship Store, Walmart Global Shop Flagship Store and ASDA Global Shop Flagship Store were double the average from July.  During the shopping festival, US toys, Australian healthcare products, British foods, Korean facial masks and Japanese diapers proved to be the most popular items. Further, the Walmart Global Shop Flagship store on JD Worldwide had live AR broadcasting, which reached an audience of nearly one million people on August 8th.

●   Omni-channel approach attracting new customers

From July 20 to August 8, more than half of first-time shoppers on Walmart’s various flagship stores on JD.com came to the site by scanning in-store QR codes, underscoring the benefits of the omni-channel strategy.

●   Inventory integration has potential to boost efficiency

The pilot integration of JD and Walmart’s inventories in Shenzhen helped to reduce average order delivery time by three hours, greatly increasing fulfillment efficiency.

●   JD Daojia is bringing a new level of convenience to Walmart shoppers

On August 8, total orders of Walmart products through JD’s crowd-sourced delivery joint venture, JD Daojia, were triple the average daily order volume in July. The fastest delivery was completed in 15 minutes.

Baby Lifestyle Brand Munchkin Launches Cross-Border Flagship Store on JD.com

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Munchkin, an established international baby lifestyle brand for over 25 years, recently expanded its partnership with JD.com with the launch of a new flagship store on its cross-border platform JD Worldwide. The move adds a range of product offerings to customers in China. This is not only great news for babies, children and parents across China, but also marks another important step in the JD’s growing cooperation with top US brands.

Munchkin develops innovative, modern and high-quality products for babies and children that make parents’ lives easier and more enjoyable by thinking of “the little things.”  Passionate, creative and focused on producing only the best and most trusted products, Munchkin, on average, is currently awarded more than one patent per month. The company now holds more than 182 patents across their product portfolio.

Parents looking for the safest, most enjoyable and best designed feeding products, toiletries, toys and accessories for the smallest members of a young family can find an incredible assortment of products on the JD Munchkin store. Some examples include:

●    A full array of baby dinnerware, with features that parents trust to keep their kids safe such as White Hot Infant Spoons that turn white when a baby’s food is too hot (approximately 43.3 degrees C and above), or a set of Love-a-Bowls, 100% guaranteed to be spill-proof, leak-proof, and break-proof.

●    Bibs, because things can be a little messy at meal times. Munchkin’s disposable bibs with a leak-proof liner and front pocket keep food and spills off the baby; perfect for at home or outside.

●    And for the toddlers learning to hold their own at the table, there’s the award-winning Miracle 360 Degree Training Cup with a dentist-recommended spoutless design and 360° edge that allows drinking from any side of the cup. The cup also automatically seals when children stop drinking; completely eliminating spills!

JD’s cross-border channel has been the site of choice for upwardly mobile Chinese mothers, with sales of baby and maternal products increasing nearly 300% year-over-year during JD.com’s most recent June 18 anniversary sale.  The growth of high-quality products for babies and children on JD.com comes at the perfect time. New government policies promoting larger families, combined with the recent memory of poor-quality, or even harmful, products for young children, mean that more families are paying close attention and are actively searching for only the best and most trusted brands for their kids.

 

“Munchkin was created by parents for parents,” said Steven Dunn, CEO of Munchkin. “We developed an outstanding portfolio of baby lifestyle products because we know that it’s the little things that make a big difference for little ones, and the parents that love and care for them. Munchkin is so pleased to partner with JD Worldwide in China because it is the most trusted e-commerce platform parents look to when shopping for their kids. We look forward to growing with JD Worldwide and millions of families in China for generations to come.”

“Our customers, especially parents, look for quality, and the Munchkin brand is synonymous with products kids love and parents trust,” said Kaisi Li, Deputy General Manager of JD Worldwide. “Our customers are highly sophisticated and know exactly what quality children’s products mean, and we are proud to help them shop for their family members worry-free.”

Munchkin is more than a collection of superior products for babies and young children, it is also a caring company with a conscience. One of its social responsibility programs, Get a Pail, Give a Tree, promises that for every Diaper Pail sold by Munchkin, the company will plant one tree to offset carbon emissions. JD.com, which recently launched an initiative to make it easier for customers to recycle delivery boxes, is proud to work with companies that share its values.