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by Vivian Yang

Chinese consumers are looking for a more “exquisite” experience for healthcare products and services, according to the Report on Health Consumption Insights 2021 released on Jun. 2 by JD Health in collaboration with China Business News (CBN).

The report is based on thousands of survey results on Chinese consumers who are from diversified backgrounds in terms of age, location and income. The majority of surveyed households reported their annual health expenditure is between RMB 500 to 5,000. Families with annual income below RMB 120,000 yuan also showed strong willingness to spend on high-priced healthcare products, noted Simin Wen, one author of the report from CBN.

Four main trends of healthcare consumption in China are identified in the report.

First, more and more segments of healthcare products are emerging on the market, such as maternal and baby nourishment, fatigue-relieving nutrition, vision formula and more. At the same time, medical equipment, including household devices like sphygmomanometers and blood glucose meters as well as professional medical equipment such as ventilators, atomizers, and oxygen machines are increasingly purchased for home use on JD Health.

Second, people of all ages and from all places in China are paying greater attention and spending more on their health and wellbeing. Young people demonstrate strong preferences for nourishment products. JD’s data shows that in the first five minutes of the JD 618 Grand Promotion on June 1 – the official opening day of the shopping festival – sales of nourishment and tonic products on JD Health grew more than 200% YoY.

Third, disease prevention has been widely recognized as an important part of health management. Ni Ni, another CBN author of the report pointed out that people start to holistically pay attention to their health conditions and behaviors, from body weight, sleep quality, stress level, smoking, alcohol drinking, and even daily water drinking. “All of these aspects can be managed, and people are keen to learn these methods in order to build a healthier body and become stronger in fighting the pandemic,” said Ni Ni.

JD’s “Family Doctor” telemedicine service meets these people’s demand to receive customized healthcare management support anytime and anywhere they need. During the pre-sale period of the JD 618 Grand Promotion from May 24 to 31, the number of online medical consultations on JD Health increased 720% month or month.

Fourth, consumer healthcare services including aesthetic medicine, oral care, and physical examination and more are seeing strong growth in the Chinese market. In the first 15 minutes of the JD 618 Grand Promotion, sales of aesthetic medicine products on JD Health increased more than 15 times. The first hour sales of popular anti-aging services like thermage and Fotona 4D exceeded the whole-day sales of the same day last year. Additionally, JD Health provides pre-sales consultation services from physicians, pharmacists and nutritionists to customers, ensuring they can get enough information and proper guidance before they make purchase decisions.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

Students in Suqian Xianlin Campus of Nanjing Foreign Language School had a penalty kick competition on a new soccer field made of recycled plastic bottles on Jun. 4. The field has been constructed using recycled plastic bottles. Last year, over 20,000 families joined the bottle recycling program launched by JD Green Stream Initiative and P&G Beauty.

 

JD Health and Sanofi China announced to expand existing collaboration to building general and digitalized health management solutions for patients with chronic diseases in China on Jun 1. Based on the “internet + healthcare” model, the cooperation aims to benefit more patients across the country with premier medical services and relieve pressure on the overloaded public medical system.

 

JD.com’s 618 Grand Promotion (Jun. 1-18) officially began at 00:00am on Jun 1. Four minutes after paying the remaining balance on her pre-sale order, Ms. Wang, a resident of Changshu, Jiangsu province, received the skin care set she ordered, delivered by JD’s autonomous delivery robot.

 

JD Logistics and GSP Automotive Group inked a partnership on May 31, in which JD will assist GSP in building a global auto parts industrial chain platform utilizing the company’s long-established integrated supply chain solutions. Photo shows Bing Fu, head of strategy at JD Logistics, Stard Huang, president of JD International Logistics, Jiaru Zhou, chairman of GSP and Chonglong Zhou, vice president of GSP in the back row from left to right; Jinghua Bao, general manager of JD International Logistics East China region; Longsheng Zhou, president of GSP in the front row from left.

