by Yiming Yan

JD.com kicked off its peak night of the 19^th JD 618 Grand Promotion at 8 pm on June 17, resulting in the year’s biggest consumption boom so far, with 11 stores’ turnover exceeding RMB 100 million yuan in less than 10 minutes—a clear indication of the recovery of consumer demand in major cities and the wider market.

“Quality consumption” has been a common goal for users and retailers during the JD618 Grand Promotion this year. The turnover of ultrabooks, which are leading high-end consumer trends, climbed by two times year over year in the first ten minutes. Air conditioners, gaming TVs, RF (radio frequency) beauty instruments, and other new stylish household appliances are also in demand, with sales of 65+ inches TV exceeding the entire day last year in just ten minutes.

What’s more, since June, the trend of resuming work and production has resulted in structural changes in categories, shifting consumption from “home consumption” to “productivity consumption,” guiding consumption structure development to a more reasonable proportion. Office stationery had a 100 percent year-on-year growth, and home printers had a 200 percent year-on-year growth in the first 10 minutes of the peak night.

The ongoing development toward more premium products remains strong, with social consumption becoming more individualized and diverse. Users’ demand for products has extended throughout the entire life cycle of consumption: Before, during, and after-sales. “Services-driving-consumption” has continued to take shape. The turnover of home appliance trade-ins climbed 6 times year-over-year in the first 10 minutes of the peak night, and the turnover of JD appliances’ value-added services increased 150 percent year-over-year.

Following a slow consumer market in April-May, JD 618’s peak night also paid great attention to assisting small and medium-sized businesses in the industrial zone, as well as the regeneration of the countryside. The turnover of Yunnan small grain coffee increased 5 times year on year, while the turnover of Anxi Tieguanyin tea increased 240 percent year-on-year in the first 10 minutes of the peak night.

According to a third-party organization’s report on “New Trends in Online Shopping Consumption,” the pandemic has reshaped online shopping habits, with respondents being more concerned about delivery time and availability of goods, and JD.com being preferred by 88.9 %percent of consumers as a reliable channel, ranking first in the industry.

“Unlike earlier JD618s, which focused solely on economic and industrial value, this year’s JD618 Grand Promotion also includes social value,” said Wei Jianguo, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges and a former vice-minister of the Ministry of Commerce.

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

by Doris Liu

Sales on JD Worldwide, JD.com’s cross-border e-commerce marketplace, surged dramatically with hundreds of brands more than doubling in the first 24 hours after the JD618 Grand Promotion officially kicked off at 8 p.m. (BJT) on May 31.

After the eight-day warm-up phase for pre-orders, JD Worldwide saw the transaction value of its duty-free business rise 20 times year-on-year (YOY) and its cross-border surrogate shopping business was up by more than seven times YOY in the first 24 hours of the mid-year shopping festival.

According to JD’s data, during the first 24 hours, sales of cross-border food, beverage and fresh products increased by 160 percent YOY, in which imported alcoholic beverages went up nine times compared with a year before. Sales of imported small kitchen appliances jumped 128 percent YOY, indicating that customers have gradually changed their lifestyle by cooking more at home because of the pandemic. Meanwhile, as children rely more on online learning, the transaction value of imported electronic education devices boomed by around 17 times YOY. Imported moisturizing lotion also saw a YOY rise of eight times.

Children’s products also had a natural surge as June 1st is Children’s Day, with sales of imported baby vitamins and game equipment soaring by more than seven times and 118 percent YOY respectively.

In terms of JD Worldwide’s National Pavilions, Finland, Singapore and Denmark ranked Top 3 in sales.

Demand for imported goods is on the rise, as more and more customers turn to consumption upgrade. With JD’s over 580 million active users, JD Worldwide is able to empower more overseas brands and third-party merchants to gain a firm foothold in the Chinese market, and satisfy customers with a growing range of superior products and services.

(liujun215@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

The 19^th JD618 Grand Promotion officially kicked off at 8 p.m. on May 31 after an eight-day pre-order phase. In the first 10 minutes of the mid-year shopping festival, the sales of a number of brands exceeded RMB 100 million yuan, including Xiaomi, Midea, Haier, Lenovo, Apple, HONOR, Huawei, SONY, Asus, Siemens and more.

