iPhone 14 on Sale through Omni-channel Retail of JD.com

Posted on by Doris Liu

by Doris Liu

Apple’s iPhone 14 is now available through JD.com’s omni-channel platforms, with the on-demand retail platforms of JD Daojia (JDDJ) and Shop Now selling over RMB 200 million yuan in the first six hours starting from 8am (BJT) on September 16.

One customer in Beijing, who placed an order on JDDJ, the only on-demand retail platform for Apple’s pre-sale in China, received iPhone 14 within only 10 minutes after sales officially began. There are now more than 2,600 authorized Apple franchise stores on JDDJ and Shop Now, covering some 1,700 Chinese counties and cities with almost 50 dealers.

Customers of the digital Apple flagship store on JD.com, one of the core retail channels to purchase smart phones in China, have access to many benefits that ensure the online shopping experience and services, including up to RMB 400 yuan subsidies for trade-ins, 90-day replacement without repair, and one-hour delivery.

The online store’s premium membership, A+, doubles the existing trade-in allowance to up to RMB 800 yuan, and upgrades services to 365-day replacement without repair, 50 percent off for the original screen/battery repair and more for purchasing the latest iPhone 14 series.

Physical stores including the recently opened Ehome in Beijing, an Apple Premium Reseller (APR) store operated by JD.com, and the largest JD MALL in Shenyang, Liaoning province, were also in full swing, welcoming consumers to see, touch and try products before making purchases, complementary to the existing online retailing business.

JD.com has been exploring and expanding its omni-channel layout across China to establish around-the-clock shopping experiences with premium services, which not only provide convenience to consumers, but are also conducive to the revival of the real economy.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

In Addition to 618 And Double 11, JD.com Inaugurates an Agricultural Sibling

Posted on by Mengyang He

by Mengyang He

Ahead of the “Chinese Farmers’ Harvest Festival” that falls on the autumnal equinox (one of 24 solar terms in the Chinese lunar calendar), JD.com inaugurated the Harvest Carnival and Shopping Festival of Agricultural Specialties on September 20 at China’s National Agriculture Exhibition Center in Beijing.

Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Retail noted, “The purpose of our festival is to help drive hundreds of millions of farmers to expand sales and improve their income, while offering high-quality agricultural products to JD’s nearly 600 million active users.”

Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Retail

During the shopping festival, JD has brought 300,000 agricultural products to consumers, among which 120,000 products are designated with the national geographical indications (GIs), covering 2,336 agricultural areas and industrial belts across China.

“JD.com’s Harvest Carnival and Shopping Festival of Agricultural Specialties presented today helps connect the smallholder farmers with the consumers,” noted Carlos Watson, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) Representative to China. “FAO China stands ready to spear-head the collaboration with China. We are now implementing our Country Programming Framework (CPF), with both an inward approach for its national agriculture development needs, and an outward approach in support of global food systems transformation and resilience.”

Carlos Watson, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UNFAO) Representative to China

Lizhen Liu, Vice President of JD.com and President of JD FMCG Omni-channel said, “JD will facilitate the development of agricultural products, and tackle some real issues for farmers, such as low brand awareness, imperfect quality control systems, and backward supply chain infrastructure. JD will leverage its own retail, logistics, technology, etc. to build the Harvest Carnival and Shopping Festival of Agricultural Specialties into a third nationwide shopping festival, in addition to the 618 and Singles’ Day Grand Promotions.”

In 2020, JD launched the “March to Rich Plan” (MRP) with a goal to drive an output value of RMB 1 trillion yuan in China’s rural areas over the following three years and facilitate rural revitalization.

As of now, JD’s MRP has connected with more than 1,000 agricultural specialties and industrial belts across China, and a number of “MRP Villages” have been built. By the end of this August, JD had driven the rural output value to exceed RMB 620 billion yuan, helping millions of farmers increase their income. Liu added, “The goal for JD’s MRP is likely to be achieved ahead of schedule.”

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

JD.com Ranks in BCG’s Most Innovative Companies 2022

Posted on by Yuchuan Wang

by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com has been recognized for the second time as one of the most innovative companies in the world by Boston Consulting Group (BCG) in its 50 Most Innovative Companies of 2022 list released on September 15, ranking at 30th place.

The ranking is based in large part on a survey of more than 1,500 global innovation executives, with a combination of the company’s performance on four dimensions including global mindshare, industry peer view, industry disruption and value creation. Six other Chinese companies, namely Huawei (8th), Alibaba (22nd), Lenovo (24th), Xiaomi (31st), Tencent (41st) and ByteDance (45th) are also on the list this year.

BCG’s ranking this year specifically recognizes companies’ efforts in climate and sustainability (C&S). According to BCG, two-thirds of the companies in the 2022 survey ranked C&S as a top corporate priority and many of them were among the earliest to embrace environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles and to establish decarbonization commitments.

