by Vivian Yang

Argentina’s red shrimps, Chilean cherries, Danish butter cookies, Malaysian durians and Ceylon tea from Sri Lanka…… As the Chinese spring festival draws closer, Chinese consumers’ demand for imported foreign specialties is also rising as sales data shows on JD.com.

It is high time for JD couriers to deliver these festival goods and gifts to millions of Chinese families. To some lucky Beijing residents’ surprise, they find their orders appeared at their doorsteps together with the ambassadors of the countries where the products originate.

These ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Rwanda, and Sri Lanka, are invited by JD.com as special delivery envoys who embarked on the mission to shadow JD’s busy couriers in driving the electric tricycles, trotting through residence and office compounds and climbing up old building stairs, in order to meet face-to-face with Chinese customers who fancy their countries’ products and culture and exchange their respective stories for deeper mutual understanding and friendship.

In order to promote import business, especially cross-border business from various countries, and to enhance mutual understanding between diplomats and local people, 10 senior diplomats, including 8 ambassadors to China from Argentina, Chile, Georgia, Malaysia, Moldova, Peru, Rwanda, Sri Lanka, and Charge D’affaire with rank of ambassador from Danish Embassy, Italian Trade Commissioner in Beijing on behalf of the Italian ambassador, were invited by JD.com as special delivery envoys who embarked on the mission to shadow JD’s couriers in driving the electric tricycles, trotting through residence and office compounds and climbing up old building stairs, in order to meet face-to-face with local Chinese customers who ordered their countries’ products, and exchange their respective stories for deeper mutual understanding and friendship.

These undercover missions in which some of the ambassadors dressed in JD couriers’ red uniform and wore the company’s employee ID badges with their honorary title of “Chief Promoting officer”,  started on Jan 5, before the launch of the Chinese New Year (CNY) Grand Promotion on January 9^th until the “little new year” day, which falls on the 25^th this year and traditionally marks the official beginning of the spring festival preparation, also known as the Festival of the Kitchen King, which explains the reason why most of the ordered products are for eating and drinking.

All the products involved in this plan are imported by JD Worldwide, the cross-border e-commerce and JD Fresh, the fresh produce department of JD.com. Some highlights of the delivery mission include:

• Argentine Ambassador H.E. Sabino Vaca Narvaja sent Argentine red wine and red shrimps to a special customer, 84-year-old former Chinese Ambassador to Argentina, H.E. Xu Yicong, who believes the “redness” was auspicious for the new year. On the first week of JD’s CNY Grand Promotion, sales of Argentine wine pavilion site on JD.com increased 150% compared with the previous week.

• Chilean Ambassador H.E. Luis Schmidt Montes shoulder-carried a box of Chilean cherries to Ms. Zhang’s home. Ambassador Schmidt shared his memory that when he first came to China in 1991, he had dreamt of bringing Chile’s wines and fruits to China, but the far distance between the two countries made the idea too hard to realize then. Some 30 years later today, China has become Chilean cherries’ largest market in the world and in 2021, JD Fresh quadrupled its year-on-year direct-purchase of Chilean fruits.

• Danish Embassy’s Charge D’Affaire Dorthe Lange delivered butter cookies to a Danish language teacher who had studied in Denmark for a year, and Ms. Lange brought her a “Royal Copenhagen” chinaware as a gift to the teacher. Ms. Lange is the only female diplomat participating this program. They enjoyed a very pleasant conversation in Danish.

• Georgian Ambassador H.E. Archil Kalandia delivered a bottle of Georgian brandy to Mr. Zhu’s home. The ambassador spoke fluent Mandarin and proudly introduced Georgia as the world’s “birthplace of wines”. He also expressed that he is glad to see Chinese consumers have the opportunity to taste the oldest vantage Georgian wines through JD.com. The ambassador also taught the Chinese customers to say “bottoms up” in Georgian.

• Due to the travel quarantine restriction, Italian Ambassador to China had assigned Mr. Gianpaolo Bruno, Italian Trade Commissioner in Beijing, to participate this event on his behalf. Mr. Bruno delivered Italian chocolate to a customer surnamed Zhang, who is a veteran industry designer and loves Italian chocolate all his life. Zhang is innovating his design on ski boots, targeting Winter Olympics in Milan 2026. Bruno and Zhang both wish the great success of Beijing and Milan Winter Olympics.

• Malaysian Ambassador H.E. Raja Dato’ Nushirwan Zainal Abidin delivered durians and pineapple cakes to an overseas Chinese who runs media business in Kuala Lumpur and currently stuck in Beijing due to the pandemic. The ambassador emphasized that Malaysia is the second largest trade partner with China among ASEAN countries, and he hopes Chinese customers have more chance to enjoy high quality products from Malaysia, for example, durians and bird’s nests.

• Moldovan Ambassador H.E. Dumitru Braghis also sent his country’s wines to the home of Mr. Li Xiaobai’s, a popular Marathon grand slam runner in China. He told the ambassador that he learnt that Moldova has the world’s biggest underground wine cellar with a total of 200 kilometers in length, and said that maybe one day he can host a unique Marathon game in this place.