 

JD.com’s international business, JD Worldwide, signed a partnership with Ping An Bank’s Shenzhen branch on May 31, to collaborate on foreign trade services including bank account service, cross-border finance, offshore finance, supply chain finance, e-finance and more.

 

JD.com and Chang’an Ford signed an agreement to further deepen cooperation on May 28 in Chongqing to ensure the supply of a full line of Chang’an Ford’s products through JD.com together with timely after-sale services. Photo shows Minxian Wang, general manager of first party automotive products, JD Auto, on the right; Huaicheng Tang, after-sales director of Chang’an Ford, on the left.

by Rachel Liu

JD Worldwide, JD’s platform for imported products, saw sales growth of over 120% YOY on the first day of the 618 Grand Promotion, June 1, and sales of nearly 1,500 brands increased over 100% YOY, reflecting customers’ increasing consumption demand for imported products.

The imported products brought by National Pavilion stores on JD Worldwide also received a warm welcome by JD customers, such as hair protection oil and latex pillows from Indonesian Pavilion, Bak-Kut-The pork ribs from Singapore Pavilion, and quinoa from Peru Pavilion. Sales of National Pavilions increased over 80% YOY.

The “Just in time” program, which connects overseas shopping malls or e-commerce platforms with JD Worldwide, has brought over 600,000 imported products to the platform, enabling customers to shop directly from the channels and enjoy the same prices as shopping overseas. Sales through the program increased 436% YOY on June 1. Rakuten, Muller and many other popular malls and retailers have joined the program.

The “Star Selection” project of JD Worldwide, which connects foreign brands with entertainment celebrities and KOLs, attracted customers’ attention. Companies with celebrity resources such as Wanda Group and TMG (Taihe Music Group) are partners of the program, and also joined the 618 Grand Promotion. Sales of the “Star Selection” stores increased over five times compared with sales of last month.

Additionally, the JD Worldwide Imported Supermarket, which provides an integrated shopping experience of imported products on JD, provided extensive discounts and coupons for customers. Customers can enjoy one-stop shopping for imported beauty products, fresh food, luxury and daily use products on the imported supermarket. Sales of imported self-care products increased 230% YOY on June 1, and the sales increase of beauty, maternal and baby and furnishing products all surpassed 100%.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

Meng Chen, head of refrigerators at JD Home Appliances participated in the 2021 China Refrigerator Industry Summit held in Beijing on May 26. According to Chen, as the structure of the is changing, JD aims to promote more new and high-end, high-tech products, and use its Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) ability to provide more customized products to customers.

According to industry data, sales of refrigerators continued to rise in 2020 despite being impacted briefly by COVID-19. Sales in 2020 were almost identical to 2019. During Q1 2021, sales of refrigerators also increased 60.8% YOY. “The uncertainty of COVID-19 encouraged more customers to stock up on food, so they tend to buy refrigerators to keep the food fresh,” said Chen.

“After the COVID-19 outbreak, more customers focused on functions such as flavor preservation, sterilization and ability to maintain freshness. Brands sped to develop more of these kind of products to meet customers’ demands, which changed the product structure of refrigerator industry,” he added.

JD keeps working with brands to develop C2M refrigerators to meet customers’ increasingly unique demands. The brands that have worked with JD on C2M refrigerators include Casarte, Midea, Bosch, TCL, LG and more.

“Besides promoting new and high-end products, in the future, JD will also support  brands with smaller market share to find their target customers and competitive advantage,” said Chen.

 

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

JD Retail Cloud participated in this year’s China International Big Data Industry Expo held in Guiyang, Guizhou province from May 26-28. The event gathers industry experts to discuss how frontier technologies will promote the integration between digitalization and the real economy.

As a technology ecosystem aiming to benefit JD and external partners, JD Retail Cloud showcased its digital and intelligent ecosystem including the solution for helping enterprises go digital, an agricultural wholesale platform, as well as livestream service, logistics and AR/VR technologies.