JD.com has always attached great importance to C&S. The company’s “Green Stream Initiative” has addressed key environmental issues in the retail and logistics industry in terms of green warehousing, transportation, packaging and more.

In 2019, JD set a goal to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent by the year 2030, and its logistics arm, JD Logistics, became the first company of China’s logistics sector to join the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). This year, JD.com also incorporated the TCFD framework in its annual ESG report for the first time.

To view BCG’s Most Innovative Companies of 2022 overview, visit: https://www.bcg.com/publications/2022/innovation-in-climate-and-sustainability-will-lead-to-green-growth

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Posted in ESG

JD Super Announces Its New Strategy

Posted on by Mengyang He

by Mengyang He

JD.com’s omni-channel supermarket, JD Super, announced its business strategy titled “BOOST” during a press conference on September 6. The plan is intended to help JD Super navigate its business development.

Lizhen Liu, Vice President of JD.com, President of JD FMCG Omni-channel announces the “BOOST” strategy
Lizhen Liu, Vice President of JD.com, President of JD FMCG Omni-channel announces the “BOOST” strategy

“BOOST” is an acronym. “B” as in “broaden” reflects JD Super’s commitment to broadening its user growth. “O” for “omni” is about developing its intra-city retail business with the omni-channel approach. The second “O” stands for “Opening,” suggesting JD Super is set to provide an open ecosystem for its partners and consumers. “S” for “supply chain” as JD Super is mapping out a supply chain-based system. “T” for “tier 3-6” indicates that JD Super will expand its business in rural areas.

“The ‘BOOST’ strategy focuses on five areas, and it will allow us to lead the rapid growth of the industry together with our partners,” noted Lizhen Liu, Vice President of JD.com, President of JD FMCG Omni-channel.

The press conference venue in Beijing

As China’s leading omni-channel supermarket, JD Super registered a transaction volume of RMB 100 billion yuan as early as in 2017, and helped more than 50 brands top a sales record of RMB 1 billion yuan and facilitated 500 brands reaching RMB 100 million yuan in 2019.

During the press conference, the global information services provider NielsenIQ also released the “2022 H1 China’s FMCG Market Trends Report,” providing insights into the FMCG market and JD Super’s recent development.

According to the report, the online sales channel in China’s FMCG market continues to expand, in which the market share of JD Super’s omni-channel mounted from 9.0 percent in 2020 to 11.9 percent in 2022.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

JD Initiates First Shopping Festival for Agricultural Specialties

Posted on by Yiming Yan

by Yiming Yan

JD’s first Shopping Festival of Agricultural Specialties kicked off on September 7, during which JD.com pledges to commit resources to promote 300,000 kinds of agricultural specialties from more than 2000 agricultural industrial belts.

The shopping festival, which will run until the 25th of September, will provide consumers with billions yuan RMB worth of consumption vouchers for agricultural specialties, while 120,000 kinds of verified high-quality agricultural specialties by geographical indication will be put on shelf, including Wuchang Rice from Heilongjiang, Korla Fragrant Pears from Xinjiang and Suqian Hairy Crabs from Jiangsu.

Farmers can also participate in the shopping festival directly by getting discounts on purchasing farming tools and fertilizers.

As a part of the festival, county and agricultural officials from the provenance will be invited to join live events and directly introduce and promote local products to consumers. Meanwhile, JD’s Shop Now and JDDJ will provide one-hour delivery services at more than 1,700 lower-tier cities.

Positioned as a new type of real economy enterprise, JD.com continues to play to its advantage and join hands with local governments to help revitalize China’s rural areas.

With the help of JD.com, Ningde Yellow Croakers from Fujian, Xiuwen Kiwi from Guizhou, Wuchang Rice and many other agricultural specialties have achieved scale and quality development in sales. The market share of Ningde Yellow Croakers surged by 500 percent, and more than 4,000 farmers directly benefited from Wuchang Rice’s robust sales.

China’s e-commerce giant JD.com rolled out the “March to Rich Plan” in 2020 to empower rural areas in the next three years, aiming to facilitate a growth of RMB 1 trillion yuan output value in rural areas. Millions of farmers had profited from the plan since the end of 2021 when 320 billion in output was achieved.

 

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

JD Ehome Authorized as Apple Premium Reseller  

Posted on by Doris Liu

by Doris Liu and Xinyi Guan

JD Ehome, the first Apple authorized physical store operated by JD.com in China, was launched on September 3 in  Beijing, marking a closer collaboration between the two companies by applying JD’s self-operated business model to Apple products from online to offline for the first time.

The brand-new store also marks a milestone, in that JD.com is the only online retailer in China in nearly five years to be authorized as an Apple Premium Reseller (APR), the best-in-class Apple shop. Normally, Apple selects partners of APR stores carefully with strict requirements of the location, size, store design and more. In addition, all the salespeople, trainers and technicians in APR stores are trained and certified by Apple in order to provide professional consulting services to consumers.

