by Doris Liu

JD Accompany Plan, JD.com’s parenting ecosystem integrating shopping with services and education, released the 2022 Maternal, Baby and Parenting Industry Refined User Operations Insight Report recently to interpret refined user operation by baby’s month age as well as revealing in-depth insights, operation practices and trends of the industry.

Consumers of the maternity and baby industry show characteristics of fast iteration and short consumption life cycle, forcing brands to review and strengthen their ability in refined operation based on a deeper understanding of customers.

 According to the report, 31.2 percent of parents of babies under 1 year old believe that since the children are too young to clearly express their needs, they can only guess the product suitability by trying different products for the babies. In addition, 38.2 percent of parents of children between 7 to 12 years old think that their children have personal preferences and self-awareness. The inconsistency between shoppers and actual users makes it hard to match needs, and the fast growth of babies also sets a challenge for families to match products in time. The report says 26.4 percent of parents of babies aged 4-6 months show the most shopping anxiety as they almost have no idea what to buy.

Refined user operation by baby’s month age is urgently needed. In order to upgrade the solutions accordingly, JD Accompany Plan launched specific parenting columns for 0-6 months, 7-12 months, 1-3 years old, 3-6 years old and above to segment parents’ needs in knowledge, products and services. In addition, the plan optimizes the shopping efficiency through recommending more relevant products to different groups of consumers.

The plan’s registered members can also receive special discounts, samples, health services and more to help parents reduce the cost of raising children, and the 30 million members under the plan have achieved an active participation of more than 88 percent with average revenue per user (ARPU) three times higher than non-members.

Benefiting from the plan, brands can adjust traffic in a dynamic manner and receive suggestions from JD.com for sustainable growth and refined operation. For example, a baby skin care brand collaborated with JD Accompany Plan for its new product launch. As a result, the new customers brought in by the plan accounted for 90 percent of the brand’s total newly joined customers, with a conversion rate of 25 percent and a transaction volume of RMB 502,000 yuan on a monthly basis.

Launched in 2016, JD Accompany Plan has accumulated extensive experience in precise marketing and user operation, with a belief of “growing up with consumers and creating value for brands.” The new approach of managing consumers based on each baby’s month age will help JD explore the main market of family consumption in the long run.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

by Yiming Yan

In its unaudited financial results for the second quarter of 2022, JD.com reported a record net service revenue of US$6.2 billion, up 21.9 percent year over year (YOY). The J Shop had experienced impressive growth in the second quarter, as part of JD’s upgrading of its Fashion and Lifestyle business.

Q2 coincided with two major promotions, the 520 Festival (Chinese Valentine’s Day) and the 618 Grand Promotion, during which The J Shop also saw a concentrated soaring sales after the upgrade.

In this year’s 618 Grand Promotion, the number of participating merchants in The J shop surged by more than 50 percent YoY, and there were up to twice as many products available. The sales of 9707 brands and 531 J-shop categories had 100 percent year-over-year growth during the 618 Grand Promotion, while the sales of its omni-channel business saw an 83 percent year-over-year growth.

In addition, The J shop also saw a flurry of international brands on board during the quarter, including CELINE, Maison Margiela, Maison Kitsuné, Moose Knuckles, etc., while almost 300 premium brands launched official flagship stores with The J Shop. The array of cosmetic brands in The J Shop has been enhanced by the opening of official flagship stores such as LA MER, ARMANI, Jo Malone London, Shiseido, M.A.C., and so on.

Faced with sporadic COVID shutdowns during the quarter, The J Shop has played to its strengths to help merchants overcome supply chain challenges and support the industry’s high-quality growth, by using digital technology to help merchants shorten production cycle time and ease inventory strain. In order to assist the brands in clearing out their inventory during the 618 Grand Promotion, The J Shop offered a sell-out rate of over 90 percent for clearance items from brands including HLA.

In May of this year, in order to further strengthen the omni-channel layout, JD Fashion and Lifestyle business was officially upgraded to The J Shop by launching a new online channel on the JD app and opening offline physical stores in Xi’an, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Beijing and other cities. The J Shop integrates JD’s digital intelligence supply chain advantages and omni-channel capabilities to improve user experiences. Online orders for store delivery can be made in as fast as one hour.

 

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

by Mengyang He

On August 23, JD.com released its unaudited financial results for the three and six month periods ending June 30, 2022, showing a continued build-up in its omni-channel business.

According to the results, JD Super, JD.com’s omni-channel supermarket, collaborated with more than 27,000 brands and over 34,000 brick-and-mortar stores through JD’s “one-hour delivery” service during the 618 Grand Promotion this year, and provided consumers with on-demand shopping options in nearly 400 cities across China.