• Peruvian Ambassador H.E. Luis Quesada sent chocolates, quinoa and alpaca dolls to a student who has studied in Lima for 6 years and now enjoy his vacation in Beijing. The ambassador was very happy to point out that Peru has very long and deep relations with China, and he hoped that the sales of Peru National Pavilion on JD.com will have an even greater growth.

• Rwandan Ambassador H.E. James Kimonyo delivered the country’s coffee ordered by a staff working at the China-African Business Council. Mr. Kimonyo noted that convenient e-commerce infrastructure plays a positive role in connecting Chinese consumers with more and more African products and presents new opportunities for Africa’s agricultural development.

• Sri Lankan Ambassador H.E. Dr. Palitha Kohona sent Ceylon tea to a couple surnamed Zhang. As a tea expert, Dr. Kohona was invited to demonstrate the tea making process in their home. He pointed out that in 2020, Sri Lanka exported 15 million kilograms of tea to China, and he hopes the number will grow to 30 million in the next three years. Mr. Sampath Perera, the tea promoting officer at the Sri Lankan Embassy, accompanied the ambassador’s delivery trip.

In the past two years from 2020 to 2021, JD spent more than 310 billion RMB or $43.3 billion USD on imported products purchase, serving as the primary gateway for international brands to China and driving cross-border consumption on the Chinese market.

On the logistics side, this year marks the 10th year in a row that JD.com commits to delivery service in all parts of the country during the Spring Festival holidays, ensuring that customers across the country can receive their orders on time.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD.com has been named the exclusive interactive partner of China’s Spring Festival Gala 2022. An official announcement was made at a joint press conference with China Media Group (CMG) in Beijing on January 5th, 2022.

JD’s App will be the official distributor of the gala’s virtual red envelopes, which are an important feature of the annual TV show, which occupied 18 of 20 highest audience rating TV programs (around 30%) for the past 20 years (the other two are the opening and closing ceremony of Beijing Olympics 2008) and allow hundreds of millions of viewers across the world to interact while watching the live broadcast on Chinese New Year’s Eve, which falls on January 31 this year.

The interaction campaign is expected to provide 1.5 billion RMB in virtual red envelopes and gifts. In addition to allowing users to snatch digital cash, JD will also include coupons for all activity participants this year.

All of JD’s gamified activities, which include inviting friends to online lucky draws, sending virtual red envelops with brand customized cover designs, gifting coupons, and more, will run from January 24th to February 15th(Lantern Festival), spanning the entire Chinese New Year celebration period in the lunar calendar, in order to provide participants with more time, richer benefits, and greater joy.

JD Technology’s cloud service is tasked to ensure the online jamboree runs smoothly. It has been geared up to withstand the massive instantaneous traffic rush that will occur when activities ramp up to the show time starting at 8pm traditionally – a high-pressure situation that JD’s cloud service has successfully navigated during multiple super-complex shopping festivals in recent years, including JD 618(June 18) and the Singles Day (November 11) Grand Promotions.

This year also marks the 10^th year in a row that JD.com commits to non-stop delivery service during the Spring Festival holidays (January 31 to February 6), ensuring that customers across the country can receive their orders on time.

“We highly value the opportunity to partner with CMG in this year’s Spring Festival,” said Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Retail at the press conference. “JD has always been striving to satisfy our customers’ needs, and the gala show is an annual cultural feast appreciated by Chinese people. CMG and JD have a strong pursuit in common, which is to do our best to serve our users well.”

Jianming Peng, member of the CMG Editorial Board and chief of staff of CMG General Manager’s Office, recognized JD’s contribution to China’s economic development in recent years, particularly in terms of driving consumption upgrade, supporting Chinese brands and serving Chinese people in their desire for a better life. He is confident that the partnership, which is based on JD’s technological strength in digitalization, supply chain and others, will create an excellent festive atmosphere for the people celebrating the arrival of the Year of the Tiger.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Mengyang He

With a robust development in 2021 that ended with a year-on-year GMV growth of 95%, SEVEN FRESH, JD.com’s omni-channel fresh food store, plans to accelerate its expansion by opening 12 more stores in southern China in 2022, in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the Greater Bay Area), and 15 more stores in northern China, in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration.

SEVEN FRESH announced its development goals by the end of 2021, striving to become a top-notch chain retail brand in China within the next 5-7 years, with a primary focus on two regions, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Urban Agglomeration and the Greater Bay Area. As eight stores already opened in the Greater Bay Area last year, SEVEN FRESH is expecting to have over 20 stores in the region by 2022.

“Having recorded a GMV of nearly RMB 3 billion yuan in 2021, SEVEN FRESH will set a hundred billion GMV target in the future,” noted Feng Zheng, president of SEVEN FRESH, in an interview.

As of now, SEVEN FRESH has 48 stores in 13 cities across 9 Chinese provinces plus Beijing. As SEVEN FRESH adopts the omni-channel approach, combining online and offline services, customers can receive their on-demand delivery orders within 30 minutes from nearby stores with a radius of 3 kilometers.

“SEVEN FRESH chooses the Greater Bay Area as one of the primary focuses, because the population in the region have showed the concrete demand for fresh food,” Feng Zheng added. “JD.com also has a strong supply chain foundation in southern China, with many suppliers based in Shenzhen and Guangzhou.”

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)