by Hui Zhang

JD.com and LVMH’s luxury brand BVLGARI, established in 1884, have launched an innovative cooperation model, as announced on August 2. Through the model customized by JD for BVLGARI, consumers can type in “BVLGARI” or the brand’s related products in the search bar in the JD app, and then enter BVLGARI’s official JD mini program to enjoy the brand’s full range of products. It’s the first time the Italian luxury brand has ever worked with an online third-party platform.

“JD Luxury has rich experience in providing tailored solutions for luxury brands,” said Kevin Jiang, president of International Fashion and Lifestyle. “The cooperation between BVLGARI and JD through a customized and innovative model is a brand new exploration for both of us, and both sides will explore in-depth cooperation in the future to enhance the consumer experience and better meet the personalized needs of consumers while purchasing luxury goods online.”

Many mainstream luxury brands have begun cooperating with JD, thanks to the platform’s large high-quality consumer base with strong consumption power, coupled with the trend of consumers moving online to buy luxury products since the outbreak of COVID-19. In addition, JD also launched premium logistics services, JD Luxury Express, to provide chauffeured hand delivery of luxury products, giving customers the joy and delight of an experience commensurate to shopping at a brand’s offline store.

Greek silversmith Sotirio Bulgari opened his first workshop in Rome. Endlessly inspired by Rome, the BVLGARI style was characterized by unusual color combinations of precious stones, exquisite craftsmanship and boundless creativity. The brand is known for its jewelry, watches, accessories and leather goods, fragrances and hotel resorts.

JD’s annual active customers have exceeded 500 million as of April 1^st 2021, with the number of members of JD’s pioneering premium membership program, JD Plus, surpassing 20 million. During this year’s 618 Grand Promotion from June 1-18^th, JD reported a total transaction volume of over RMB 343.8 billion yuan, representing the strong consumption power of Chinese consumers.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD.com launched its biggest ever 3,000-square-meter exhibition at the China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, a.k.a ChinaJoy2021, which is taking place from July 30 to August 2 in Shanghai.

The exhibit is designed to showcase the latest gaming industry trends, what motivates China’s Gen-Z consumers, as well as the tremendous marketing opportunities arising from these developments, according to JD’s planning team for ChinaJoy.

As China’s most well-known shopping platform particularly in the area of electronics products, JD will spotlight a number of new gaming products on site to bring a fresh experience for visitors. Beyond that, brands and products ranging from fashion and cosmetics to home appliances and furniture have also joined the bandwagon to introduce their co-branded offerings or tailored-made products in JD’s exhibit and via JD’s online platform.

China’s e-sports market is expected to reach RMB 270 billion yuan by 2022, and will be an official event for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China. In response, JD is ramping up efforts to tap the potential of this market and associated partners to incubate a wider industry ecosystem.

During this year’s ChinaJoy, JD announced that it will update its JD Esports plan, which was launched at ChinaJoy 2020 in collaboration with device makers like Lenovo, gaming leaders like Tencent and livestreaming platforms like Huya, to develop a one-stop e-sports service platform encompassing hardware, software, content and events.

As Gen-Z is driving much of the growth in this market, JD is also increasing its marketing outreach to younger consumers. A lineup of live shows, games and interactions with e-sport influencers will be rolled out during the three-day event to appeal to young visitors with interest in anime culture.

Furthermore, JD’s efforts in cultivating the market have also included two gaming teams in recent years, both of which have gained wide popularity among young gamers and wider audiences: JD E-sports (JDE) for Peacekeeper Elite League (PEL) and JDG (JD Gaming) Intel e-Sports Club for League of Legends (LoL). The latter is one of the top-performing teams in the League of Legends Pro League (LPL). Plus, JD has organized the nationwide annual e-sports tournament JD Cup since 2014, in an effort to grow awareness of JD as a one-stop platform for everything related to e-sport, from gears, content to entertainment.

Major Zhu, head of integrated marketing of JD Retail, said during the expo that JD will continue to deepen its investment in e-sports. Basing on the company’s strength in supply chain and big data, it can leverage its deep understanding in e-sports to bring partners together, presenting more high-quality products, services and entertainments for the growing e-sports fan base, and contributing to the development of China’s e-sports industry.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

Since Jul. 22, JD’s self-developed logistics drone has been delivering emergency supplies in Xinxiang, a flood-stricken city in Henan province.

