by Tong Shen

During this year’s JD Chinese New Year Grand Promotion, total 34 days from December 26 to January 28, consumers are displaying strong preferences for gifts that demonstrate care for their loved ones and more, all while prioritizing a more “practical” approach to shopping, according to a report based on sales figures and relevant surveys conducted during the first two weeks of the Promotion.

This year, the promotion covers a wide range of products and empowers merchants with more efficient traffic, more effective marketing, and simpler ways to participate, uniting more brands and merchants to bring consumers a one-stop shopping experience with attractive discounts.

The report captured various trends:

• Festive atmosphere

According to the survey, most consumers are highly focused on the pursuit of creating a festive atmosphere this year: 82.2 percent of consumers said they would purchase traditional food and specialties, while 59.9 percent of consumers said they were willing to buy festive decorations such as CNY couplets, traditional paintings, paper cuttings and other products.

• Care products

Over 70 percent of consumers said they would buy products that demonstrate care for their parents, such as nutritional products, wine and pastries; while 27.7 percent of consumers said they would buy products for children such as educational books. Care has become a hot topic of consumption, and 33.2 percent of consumers said they would focus more on age-friendly and healthcare products this year.

It is worth noting that 14.9 percent of consumers expressed their willingness to buy smart home devices during CNY promotion, such as sweeping robots and other products, which reflects consumers’ demand for upgrading quality of life for family.

• “Rational consumption”

Nearly 80 percent of consumers are demonstrating more rational shopping behavior this year. In addition, 78.7 percent of consumers said that this year they tend to shop within their means; while 36.6 percent of consumers said they will give priority to cost and practicality; and 28.2 percent of consumers said that beyond price they will also consider quality, service, and after-sales terms.

It is worth noting that 12.4 percent of consumers said they would follow the new trends emerging in big cities, such as smarter, more environmentally friendly products with more segmented demand, which to a certain extent is driving the popular products in first-tier cities to enter the lower-tier markets.

• New consumption trends driven by JD

Hourly Purchase

According to the sales figures of JD Shop Now, JD’s on-demand retail business that offers delivery within one-hour, from December 29 to January 4, sales increased by nearly 70 percent YoY. Compared to the previous month, dried meat gift boxes, cookie gift boxes, baijiu gift boxes, and low-temperature cooked food gift boxes increased by 10 times; while pickled and preserved food gift boxes, dried fruits and nuts gift boxes, and fruit gift boxes increased by 8 times.

Ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat

Statistics show that both ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat meals have been selling well during the CNY promotion. Sales of Chinese delicatessen items have increased 450 percent, and Western delicatessen products have increased 400 percent, frozen semi-finished meals have increased 200 percent, and fresh-cut vegetables have increased 50% YoY.

 

(press@jd.com)

 

by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com was selected by INFORMS as a finalist for the 52nd annual Franz Edelman Awards, the world’s most prestigious honor for achievements in analytics and operations research (O.R.). The company has been recognized for its advanced research and application of a responsible supply chain that facilitates JD to achieve three levels of superior performances, including daily operational excellence, resiliency under disruption and value creation for the ecosystem, according to a press release by INFORMS on January 17.

COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the retail industry, causing supply chain disruptions to different parties within the ecosystem. JD-Y, JD.com’s smart supply chain research body, developed a collaborative and holistic supply chain solution to mitigate the disruptions.

From the retailers’ end, based on AI deep learning, JD-Y’s “End-to-end Optimization” offers an optimal automated replenishment plan that provides almost certain forecasts even under uncertain conditions. It leverages enormous historical data, deep learning technology, inventory strategy and more, to enable better decision-making process and supply chain operations. Based on this end-to-end solution, JD.com has achieved an automated procurement rate of 85 percent, an online availability of 95 percent and 31.5-day turnover days while owning over 10 million SKUs.

From the consumers’ end, emergencies such as the pandemic can result in delayed fulfillment due to closure of roads, shortage in labor, skyrocketing order volume and more. JD-Y’s “Intelligent Risk Management System” can detect and identify the risks and disruptions even before they take place, rank their severity and coordinate the whole supply chain at the same time to allocate and ensure supplies catch up with demand and reach end-consumers effectively. This system helped JD.com rank No.2 on Fortune’s 2022 Change the World List for its efforts in delivering essential supplies during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in China.

From the manufacturers’ end, given the fact the chain is long and there are several intermediate links between the manufacturer and consumers, it is hard for manufacturers to accurately and quickly capture the demand. Additionally, the bull-whip effect usually increases the inventory cost. More efficient product development and operation are crucial especially during disruptions, because the resources and cash flow are more limited. JD-Y’s C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) solution helps manufacturers improve their overall efficiency, from product design, intelligent production planning, to inventory planning and sales strategies. It has been proved to enable manufacturers to reduce product launch time by 67 percent.

Named after Franz Edelman (who established one of the earliest industrial operations research and management science groups) shortly after his death in 1982, the award aims to recognize and reward global outstanding examples of operations research, management science, and advanced analytics in practice.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

Online bookstore Dangdang (dangdang.com) has launched an official flagship store on JD.com, the two parties announced on January 10. The collaboration is expected to help Dangdang gain more users, while offering both the parties’ customers diversified books at better prices.

A representative from JD Books said, “JD Books has been committed to expanding its sales scale and promoting the online book store business. The launch of Dangdang on JD will enrich our book businesses and benefit readers by building advantages in product offering and pricing.”

The partnership will also benefit Dangdang, its representative said. “Our partnership with JD Books strengthens Dangdang’s advantage in the integration of publishing resources and our capability in creating best-sellers. It further enhances our customer care ability and extend services, issue notifications, and provide full category books at competitive prices.”

Dangdang’s flagship store on JD.com will offer all categories of books available on dangdang.com, including exclusive offerings. JD and Dangdang will also cooperate in cracking down on pirated books to protect the IPRs. Inventory sharing, warehousing complementation, omni-channel fulfillment and other supply chain models will be explored to maximize operation efficiency and lower the costs.

In terms of marketing, JD Books will join hands with Dangdang to create innovative campaigns to attract readers, and will support Dangdang in operating to achieve better sales.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)