by Mengyang He

On October 25, thanks to the cooperation between JD Fresh and the leading exporter from Chile, Garces Fruit, China’s first imported Chilean cherries of the 2021 new season arrived in Shanghai, which hit the spot during the pre-sale of the 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion.

China is the world’s largest market for Chilean cherries, with more than 85% of cherries available in China imported from Chile. China is expected to consume one third of the cherries worldwide. In the 2020 season, JD Fresh’s cherry sales reached nearly RMB 500 million yuan. Because of the continuous enhancement of JD’s overseas direct sourcing supply chain, JD Fresh will directly procure more than 1.8 million boxes (5 kg/box) of cherries from Chile by the end of 2022, and the overall sales are expected to exceed RMB 1 billion yuan. As of October 22, 2021, the pre-sale volume of JD Fresh cherries increased by 150% YOY.

This year, JD Fresh focuses on overseas direct sourcing and the upstream supply chain, and its partnership with Garces Fruit has ensured premium supply and high-quality products.

In order to strictly control the quality of imported cherry, JD.com established a full-process guarantee system, focusing on the three aspects of pre-sales, in-sales, and after-sales in response to multiple pain points such as cherry varieties, specifications, net weights, and quality.

The epidemic prevention standards have also been upgraded. With triple-strength quality inspection, JD checks the quality of the Chilean packaging plant, the port of arrival, and JD Fresh’s self-operated warehouse. In addition to having a QR code for tracking, each batch of cherries can only be admitted to the JD warehouse in the condition of having a COVID-19 test report, inspection & quarantine certificate for entry goods, and a sanitization report.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

by Mengyang He

On October 20, the 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion began with the pre-sale rolling in at 8 pm (Beijing time). The number of customers who placed orders within the first four hours increased by nearly 40% compared with the first day of the pre-sale in 2020. The first order delivered by JD’s on-demand “Shop Now” service was swiftly fulfilled within only 10 minutes.

According to the statistics, an increasing amount of young people joined the pre-sale as consumers aged 18-35 accounted for over 70% during the pre-sale period. Since many brands also opened pre-sales at 8 pm, they swiftly shattered the pre-sale record set on the first entire day of the pre-sale last year.

This shopping enthusiasm was fully ignited across China. Within the first four hours of the pre-sale, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Beijing took the top 3 in order amounts; and when it comes to the product category, large appliances took the lead, followed by phones, sport shoes and bags, and facial care products. Haier ranked the most popular brand out of all the large appliances during the pre-sale period, and Siemens came after.

On computers and digital products, hardware devices for education purposes came out strong. Xiaomi, Huawei, and OPPO were also among some of the highly popular tech products, as the pre-sale order volume for Xiaomi phones in the very first hour exceeded that of the first entire day last year. Within the first four hours of the pre-sale, order amounts of OPPO phones this year increased by 227% YoY.

Last, it is worth highlighting that JD Smart Customer Service, which operates around the clock, provided customer enquiry service 10 million times within the first four hours of the pre-sale.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

 

by Mengyang He

On October 17, JD.com kicked off its 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion at the NUO Resort Hotel situated at the heart of newly opened Universal Beijing Resort.

Compared with previous years where the Singles Day Grand Promotion started at midnight, this year it will roll in 4 hours ahead of time, with the pre-sale will be commencing at 8 pm (Beijing time) on October 20 and finishing at 8 pm on October 31 when the official sales period begins. Additionally, the final price-off will start at 8 pm on November 10 to allow consumers to place orders of high-quality and low-priced goods without having to pull an all-nighter. The full Singles Day Grand Promotion will last for 23 days from October 20 to November 11.

Meanwhile, JD.com rolled out the on-demand “Nearby” channel on the app homepage, which provides fast delivery services of high-quality products from stores in the vicinity of 3-5 kilometers based on the location of consumers. As of now, 100,000 all-category physical stores have been connected to JD.com’s “Shop Now” feature under this channel in order to provide consumers with on-demand retail and delivery service within an hour and sometimes even minutes. Huijian He, Vice President of JD.com and Dada Group, and Head of JD Omni-channel Home-Delivery Department, explained that the “Nearby” channel will present the best products and services of the “Shop Now” initiative to consumers.

During this year’s Singles Day Grand Promotion, over 90% of popular products will be granted the price guarantee service, and in addition to the JD PLUS member super shopping card, with which one can claim benefits from brands such as Starbucks and KFC, JD PLUS members can also benefit from exclusive subsidies on goods of all categories. Additionally, while searching “e-CNY” on the JD App during the 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion, consumers will have the opportunity to receive red envelopes, coupons, and discounts in the digital currency “e-CNY.”

Consumers can not only purchase premium and authentic products at the best price, but also experience excellent service through a more comprehensive service system and stricter quality control. On top of existing services, such as immediate refund, free consultation of pet veterinarians, and delivery & installation in one, over 100 services have been recently enhanced prior to the 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion. Over the past year, except for logistics and consumer services, JD Retail has invested more than RMB 35 billion yuan in c-end user services alone.

