JD Health Acquires Pet Care Business

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD Health announced an acquisition of assets agreement with JD.com on June 29 ，pertaining to the purchase of pet health product categories including prescription drugs/ prescription diet, pet nutrition, pet deworming, pet milk powder, pet mouth, ear and eye cleaning, and more.

JD’s internet pet hospital, launched in October 2021, provides integrated online and offline pet care to customers with diversified services in the area of pet diet, disease prevention and veterinary medicine, healthcare advice, pet behavior training and more. JD.com, the controlling shareholder of JD Health, believes that the acquisition will help further integrate professional veterinary services, offering quality products to customers and creating a comprehensive ecosystem with one-stop solutions to meet users’ pet-healthcare needs.

To date, JD Health’s pet hospital has over 5,000 registered vets who provide 24/7 online consultations in seven departments, namely dogs, cats, general practitioners and more. The hospital also provides a full process service to meet pet’s healthcare needs in different scenarios, such as specialist centers, pre-diagnosis consultations, post-diagnosis health management, online follow-ups, hospital visits and more. This April, it became the first online pet hospital in China that passed the ISO 9001 quality management system standard.

JD’s pet products business has seen a rapid growth in recent years with the rise of the pet economy in China. The platform is currently partnering with over 3,000 merchants and offering nearly 20 million SKUs of products. During this year’s JD618 Grand Promotion, over 680,000 pet products from over 550 brands participated in the 30-day price guarantee program, offering better quality and more assured services to customers.

According to the White Paper on China’s Pet Health Industry 2021, besides pet food, pet health has become the second-largest market of rigid demand of the industry, with a size reaching RMB 60 billion yuan and accounting for 22 percent of the entire pet industry and the market share continues to grow.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD Cloud’s Digital Human Technology Passes Assessment

Posted on by Doris Liu

by Doris Liu

The Yanxi (言犀) multimodal digital human platform developed by JD Cloud was announced on June 21 to be one of the first eight companies in China to pass the capability assessment of such systems by an official research institute.

The assessment is based on the “Digital Human System Basic Capability Requirements and Assessment Method”, a benchmark highly recognized by the industry, which is a standard formulated by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) with leading domestic Internet companies and key industry enterprises.

The three dimensions of basic capabilities in technology, engineering and security guarantee were evaluated comprehensively for the participating digital humans, involving indicators such as voice technology capability, interaction technology capability, standard resource allocation, content traceability and content risk control.

The multimodal digital human platform of Yanxi, JD Cloud’s intelligent customer service system, integrates multiple technologies such as acoustic speech recognition (ASR) and multi-turn dialogue to generate natural speech, human-like facial expression and body posture, as well as offering an immersive experience to users.

Yanxi’s digital human, positioned to improve industrial service experience, is developed from complex scenarios provided by JD’s businesses in retail, supply chain, cloud computing and more.

During this year’s 618 Grand Promotion, two virtual anchors, Jing Maimai from JD and Du Xiaoxiao from Chinese internet search engine company Baidu, joined hands to interpret the shopping bonanza’s consumption trends. During the broadcast, Jing Maimai presented in a lifelike way with smooth facial expressions and body motions to catch the audience’s attention.

Another example is Qian Yan (芊言), JD’s first intelligent digital human engaged in customer service in the retail sector. With technology integration of ASR, Natural Language Processing (NLP), speech synthesis (or Text-to-Speech, TTS), real-time rendering and so on, Qian Yan is able to handle various kinds of sale-related queries, enabling 24/7 continuous service.

Furthermore, the Yanxi digital human is also adopted in many other scenarios like finance and public administration to help an array of industries upgrade to digital intelligence.

The technology embedded in the Yanxi digital human platform has been widely recognized, winning the best presentation award at the international conference ACM Multimedia 2021, with about 130 papers being published at top international AI conferences such as NeurIPS, CVPR, AAAI and ACL. Moreover, JD previously won the IEEE Signal Processing Best Paper Award and Super AI Leader Award (SAIL Award) at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) for this technology.

As the emerging metaverse concept accelerates the process of aligning business and technology, JD’s Yanxi system will continue to explore more possibilities to apply digital human technology in wider practical scenarios, benefiting thousands of professions and industries.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

JD Fresh Pushes Forward Direct Procurement Capabilities

Posted on by Mengyang He

by Mengyang He

JD.com’s fresh food business JD Fresh is committed to further elevating its direct procurement capabilities, based on its global network, quality control system, cold chain logistics, and a large customer base. This is the key message giving by Mr. Yu Zhao, GM of Meat, Poultry and Seafood Business of JD.com, at the Online Forum on Imported Food Materials And Consumption Trend held on June 30.

As of now, JD Fresh has already signed cooperation agreements with partners from nearly 20 countries and regions, and established long-term partnerships with industry leaders, including Tyson from the US, JBS from Brazil, Anchor and Silver Fern Farms from New Zealand, and Rangers Valley from Australia.