Chaokang Liu, a drone engineer from JD’s logistics innovation lab, JD-X, received the company’s call for an urgent trip to Henan.

Liu did not hesitate to make the decision to go, as his parents were survivors of the 1976 Tangshan earthquake which killed at least 242,000 people, and he wanted to give back to others.

Liu immediately packed his luggage and a last-mile delivery drone, which can lift 25 kilograms of goods, for the trip to Henan. He rode in a JD Logistics truck and traveled 10 hours from Xi’an, Shaanxi province, where his team is based.

As soon as he arrived, Liu received the request that 30 workers in Xinxiang were stranded in a factory park and were short of food. But successfully delivering the food to those workers would prove difficult.

After three hours of searching, Liu finally found a place from which the drone could take off. However, he had never used this drone at night time, as it is a newly developed model. Moreover, communications in Xinxiang were greatly affected by the flood, and he was afraid that the drone could not manage location tracking accurately. The food might not arrive at the rooftop and fall into the flood.

He decided to give a try anyway. “If you can save 30 people, it’s worth it, even if the drone crashes,” said Liu.

The drone took off—and soon after successfully landed on top of a truck in the factory, where the group of trapped workers were able to access the food supplies.

With Liu and JD’s drone, the group of workers finally got their meal for the day. Soon after that, they were rescued and transported to safety.

Liu said, “It’s my duty to rescue more people, and I’ll keep going on this journey with my drone.”

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

Welcome to volume 14 (June 19- July 25) of our 2021 weekly digest. Here we consolidate a selection of JD news regularly and give context on why it matters. If you have any questions or topics you are hoping we will explore, please email press@jd.com.

 

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHTS

 

JD Logistics: Henan Flood Relief

As heavy downpours resulted in massive flooding across China’s Henan province last week, JD.com initiated emergency support for thousands of stranded residents, including delivery of emergency supplies via JD’s self-developed logistics drone in Xinxiang city. Capable of both taking off and landing in rain conditions, the drone was also leveraged in Zhongmou county of Zhengzhou city to help survey flood conditions.

Additionally, on July 21 JD Logistics delivered over 540 boxes of food and mineral water to Tielu train station in Zhengzhou, Henan province, where hundreds of passengers had been stranded on the railway for more than 40 hours. On the same day, another batch of rescue supplies from JD’s local warehouses were sent to provide relief for 9,000 medical workers and patients stranded at two local hospitals.

JD’s relief efforts were part of a company policy initiated in 2012, stating that if a disaster happens anywhere in the country, the nearest JD warehouse should immediately donate and deliver goods to meet emergency demands. The manager in charge of the warehouse is entitled to make such a decision on the ground without waiting for approval from upper management.

 

JD Retail

benefit Opens Flagship Store on JD

benefit, owned by the world’s biggest luxury giant LVMH, will open its online flagship store on JD.com on July 19^th. Speaking of the cooperation, benefit’s Brand General Manager in Greater China Yan Wang said, “The all-stops-covered delivery operation and service of JD.com could reinforce a more efficient and closer communication between benefit and the consumers. We believe that the cooperation with JD.com will deliver benefit’s ‘feelgood’ philosophy to more consumers.”

On-demand Delivery of vivo Phones on JD.Com Thanks to Dada Partnership 

Leading global smartphone manufacturer vivo’s phones are available for one-hour delivery service on JD.com thanks to an omni-channel partnership with JD partner Dada Group, China’s leading local on-demand delivery and retail platform.

JD Daojia, the on-demand retail platform of Dada Group, is cooperating with vivo authorized stores in terms of product management, digital marketing, targeted user operations, and order fulfilment optimization.

JD to Highlight e-Sports and More at ChinaJoy Expo

In the upcoming ChinaJoy 2021 expo taking place in Shanghai from July 30 to August 2, JD’s biggest-ever 3,000-square-meter exhibition zone in E7 hall will offer an immersive experience for visitors with live shows, games and interactions with e-sports influencers and more. Additionally, the exhibit will aim to help people understand the latest e-sports trends, what motivates China’s Gen Z consumers, as well as the tremendous marketing opportunities arising from these developments. Come join us if you are in Shanghai!

