Nov 6, 2020|
Three Keys for JD Auto’s Future Growth
by Vivian Yang
Can the internet make a difference to the automotive market which is deemed heavily reliant on traditional channels and offline experience? The answer is a definite “Yes” according to Yan Qing, general manager of JD Auto.
“JD has created comprehensive automotive services that range from sales of cars, motorcycles, accessories, to car maintenance services which integrate online orderings and offline services, covering the full life cycle of automotive purchase and use,” said Qing during a media tour to one of JD’s offline car maintenance stores in its JD Auto Service chain on Nov. 3rd in Beijing.
Yan Qing, general manager of JD Auto
Qing elaborated on three “growth keys” of JD Auto during the interview.
The first key is to keep the high momentum of online sales growth of automotive products. As Qing introduced, with over 12 years of market cultivation and brand collaboration, JD Auto has so far served a total of over 100 million consumers with annual active users surpassing 40 million.
On November 1st, the first day of this year’s Singles Day Grand Promotion, JD revealed that transaction volumes of cars and motorcycles on JD Auto increased four times YoY. Electric car charging equipment and shock absorbers increased 5 times YoY, paint protection film products grew by 8 times YoY, and sales of spark plugs, gearboxes, storage batteries and more all doubled during this period.
JD Auto Service Store
The second key exists in the brick-and-mortar service stores, under the name JD Auto Service. “Combined online and offline models will co-exist in the automotive aftermarket for a long term,” said Qing. “JD Auto Service is our effort to extend services from online to offline.”
Qing described a standard O2O (online to offline) car service process as such: a consumer orders four tires on JD.com and designates his/her nearby JD Auto Service store for delivery. The next day, the customer drives to the car maintenance store for a tire change and has the car examined by the store’s technician. The technician finds that the car needs to replace its brake pads. After getting the customer’s consent, the technician can quickly perform the service on-site. While the services all happen offline, all the transactions are tracked via JD’s app, ensuring a one-stop sales and after-sales service solution for the customer.
A technician of JD Auto Service
The third key for JD is to leverage its strength in supply chain and digital technologies to enhance the efficiency of matching supply and demand in the automotive industry. “There are tens of thousands of car types on the Chinese market, and each car type is composed of tens of thousands parts and each part has thousands of different brand suppliers,” said Qing. “What JD is doing is building a standardized database comprising all sorts of car types, component parts, maintenance services and more which will not only support JD’s own business online, offline and its B2B supply chain, but also be open to all our partners. When data from car manufacturers, distributors, retailers, and garages, together with JD’s platform and inventory are all systematically connected, the demand of car owners and car maintenance stores will be efficiently matched.”
“For our customers, they only see that we opened offline stores, but behind the scenes, there is an extremely complicated supply chain system.” In Qing’s mind, car deals online and maintenance services offline will be seamlessly connected in the future – everything concerning car purchase, use, and repair is an intelligent and digitalized experience.
Apr 29, 2024|
JD.com Teams Up with Brands to Launch “Trade-in Alliance for Household Appliances and Home Goods”
JD.com recently announced the “Trade-in Alliance for Household Appliances and Home Goods” in collaboration with over 100 renowned brands. This initiative, unveiled on April 27, aims to expand and enhance trade-in services across China and has already been successfully implemented in 20 provinces and cities.
The Trade-in Alliance allows consumers to access JD’s trade-in services for an extensive range of products, covering over 200 subcategories including TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, and more. The initiative caters to a growing demand, with more than 16 million users leveraging JD’s platform since 2023 to exchange their old household items for new ones. This represents a 200 percent increase in first-time users year-on-year.
To further enhance the customer experience, JD.com has introduced the “Three Free & Four Unlimited” trade-in service. This service includes complimentary door-to-door pickup, disassembly, and handling of old goods. Additionally, it places no restrictions on the trade-in items regarding their original purchase channel, brand, age, or condition. With just four simple clicks on the JD app, users can receive generous discounts from their old goods and enjoy the convenience of JD’s one-stop trade-in services.
JD.com also utilizes its logistical strengths to extend these services to even the most remote areas of China. For instance, customers living in Tibet at an elevation of 4,300 meters can now easily access JD’s trade-in options, including doorstep delivery and recycling of old appliances.
The Trade-in Alliance is built on six foundational pillars: service capabilities, brand support, marketing initiatives, industry chain synergies, omni-channel development, and category cooperation. By fostering closer partnerships with leading brands in the household appliance and home goods sectors, JD.com is setting a new standard for hassle-free trade-in services, offering unparalleled convenience and value to consumers nationwide.