In ensuring the quality of products, JD.com recently put forward a robust system for quality control, which is set to raise the bar and strengthen warehouse inspection. Meanwhile, through cooperation with government supervisory institutions and large distributors, JD.com has built a blockchain-based anti-counterfeiting traceability platform to fully track the supply chain from the origin to consumers.

As the Singles Day Grand Promotion significantly elevates UVs (unique visitors) to a record-breaking number, JD.com’s hybrid cloud operating system will safeguard smooth operations and ensure a great shopping experience for each consumer. Additionally, JD.com’s intelligent customer service will support consumers around the clock.

The 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion will usher in a great number of brands and merchants to physical stores, farmers, SMEs, and consumers. JD Logistics, with over 1,200 warehouses and 38 highly intelligent “Asia No. 1” logistics parks across China, will ensure a speedy delivery service. In addition, consumers from over 200 cities of 30 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China will be able to receive the delivery within minutes once they make a pre-sale purchase.

JD.com is also contributing to a more sustainable operation. For each package that it delivers during the 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion, JD.com will reduce the amount of adhesive tapes used by 25 cm, paper consumption by 210 grams, and plastic by 11 grams. Revolving around sustainability, JD.com will leverage its green infrastructure and technological innovation on supply chain, warehousing, packaging, energy consumption and etc., making the 2021 Singles Day Grand Promotion the largest one ever where renewable energy is being used.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

The Chinese “Double Ninth Festival,” which is observed on September 9^th on the lunar calendar and falls on Oct. 14^th this year, is the customary time when people go to see their parents and show respect to elderly people.

Ahead of this year’s Double Ninth, JD.com initiated a shopping festival featuring dedicated products and services for elderly people, which will last from Oct. 11^th to 16^th. Here are some glimpses of the plan:

1. 100 million+ products

During the festival, JD.com will work with leading brands from home and abroad including Panasonic, BY-Health, Tong Ren Tang, Mengniu, Yili and more to offer an abundant  of products favored by elderly customers and to meet their demand, such as thermal underwear, smart toilets, tea set, gold jewelries and more.

Furthermore, JD has developed a number of customized elderly-friendly products based on the C2M (Consumer-to-Manufacturer) model in close cooperation with brands. These products include tailor-made cell phones and wearable devices, cooking oil, dairy and instant oat meal, etc that meets the dietary needs of the elderly, even countryside villas and more.

Some popular products among elderly customers on JD.com 

2. Housekeeping Services

Besides products, JD.com has its self-operated home cleaning services based on an O2O model. During the festival, the service team will work with local residential communities across Beijing to provide free housekeeping services including cleaning their rooms, windows and household appliances.

A staff of JD Home Cleaning was praised by Mr. Ma, a Beijing resident for her cleaning service 

3. Healthcare Support

JD Health, the healthcare arm of JD.com offers a full range of medicines and healthcare products that elderly people need via its online platform and offline pharmacies. Additionally, it also provides easily accessible and affordable telemedicine services with a center specifically on geriatrics, attending to both their physical and mental health. During the festival, JD Health has planned several health knowledge sharing and online medical consultation activities to serve elderly people for free.

JD Health’s elderly-friendly smart speaker that directly connects with its telehealth service

4. Pet Care

Pets are an indispensable companion for more and more elderly people. On Oct 8, JD Health and JD Pet jointly launched JD Pet Hospital, an internet-based platform to help users access vets and healthcare supports with 24/7 response online and easy connections to offline services. The service aims to bring more convenient, reliable and affordable pet care support for pet owners, relieving elderly people’s burden to take care of their pets.

5. Customized Shopping App

This May, JD.com introduced an App version tailored to elderly users’ needs, featuring a simpler interface, larger font size and easier ordering process. Additionally, JD Logistics created a streamlined mini program that makes it easier for elderly users to send and track transportation information of their parcels.

6. Service Corners in Physical Stores

Shopping in physical stores remain the primary way for elderly people to get their digital products. In JD’s offline chain stores selling home appliances, digital products and more, staff have set up special service corners for elderly people on product demonstration, selection and usage guidance.

A service corner for elderly customers in a JD home appliance store 

7. Smart Applications to Support Community Work

JD Technology is working with the local government in Tianjin to build digital systems including a database to better manage elderly residents’ information, a website to publicize relevant service information and a smart platform that can make phone calls to hundreds of elderly people daily so as to regularly check their status, send important reminder messages, detect risks and quickly respond to emergency alerts from elderly people’s homes.

According to the latest census in 2020, China has 264 million people aged above 60, accounting for 18.7% of the overall population. Among them, nearly 191 million are above 65, which makes 13.5%. In face of this fast-growing population, the consumption goods department of the Ministry of Industry of Information Technologies (MIIT) has been promoting the establishment of an industry system to produce more products that can satisfy the needs of elderly people in China. The shopping festival is the second annual edition JD has held under the guidance of the MIIT.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)