SEVEN FRESH Opens Fourth Store in Chengdu

JD’s omni-channel supermarket chain SEVEN FRESH continues its rapid expansion across China, opening a new store in Chengdu on July 23. The new location is the fourth SEVEN FRESH supermarket in Chengdu, and also the first subway station storefront of the chain. In recent months the chain also opened three stores in Shenzhen, as part of SEVEN FRESH’s overall strategy to focus on four major regions, including the Beijing-Tianjin area, South China coastal area, Western China Sichuan-Chongqing area, and Central China Hubei-Hunan region.

 

Stay tuned for more updates next week, with a major luxury brand announcement and other new partnerships on the horizon.

 

(press@jd.com)

by Kelly Dawson

JD and the city of Tianjin signed a cooperation agreement on July 26, outlining an expansive plan in which the e-commerce giant will invest RMB 12 billion yuan in the city to drive 50,000 jobs and drive the city’s digital transformation. The cooperation is under the framework of China’s 14^th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

Leveraging JD’s advantages in digital technology, the cooperation will promote the construction of a new digital economy innovation center, a smart manufacturing digital technology industrial park, a connected intelligent vehicle manufacturing industrial park, an intelligent computing power and operation center, and other projects. JD will also open new offline stores as part of its omni-channel expansion, including supermarket chain SEVEN FRESH, JD convenience stores and other retail formats.

Additionally, JD will give full play to its advantages in digital technology and supply chain to support Tianjin’s transformation into a smart city, participating in the construction and operation of an industrial digital platform for the city, accelerating the implementation of new smart distribution models, integrating the cultural and tourism industries, and jointly building a new online trading platform for both imported and domestic brand cars.

The cooperation will also support JD’s efforts to promote rural revitalization, supporting the local agriculture industry. Relying on JD’s B2C e-commerce platform, B2B2C community shopping platform, B2B supply platform and conveniences across the country, JD will establish a diversified upstream channel for local agricultural specialty products and help improve the economic conditions of local farmers in the greater area of Tianjin.

JD previously entered into cooperation with Hubei province in 2020, investing RMB 6 billion in the region to support the local economy, build next-generation infrastructure, and construct a series of smart city services including an emergency material management platform and digital media information service platform. JD has also pledged to support local brands in Hubei by growing their business and marketing to the e-commerce platform’s more than 500 million customers.

Additionally, JD has been working together with NVIDIA to transform Changshu, Jiangsu province into a smart city serviced by widespread use of JD’s autonomous delivery vehicles.

 

(kellydawson@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

Dada Group (Nasdaq: DADA) (“Dada”), China’s leading local on-demand delivery and retail platform, today announced that it is set to advance an autonomous delivery operation open system, which has already been adopted by SEVEN FRESH and Yonghui Supermarket to normalize the scalable use of unmanned delivery vehicles for on-demand delivery service. Teaming up with JD Logistics and autonomous delivery vehicle developer White Rhino, Dada Group will jointly establish the autonomous delivery ecosystem in the supermarket scenario.

Dada Now, Dada’s on-demand delivery platform, has leveraged its proprietary software and technologies for on-demand delivery and massive online shopping scenarios to develop the autonomous delivery operation system for unmanned delivery vehicles in supermarkets. The system has realized automatic order distribution for supermarket stores, and can manage package loading, terminal connection, and abnormal order operation through its human interaction system in order to assist the unmanned vehicles in efficiently fulfilling the online orders. Dada Now’s autonomous delivery operation open system has already been applied by SEVEN FRESH and Yonghui’s unmanned vehicles to cover a dozen neighbourhoods, fulfilling nearly 5,000 orders with driving mileage over 10,000 kilometres.

The demand for online grocery delivery service is growing fast in China. According to the report “China’s On-demand Retail Industry 2021” conducted by iResearch this June, consumers are increasingly embracing on-demand consumption, with the most commonly purchased categories including fruits and vegetables, dairy products, meat and eggs. This rapid growth in on-demand delivery, rising labour costs and a shortage of couriers have at times led to difficulty in fulfilling orders quickly for consumers. The unmanned delivery vehicles provide a viable alternative to address these challenges.