Apr 22, 2024|
JD.com Debuts AI Digital Representative of Founder Richard Liu During Livestream, Drawing 20 Million Views in Under One Hour
During a livestream on April 16th, JD.com introduced an AI digital representative of its founder, Richard Liu (Qiangdong Liu), nicknamed “procurement and sales manager Brother Dong (采销东哥).” Liu appeared in both JD Home Appliances and JD Supermarket’s livestreaming rooms, attracting over 20 million views within the first hour and generating RMB 50 million in sales throughout the entire livestream.
The digital representative almost perfectly replicates Liu’s facial expressions, body language, gestures, and voice, capturing even the subtlest movements of his fingers. Behind this technology is JD Cloud’s ChatRhino, an advanced large language model (LLM) that brings the avatar to life.
Behind the Technology
The LLM precisely mirrors Liu’s distinctive expressions and movements, naturally weaving in his occasional finger twiddles while he speaks, accentuating points with hand gestures, and adding nods at just the right moments for emphasis, creating a natural and authentic representation. Perfecting the voice proved to be a greater challenge. Those who have heard Liu speak are well-acquainted with the distinct inflections of his Suqian accent—a characteristic touch from his small-town roots in Jiangsu province. Observers will note the brisk pace of his speech, lighter enunciation, and his tendency to meld words in a seamless flow. His “sh” sounds carry a nasal quality, and he often addresses people as “brothers” to boost morale.
While programming the standard Mandarin dialect is relatively straightforward, teaching the AI to adopt the nuances of the Suqian dialect and Liu’s unique vocal patterns required a precise level of customization from the ChatRhino LLM. For example, the LLM had to provide accurate judgments on when to introduce the nasal tonality or the specific moments to merge words, ensuring the AI’s linguistic output mirrored Liu’s signature speaking style authentically.
Beyond replicating vocal characteristics, the AI’s voice must also be suitable for the casual, dynamic atmosphere of e-commerce livestreaming, such as adopting colloquialisms like “xiong di men” — a phrase comparable to “folks” or “guys” in English — to create a friendly rapport with the audience. JD Cloud’s ChatRhino team fine-tuned the model to focus on sociable nuances. The initial dataset for the LLM consisted predominantly of Liu’s formal speeches—spirited and compelling, yet too ceremonious for the interactive world of livestreaming. To cultivate a more congenial and approachable persona, the team utilized Liu’s recent casual conversations as the primary source material, rich with personal anecdotes and travel tales. This approach shaped the AI’s voice into one that is that is not only natural and approachable but also genuinely engaging for the end user.
As a fully self-developed technology product of JD Cloud, the ChatRhino Digital Representative solution has already served over 4,000 brand merchants, contributing to a 30% increase in order conversion rate during idle hours and helping merchants reduce livestreaming costs, enhance operational efficiency, and optimize user experience. Equipped with 50,000 hours of voice data, this technology enables digital representatives to intelligently adapt to various livestreaming styles dynamically.
The AI is also adept at managing 70% of routine live chat inquiries autonomously without any manual intervention, while also optimizing its responses with a self-improving algorithm. For instance, digital representatives can autonomously fields questions using product details and scripts, and post-livestream, and assimilate new information. Mirroring the acumen of seasoned sales professionals, it boasts a 90% accuracy rate in offering tailored product recommendations when solicited by customers.
The recent introduction of a cutting-edge livestream control console serves as the “brain” for the digital representative solution. It diligently monitors real-time inventory, adjusting the showcased products in the livestream and tailoring the script to ensure relevance—sidestepping items that are out of stock and spotlighting those in high demand. It also gauges and fine-tunes the frequency and style of interactions based on live audience engagement. With this advanced platform, businesses managing multiple livestreams can effortlessly operate thousands of sessions concurrently via cloud services, bypassing the need for intricate local setups. This innovation yields a substantial cost reduction of 30%.
Human-Machine Synergy
The intention behind digital avatars is not to outshine or compete with human talent but to harness the potential of technology to work in concert with livestreamers, maximizing overall growth. Essentially, the digital representative solution serves as a tool for brands and merchants to leverage long-tail traffic once real livestreamers conclude their broadcasts. JD’s analytics indicate this strategy can boost order conversion rates by 30% during off-peak hours, such as late into the night.
Digital representatives also excel in specific product categories that require detailed explanations, such as health products like nursing beds, electric wheelchairs, and oxygen concentrators. The solution can provide constant, round-the-clock guidance, adding substantial value to livestreams when traffic is typically lower.
Last week, JD.com announced an investment of one billion yuan into video content creation. This investment underscores JD’s commitment to leveraging the power of short videos and livestreams to transform the online shopping experience for its users and create new growth avenues for brand merchants.
Luxury Brands Choose JD.com to Expand Online Opportunities