Full blood Wagyu M9+ beef from Rangers Valley

During a steak promotion earlier this year, the transaction volume of Australian steak products accounted for 53 percent of imported steak products sales on JD.com, according to Xiaozhou Zhou, general manager of JD Fresh. “As JD Fresh is committed to providing high-quality fresh food to our consumers, we will also explore the U.S. market to bring more premium meat products to the Chinese market,” he said.

In addition to meat products, China’s import volume of aquatic products totaled 5.39 billion US dollars in the first four months of 2022, marking a YOY growth of 37.05 percent.

MSC Certified Manila Clams

The size of China’s e-commerce market for fresh food has maintained steady growth in recent years. According to an industry report, the transaction volume of fresh food products generated through e-commerce in China reached RMB 465.81 billion yuan in 2021, recording a YOY increase of 27.92 percent.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

The J Shop Boosts Sales of French Swimming Gear Brand

Posted on by Mengyang He

by Mengyang He

With an aim to further enhance its omni-channel retailing with a seamless customer experience, the J Shop, a recent upgrade of JD.com’s Fashion and Lifestyle business, initiated the arena Brand Day on June 28, intending to boost sales of “arena”, the French swimming gear brand ahead of the summer heat.

Founded in 1973, arena keeps innovation in its heart, offering a range of best-performing equipment and apparel, both professional and beginner-friendly, including swimwear, beachwear, two-piece swimming suits, swim goggles, sport sandals, water shoes, swimming caps, towels, training tools, and more.

During the arena Brand Day, consumers not only had access to arena’s excellent selection of products, such as high-quality and well-fitting swim goggles, swimming caps, and swimming suits, but also enjoyed several discounts introduced by the J Shop.

Through the integration of commodity and service capabilities in omni-channel retailing covering the categories of apparel, lifestyle, cosmetics, sports, luxury fashion, watches and more, the J Shop provides a one-stop solution with full-scenario and omni-channel approaches, increasing awareness and sales opportunities for brands and products across both online and offline channels.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

JD Health Launched Online Pharmacy Consulting Service

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

JD Health launched a pharmacy consulting service online on June 28th, providing users with more timely and professional pharmaceutical care in collaboration with experienced clinical pharmacists from offline hospitals.

The “Pharmacy Clinic” portal is integrated into JD Health’s App. Its scope of services ranges from evaluation of drug efficacy, recommendation for drug use optimization, follow-up of drug treatment, popularization of pharmaceutical knowledge and more.

Target users of the services include people who take a variety of medicines for chronic diseases treatment, who are using special drugs such as with special dosages or drug delivery devices, who are in special physical states such as during pregnancy, breastfeeding, or with hepatic and renal insufficiency and others, and who experience adverse drug reactions that need pharmacist’s monitoring and interpretation.

Data from China’s National Medical Products Administration showed that as of the end of this February, there are about 638.700 licensed pharmacists in the country, a number that is out of proportion to the size of China’s population of more than 1 billion people.

“It is imperative to move forward the digital transformation of pharmaceutical services,” said Jiawei Wang, deputy director of the Chinese Pharmacists Association. “By leveraging technological innovation for integrated outpatient service both online and offline and deepening home-based service, the social value of pharmacists can be maximized.”

A survey conducted by the West China Hospital of Sichuan University and cited in China Pharmaceutical E-Commerce Industry Research Report 2022, showed that patients have strong demand for online pharmaceutical services under the impact of the pandemic. Among the respondents, 91.6 percent prefer to be reminded by medication software; and 53.4 percent prefer to ask a pharmacist questions online, as opposed to 25.9 percent who choose to get advice from the drug counters in hospitals for clinical pharmacy questions.

Ever since the founding of JD Pharmacy, the omnichannel pharmaceutical retail business of JD Health, in 2016, the company has begun to offer online pharmacist consultations to its customers, becoming the first service center of its kind with COPC (Customer Operations Performance Center) standards and 100 percent licensed pharmacists. Meanwhile, JD Pharmacy actively adopts AI technology in building its smart pharmaceutical knowledge base and solutions, creating another layer of risk control for drug use in addition to doctors’ advice.

Yiting Wang, general manager of the pharmaceutical department of JD Health, noted that JD Health’s “Pharmacy Clinic” is designed to provide more professional, convenient, consistent and in-depth pharmaceutical service to meet users’ personalized drug use needs at the minimum cost.

The company will continue to build its pharmaceutical service capabilities that can help improve the distribution of medical resources across China and meet people’s growing health needs, contributing to the “Health China 2030” plan with the goal to provide better health services to every citizen, Wang added.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

 

JD Super Inaugurates Cambodian National Pavilion

Posted on by Mengyang He

by Mengyang He

With the congratulatory speech of the Cambodian Vice Premier H.E. Hor Nam Hong, JD.com’s online supermarket business JD Super launched the Cambodian National Pavilion on June 24.