Additionally, more than 30,000 partner stores saw increases in transaction volume of over 500 percent YOY. In particular, the omni-channel businesses of retail chains including Walmart, China Resources Vanguard (CR Vanguard), and Yonghui increased transaction volume by over 660 percent YOY.

“Our omni-channel business maintained healthy momentum in Q2, and our intra-city retail business continued to deliver triple-digit year-on-year growth. JD is driving the retail industry’s optimization in cost, efficiency and user experience,” said Lei Xu, CEO of JD.com in the earnings conference call. “With our existing core capabilities, JD will further explore new business models, improve technologies, and expand in omni-channel.”

As of now, JD.com has opened a variety of physical stores with the omni-channel retail model, such as JD Mall, E-Space, JD Home Appliance Store, JD Pharmacy, SEVEN FRESH Supermarket, JD Convenience Store, JD Auto Service, and more, further enriching shopping experiences for its over 580 million customers.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

by Doris Liu

JD PLUS, a premium membership program offered by JD.com, saw a record high growth rate, with the number of members growing from 25 million at the end of 2021 to over 30 million by July this year, continuing to be among the largest paid membership programs in the industry.

As the first program of its kind in China’s e-commerce sector, JD PLUS joined hands with more than 1,200 well-known brands to create a full-scenario ecosystem covering both online and offline businesses, becoming an entry way to the good life for consumers, said Chen Lin, vice president of JD.com and head of platform business for JD Retail.

The rapid growth of JD PLUS indicates a positive win-win-win for consumers, brands and JD.com. The participation of more and more brands stimulates the offering of membership benefits, which further attracts more customers to take part, thus driving the high-quality growth of both JD.com and brand merchants, as well as creating value for the platform’s refined user operations.

1. Robust and Sustained Momentum for JD’s Growth

According to JD’s data, the JD PLUS program has demonstrated its members’ characteristics of high consumption, high activity and high loyalty. For instance, the consumption amount and frequency of the newly joined JD PLUS members rose more than 150 percent and 120 percent respectively in the first year of the membership. Meanwhile, such members were more inclined to try new products across more categories.

JD PLUS members lead high-end consumption, accounting for nearly 50 percent of the total new product sales during this year’s 618 Grand Promotion. On Samsung PLUS Member Day in March this year, the members also showed an obvious preference for high-end products and new launches, with the transaction amount reaching 50-90 percent in most of the single products priced above RMB 5,000 yuan.

Furthermore, the members are more willing to proactively participate in JD’s business with a higher level of activity in JD Health, JD Fresh and more. Lin believes that the membership program has become a sustained momentum for JD’s high-quality development.

2. One-stop Solution for Better Life

About 80 percent of JD PLUS members are family-oriented users, meaning that daily necessities are crucial for their shopping. So far, delivery vouchers offered by JD PLUS program have helped save nearly RMB 1.8 billion yuan in shipping costs; co-branded bank cards have saved RMB 1.18 billion yuan; and the 24-hour “exclusive customer service for PLUS members” has been provided for more than 30 million times. A JD PLUS member in Shanghai had saved RMB 300,000 yuan during this year’s 618 promotion.

The average number of online benefits available for JD PLUS members every day exceeds 130, which has become the largest number in terms of paid membership programs in the industry.

“Saving money is not the only purpose,” Lin said. “Our original intention is to let more people enjoy a high-quality life conveniently.” JD continues to expand new industries, new benefits and new cards through opening up benefits internally with the broader external ecosystem, so that JD PLUS members get exclusive benefits and services as well as full-scenario benefits.

3. Certain Growth for Partners amid Uncertainties

“Affected by the uncertain market environment, major brands are no longer simply pursuing traffic growth, but focusing more on the refined operation of users,” noted Chunhui Meng, general manager of JD PLUS. As the largest membership system with the highest stickiness in the industry, JD PLUS supports both JD’s high-quality development and growth with external partners, Meng said.

To date, 1,200 established brands including P&G, Dyson, Apple, McDonald’s and KFC, among others, have collaborated with JD PLUS to offer high-value services. Earlier this year, the system also opened to third-party merchants for the first time, so that the merchants can now access PLUS marketing tools with traffic support to select products based on the “PLUS Preference Index”, set special prices for PLUS members and accurately reach target consumers.

JD PLUS was first introduced in 2015, and officially came online in March 2016. From the perspective of brands and merchants, JD PLUS helps achieve higher return-on-investment results, and will leverage JD’s capabilities in digital intelligence and supply chain to explore more needs under different consumption scenarios, said Meng, who is confident that JD PLUS will continue to bring more value to partners and customers.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)