Cellphones, air conditioners, Zongzi (Chinese sticky rice dumplings for Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on June 3 this year), baby formula and toys were the hottest search keywords in those first 10 minutes, according to JD’s data, signaling the resilience and deep potential of the Chinese consumption market.

JD Logistics fully leverages its highly efficient supply chain system, diversified fulfillment models and coordination with local communities in accordance with anti-COVID policies to deliver orders quickly across the country. At 8.10 p.m., a resident of Chaoyang district in Beijing surnamed Li received her order of some baby formula, diapers and a toy within ten minutes through JD’s on-demand retail program Shop Now in time for her family to celebrate Children’s Day the next day.

The work-from-home economy has evolved into a rising consumer demand for better home-living scenarios. Sales of fridges and washing machine packages, quiet range hoods, air fryers, and robotic vacuum cleaners are all seeing strong growth. Over a hundred home brands on JD.com reached double sales growth in the first 10 minutes.  Electronics products such as tablets, home use printers and projectors, ready-to-cook products, kitchenware, and home workout products such as smart mirrors and massage guns, are among the popular categories during this shopping festival.

JD Worldwide offers cross-border imports to Chinese customers. Nearly 150 overseas brands saw more than 200 percent sales growth in the first 10 minutes. Sales of nearly 100 sub-categories exceeded 100 percent growth YoY. The top 3 brands in sales are Nintendo, Swarovski and a2 milk powder.

JD Cloud laid a solid technological foundation to support the smooth operation of the sales gala, as the user access peak per second increased 129 percent in the first 10 minutes.

JD Retail CEO Lijun Xin noted at an earlier launch event that this year’s shopping festival aims to create a better customer experience by offering premier products with the best prices and tentative services, and at the same time, the company will do the utmost to support people’s vibrant life through a responsible supply chain.

This year’s 618 Grand Promotion opened at 8 p.m. so that consumers did not need to stay up late. JD.com put this in motion for the first time during last year’s Singles Day shopping festival on November 11.

Instead of getting different coupons, JD618 platform offers an immediate RMB 50 yuan discount for every qualified RMB 299-yuan purchase, making the shopping process even simpler this time.

With 185 basic services and over a hundred shopping guarantees in place, this year’s 618 Grand Promotion will create an encircling protection service for customers whenever and wherever they shop.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Doris Liu

The home appliance market is increasingly focused on satisfying the needs of modern living scenarios and life values, according to a white paper released by JD.com and market consultancy All View Cloud on May 27, with consumers’ demand shifting from being driven by basic functions to life quality.

The white paper analyzed the current consumption trends from the dimensions of market, demand, consumers, scenarios and more, indicating that the concept of new home appliances is inevitable in terms of market development.

Chinese consumers are experiencing multiple changes in living space, family size and lifestyle, accompanied by a series of newly-created scenarios in recent years such as entertainment spaces for games and movie watching; kitchens with more use of built-in and integrated home appliances; and pet living spaces with smart devices, which in turn have stimulated the rapid growth of the new home appliance market.

According to the China Center for Information Industry Development, China’s home appliance market recovered comprehensively in 2021 after a COVID-related slump in 2020, with retail sales rising by 5.7 percent year-on-year (YOY) to RMB 881.1 billion yuan.

As the pandemic has fanned demand for home appliances, entertainment TV sets on JD.com saw a spike of 4.5 times in 2021 sales YOY; meanwhile the number of searches and new launches went up 1.7 and 2 times respectively, according to the white paper.

In regard to kitchen appliances, 25 percent of the middle-aged group and 45 percent of consumers who need home renovation prefer built-in refrigerators. The sales value of the ultra-thin flat built-in refrigerators in 2021 on JD.com climbed 2.5 times YOY in popularity, with the number of searches and new launches rising 100 and 50 percent respectively.