In the sales of mobile phones, physical stores are indispensable as they offer a space conducive to creative experiences that are not limited to trying out products, but also community gatherings, and corporate image and culture enhancement, among others.

With JD’s full-chain and full-scenario capabilities, JD Ehome can smoothly integrate online and offline consumption to cater to the consumers’ needs for an omni-channel experience. Meanwhile, JD’s ability of national layout establishes potential possibilities for JD Ehome to reach out to more cities and regions.

A “little black card” is available exclusively for consumers who visit JD Ehome and meet certain requirements. Pre-orders can be made with the card with multiple membership services following the Apple’s Fall Out event on September 8.

A customer is holding a Little Black Card

So far, JD Daojia (JDDJ), an on-demand retail platform operated in China, has been qualified as the only such platform for Apple’s pre-sale, which means JDDJ and Shop Now, a jointly built business dedicated for JD’s on-demand consumer retail section, can guarantee the delivery in an hour or even minutes when the new Apple products are available starting September 16.

“The cooperation between JD.com and Apple is not an individual attempt, but an exploration of JD’s new offline self-operated model with long-termism and development vision,” said the head of JD’s APR business. “It is the start of a new chapter and the direction of an in-depth cooperation as well as value extension between JD and Apple.”

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

Traditional Flavors Still Top Mooncake Sales Ranking

Posted on by Doris Liu

by Doris Liu

Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese festival for family reunions, falls on September 10 this year, and sales of mooncakes have been climbing up in recent weeks, with traditional flavors such as five kinds of nuts and black sesame among the best-selling ones, according to a report on 2022 Mid-Autumn Festival Consumption Trend released by JD.com on September 7.

Since August 2022, more than 100 flavors of mooncakes have been sold on JD.com, and more than 90 percent are sold in gift box packaging, according to the report. The top five best-selling mooncakes are filled with white lotus seed paste with salty duck egg yolks, lava custard, five kinds of nuts(almond, peach kernel, sesame, melon seeds, peanut), black sesame and red bean paste, with sales up by 37, 68, 10, 9 and 4 times compared with last month respectively. The sales of soy milk, jasmine matcha and chocolate milk flavored mooncakes all increased over 10 times compared with the same festival in 2021, while the avocado, chocolate lava and green plum flavors rose by more than 5 times.

Among those who have made purchases of mooncakes, the number of consumers aged 16-35 increased by 3.4 percent month-over-month (MOM); the 16-25 age group showed preferences for mooncakes with nuts, with over 50 percent selecting the  hazelnut flavor. The report believes that healthier and high value-added mooncakes with higher quality are becoming a trend for the entire food industry, with the 36-45 age group accounting for over 40 percent in the total sales of low sugar mooncakes stuffed egg yolk with white lotus seed paste and pine nuts with lotus seed paste.

Mooncake consumption is shown to extend beyond the limits of the holiday, according to the report. Mid-Autumn Festival  takes place on the 15th day of the eighth month annually in the Chinese lunar calendar. Normally families gather on the day to enjoy mooncakes, the most representative food for the festival, play with lanterns and gaze at the moon. However, JD’s data indicate multiple sales peaks of mooncake products over the course of the year, including during Chinese New Year, the 618 Grand Promotion and the Mid-Autumn Festival, showing that mooncakes have become a snack or dessert for daily life.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

JD Health’s “Pharmacy Clinic” Awarded at CIFTIS

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD Health’s online pharmaceutical consulting service was awarded as an excellent demonstration case in China’s service industry by the committee of the China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) on September 5th in Beijing.

JD Health launched the service, known as the “Pharmacy Clinic,” in June 2022. The service connects licensed pharmacists with clinic experiences to patients through the internet.  Based on each patient’s condition, pharmacists provide medicine evaluation and customized adjustment plans, follow up with their medicine use, offer pharmaceutical advice and more, hence providing patients with a one-stop medication service solution outside of offline doctor’s visits.

The National Medical Products Administration issued supervision and management measures on online sales of medicines on the same day, September 5, which stated specific requirements on ensuring the safety of online medicine sales, among which Article 10 clearly says that enterprises engaged in online sales of medicines shall establish a pharmaceutical care system, and carry out prescription examination and guidance on rational use of medicines and other services from certified pharmacists and other pharmaceutical technicians to consumers. JD Health’s “Pharmacy Clinic” has undoubtedly taken action a step ahead of the new rules from the government.

Currently, more than 2,000 certified pharmacists are providing online pharmaceutical consulting services on JD Health. Such service will continue to be integrated with JD Health’s other online services including its internet hospitals, JD Pharmacy’s single-disease care centers and more, building a better user experience in post-diagnosis medicine use management and home-based pharmaceutical services.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)