“The government of the Kingdom of Cambodia has always viewed e-commerce as a driving force in trade and economic development,” noted H.E. Hor Nam Hong. As of now, the Cambodian National Pavilion offers a range of local products, such as cashews, and it is also set to enrich its selection of products, bringing dried mango, candy, biscuits, natural essential oil and more to Chinese consumers.

The Cambodian National Pavilion on JD.com
Cashew product from the Cambodian National Pavilion on JD.com

Yingcai Ma, head of business development of agricultural products for JD Foods, said, “JD Super will leverage itself as a channel, through which Chinese consumers can taste Cambodian local specialties and Cambodian products can tap into the Chinese market.”

Ranging from Asia, Europe, Africa, and all the way to the Americas, JD’s national pavilion business has been gaining momentum, with a total of 65 national pavilions in operation, including those from Denmark, France, Germany, Peru, South Korea, and more.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

JD Data: Trends and Needs for Home Consumption

Posted on by Doris Liu

by Doris Liu

Spending related to daily home consumption has become a highlight in Internet retailing in recent years, characterized by quality improvement and habit adjustments, according to a report jointly released by JD and Economic Daily News, a Chinese newspaper.

According to the report, purchase of food, detergent and other necessities requires a high brand trust from customers and indicate characteristics of high purchase frequency and strong user stickiness. Meanwhile, it is observed by JD that a large proportion of customers initially turn to online food shopping for “better diet”, meaning they have clear demands related to health, nutrition, safety, taste and more.

Data shows that health has become the primary consideration for consumers in food selection. Mixed grains, low-fat, and low-sugar products have seen rapid growth, with organic certified products up 110 percent year-over-year (YOY) in variety and 78 percent YOY in sales volume.

Cooking oil is another example to illustrate peoples’ requirements in health under different scenarios. The purchase proportion of refined oils continues to grow, indicating that consumers are more inclined to make their own decisions about different oil use scenarios. Another phenomenon is that large packaging edible oil is more popular with online consumers, due to the convenience brought  to people’s doorsteps by delivery service.

Also stimulating innovation are newly-created scenarios accompanied with life improvement and the focus of different groups of people. For instance, diapers have been more specialized and high-end oriented, with baby swim diapers and adult diapers increasing 561 and 65 percent YOY in sales respectively.

Looking at the sales trends of the tissue paper category geographically, more and more consumers choose to buy products online. Among them, the fifth and six-tier markets have higher percentage of sales, while the third-tier cities are growing fastest.

As the most commonly used commodities in daily life, facial care, body care and other personal care products also hint that people’s consumption is changing from rigid demand to individual preference.

First, the young generation, who are also the main force of online consumption of personal care products, have diversified their personalized needs, which not only affects the development of the traditional market, but is also driving the emergence of lower tier markets.

Furthermore, small and portable packaging is gaining popularity, as it is more flexible in scenarios such as home and outdoor. With more design elements added to personal care products, cutting-edge marketing methods including crossover, customized and limited edition are used to appeal to differentiated market segments.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

 

JD Report: China’ s Eye-Care Market Has Huge Potential

Posted on by Vivian Yang

by Vivian Yang

China’s eye-care products and services market is predicted to be the next big thing, according to a report issued by JD.com’s Consumption and Industrial Development Research Institute on June 20th.

According to the report, the company’s sales data from this January to May showed that the amount of online ophthalmic consultations on JD Health rose over 90 percent YoY, and transaction volume of relevant products for internal administration and external use increased by 173 percent and 210 percent YoY respectively.

The rapid expansion of consumer groups and their use cases have propelled the boom, said Zhenzhen Chai, senior researcher of the institute, noting that people’s heavy use of digital products has led to rising eye problems such as myopia, eye fatigue and dry eyes among all age groups, who desire new treatments that more effectively treat the conditions.

Not only are elderly people seeking eye health support on JD Health; students (16 percent) and office workers (25 percent) who spend long hours watching screens compose a large part of consumers for eye-care products, also account for a significant portion of customers. They need both long-term and convenient products that can be applied at any time – in homes, offices, schools, for exercising outdoors, and while driving and other scenarios. This is widening the market for product makers to improve and extend their product ecosystem while ensuring their quality and safety given the particularity of eye use, said Zhen.

In terms of product preferences from different age groups, younger people choose more products for external use with steam eye masks, eye massagers and warm eye masks being the top three products, with 501 percent, 111 percent and 109 percent YoY sales increases respectively.

Consumers from China’s fifth-tier cities and below are the largest group of eye-care product shoppers on JD.com, representing 36 percent of all users; and people from the first to fourth-tier cities range from 22 to 9 percent respectively.

At the same time, people of a wider age spectrum are becoming accustomed to asking for an ophthalmologist online before going to the hospital, with 42 percent of users aged from 26 to 35, and 10 percent from 46 to 55. The role of telemedicine with AI technology in triage and assisting the whole process of health management has been further acknowledged on the market.

According to the report, the most popular eye care services booked on JD Health are femtosecond laser surgery for myopia, prescription for Ortho-K lenses, and the examination service before ophthalmic surgery.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)