Another trend of integrated appliances was also underlined. During JD’s Singles Day Grand Promotion in 2021, sales of fresh air ventilation and air-conditioning integrated systems exceeded the annual turnover of 2020, while sales of products that integrate multiple functions of a regular and steam oven, range hood and stove system jumped 4 times compared with that of 2020.

At the same time, the younger generation born after 1990 has become the main consumer group, affecting the market with their product demand in both function and attractive looks. For instance, according to JD Home Appliances, retro-styled small electric appliances grew 3 times YOY in turnover in 2021, meaning that consumers tend to embed their life values in product selection as well.

The concept of new home appliances leads the way for the industry. As future products will need to cater to consumers’ preferences in function, look and use experience in various scenarios, JD Home Appliances will collaborate with more brands to not only promote the business, but also upgrade the industrial structure.

(liujun215@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

During the pre-order phase of this year’s 618 Grand Promotion from 8 p.m. on May 23 to midnight of the 29, sales of a number of big brands exceeded RMB 100 million yuan, such as Xiaomi, Haier, Lenovo, Huawei, Midea and more.

The official 618 Grand Promotion sales phase will start at 8 p.m. on May 31 and last until June 20, during which JD’s customers can purchase their pre-ordered products to enjoy discounts and worry-free shopping services including same or next-day delivery service.

JD’s data during the past six days revealed that the “post-95” generation showed rising spending power with pre-order sales up 75 percent YoY. Meanwhile, the product variety offered on JD.com during this year’s shopping festival increased 20 percent and a robust demand is seen from China’s sixth-tier cities with over 100 percent growth YoY.

Sales of the home appliances category as a whole rose by 200 percent YoY, while order volume of new products tripled. Trade-in service is a popular way for upgrading electronics products, with the number of shoppers using this service to order their new phones increasing by 200 percent YoY during the pre-sale period.

Digital products that facilitate working from home are in high demand. Sales of tablets, home use printers, and mechanical keyboards increased 100, 170 and 400 percent respectively.

With the trend of consumption upgrade continuing, Chinese consumers show strong interest in high-quality cross-border products. During the pre-order period, sales of fresh products increased 100 percent, and JD’s first-party healthcare products increased 140 percent.

In the same pursuit of premier food, fresh products with geographical identification (GI) are gaining greater attention. For example, orders of large yellow croakers from Ningde of Fujian province increased 5 times, and orders of sea cucumbers from Dalian of Liaoning province grew tenfold.

In the healthcare category, the overall order volume on JD Health grew by 186 percent YoY. The number of products joining the pre-order period increased by 219 percent. Deposits for body fat measurers increased 576 percent YoY, and that of Bio Island’s DHA for kids grew 10 times, becoming the biggest “dark horse” during JD Health’s pre-order period.

More and more customers are getting used to online ordering for offline services. Orders of automobile products with installation services on JD.com increased 240 percent YoY, among which tire-changing service orders is up by 135 percent; furniture with installation service orders increased 127 percent, and travel orders are up by 110 percent on JD.com.

JD’s latest omni-channel store, the J Shop, attracted 50 percent more merchants to participate in this year’s shopping festival, who together brought double the amount of products in the fashion and lifestyle categories. During the pre-order phase, the J Shop channel presented over a hundred best-sellers from an array of big brands from home and abroad, such as SK-II gift boxes, Arman Men’s T-shirts, and Lancôme’s anti-aging serum, just to name a few.

More than 20 brands under JD Luxury reached over 100 percent sales growth month over month, including Tory Burch, MCM, Chopard, and more. BVLGARI’s daily sales on JD Luxury during the past six days quadrupled its average amount. The top 3 Swiss watches are from Longines, Tissot and MIDO, with Longines’ sales increasing by 160 percent YoY.

The theme of this year’s 618 Grand Promotion is “Responsible Supply Chain”.  JD Retail’s CEO Lijun Xin said earlier at the shopping festival’s kickoff press conference that “JD618 is not only a bellwether for China’s consumption market in the first half of the year, the event also shoulders new missions and more responsibilities; that is, to do our utmost to support the vibrant life of the people through our secured supplies of goods and services, both online and offline.”

(vivian.yang@jd.com)