Compared with traditional delivery, unmanned vehicles feature lower delivery cost, larger carrying capacity, stronger stability, and higher safety, for one-hour delivery. For example, the manufacturing for JD’s autonomous delivery vehicles includes over 50 processes and over 140 checks for quality to ensure its stability. And the vehicles support “scheduled delivery,” in which customers can designate times for the vehicle to come to their neighbourhoods. The unmanned vehicles can be deployed in extreme weather conditions, as well as peak and out-of-business hours to autonomously complete delivery missions when the availability of delivery riders is limited.

The on-demand delivery industry has become more open and collaborative as an ecosystem. Technology is playing a core role to help partners collaborate through digital platforms, and to optimize operational efficiency. As the establisher of the unmanned delivery ecosystem, Dada also aims to link its upstream and downstream partners, and scale up the R&D of the software and infrastructure for autonomous delivery services as part of its latest effort to accelerate the transition to the era of smart delivery. To expand its unmanned delivery network, Dada Now together with JD Logistics and White Rhino, plans to bring unmanned delivery to the daily lives of China’s urbanites.

“On-demand delivery is one the first application scenarios where unmanned delivery vehicles are commercialized. We are confident that the combination of Dada’s system for autonomous delivery and our partners’ highly intelligent delivery vehicles will enable sweeping delivery cost reductions, make our roads safer, lower carbon emissions, and bring greater value to retailers and business partners,” said Jun Yang, Co-Founder, Director and CTO of Dada Group.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

Sales of Erke, a Chinese sportswear brand, surged by over 520% on JD.com on July 23^rd, the first day of JD’s promotion campaign on sports related products, after the brand donated RMB 50 million yuan ($7.71 million) worth of relief supplies and other aid to the flood-stricken Henan province.

Sales of Erke products spiked after the brand announced a RMB 50-million-yuan donation to Henan on Chinese social media last week. The brand received wide support from across China, as many Chinese netizens were moved by the company’s kind act. Many netizens expressed support, in addition to concern for whether the domestic company’s sales performance could support such a large donation.

“It seems like you might go out of business, because you donated so much,” one netizen commented. Some consumers even chose to pay extra money when purchasing products at offline store locations, despite salespeople at the stores advising against irrational consumption. The host of an Erke livestream event also called on consumers to spend rationally, but many consumers commented that they were happy to spend “wildly” so as to support the brand.

Erke’s sales spike is not an isolated case, as JD’s data shows that the overall sales of domestic sports brands increased by more than 280% from July 22 to July 23 YOY, with running shoes, basketball shoes, pants and T-shirts ranking among the top categories in terms of sales volume. This growth has been attributed by some experts to increased interest in sports due to the ongoing Tokyo Olympic games.

In addition to Erke, domestic sports brands including Anta Sports, 361 Degrees, and PEAK also embraced significant sales growth of more than 500% during this period.

Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu, Shenzhen and Guangzhou became the top five cities with the highest sales of domestic sports brands on JD, with sales in Beijing reaching 530% YOY, and even reaching 750% YOY in Shanghai.

“Thanks to JD.com’s reputation for guaranteed authenticity and fast delivery services, it has become the go-to destination for consumers to buy sports brands both internationally and domestically,” said a spokesperson from JD Sports.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

JD.com and Geely signed a partnership agreement on Jul. 26 stating that the automotive company will leverage JD.com’s integrated supply chain abilities for its business and cooperate in supply chain consulting, intelligent forecasting, omni-channel warehousing, internal logistics, smart warehousing, commercial vehicle technology opening-up and more.

Based on the partnership, the two parties will fully leverage each other’s advantages in terms of supply chain, smart logistics, technology research and development.

JD says that it will explore how its service capabilities will contribute to helping Geely lower procurement cost and improve operations efficiency in the areas of omni-channel sales, digital procurement and more.

Geely says that with the rapid development of electric and intelligent vehicles reshaping the global automobile industry, the company will continue to adhere to an open and shared mentality to build the industrial alliance and ecosystem.

As a technology and service enterprise with supply chain at the core, JD.com has been dedicated in opening up its technology, supply chain and infrastructure to industry partners.

Geely Holding Group is an industry-leading global innovative technology group involved in service of vehicles, as well as digital technology, financial services, education and more.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)