JD also displayed a mobile platform as a service (mPaaS) R&D platform and other solutions to help enterprises develop mobile platforms such as apps or mini programs, as well as building micro online malls in order to improve the customer experience. Until now, thousands of merchants have registered to participate in JD’s online mall SaaS program.

The exhibition also included smart chatbot services, which can help improve customer service efficiency, as well as customers’ satisfaction levels.

“JD Retail Cloud integrates three key capabilities of JD Retail and can be opened to our partners,” said Dr. Paul Yan, Chairman of JD Retail Technology Committee.“The first is business operations capabilities, such as payment, supplier management, transaction and more. The second is customer management capability. We can help brands find targeted customers, introduce new customers and improve the penetration of their brand. The third is data capability, including data analysis, data asset management and more. We believe the system is highly valuable to the retail industry.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

JD Industry, a division under JD that provides enterprise clients with industrial products and services, saw sales surge on June 1, the official opening day for JD’s 618 Grand Promotion (Jun. 1-18). Data showed that the number of clients who made orders increased 200% YOY, and overall order volume increased 210% YOY.

Over 600 top brands including ABB, 3M and Delixi joined the campaign, offering over 2 million products on JD Industry’s online platform. Additionally, nearly 5,000 offline hardware stores also joined the initiative.

Among them, pneumatic components manufacturer SMC saw sales increase by 163% YOY, and sales of 3M products increased by seven times, with product selections covering respiratory protection, radiation protection and high temperature protection. ABB and Delixi sales increased by 11 times and five times, respectively.

JD Industry also gathers offline stores in different industrial product chains across China to provide clients with products directly from manufacturers. As the place of origin for electric tools, Nantong, Jiangsu province saw sales of local brands in this field on JD increase 206% YOY.

“As an important aspect of JD’s plan of 618 , which is to expand the business base from individual customers to industrial clients, we will continue to provide new scenarios, and new services online and offline, joining hands with our partners to provide clients with superior procurement experience, and promoting economic growth,” said a representative from JD Industry.

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD Health and Pfizer China announced plans to initiate a health-management program for children’s vaccinations on May 28 in Beijing, aiming to provide a one-stop service covering vaccination-related knowledge sharing, appointments, online consultations, and other follow-up services. The program will mainly focus on vaccinations against pneumococcal disease at the first stage.

The program is a further step since both sides agreed to expand cooperation at the 3^rd China International Import Expo (CIIE) in 2020. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified pneumococcal disease in children as a disease “requiring very high priority” for vaccine prevention.

In response to the current difficulties in vaccination education, non-transparent information about reservations, and queues at some medical institutions caused by the high volume of vaccinations, JD Health will provide post-vaccination follow-up services, 24/7 children’s  online consultations, the opening of an exclusive zone on the app for JD Health’s family doctor service for children, as well as online-and-offline medical and healthcare services in accordance with the program.

“Leveraging JD Health’s previous experience on vaccination appointments and offering related services, JD Health will provide one-stop vaccination services to children. Users can consult online at any time to seek help from professional doctors for any questions in vaccine selection, pre-vaccination and post-vaccination,” said Yufang Wang, general manager of JD Health’s Consumer Medical Department.

“We believe the cooperation between JD Health and Pfizer in the field of vaccines can further help the promotion and development of ‘Internet + vaccination’ and explore a new situation of disease education and vaccination in China,” said Hua Bao, head of business optimization and innovation at Pfizer China.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD Health and Sanofi China will expand their existing collaboration to building general and digitalized health management solutions for patients with chronic diseases in China, as announced on Jun. 1.

Based on the “internet + healthcare” model, the cooperation aims to benefit more patients across the country with premier medical services and relieve pressure on the overloaded public medical system.

Under the new agreement, the two companies will work together in five main areas: prescription medicines, vaccines, consumer health products, medical services and commercial insurance, covering extensive medical services prior, during and after diagnosis, and will explore innovations in medical payments to improve patients’ overall telemedicine usage experience.

Leveraging digital technologies including AI, big data, IoT and more, the collaboration seeks to address the current challenges surrounding telemedicine services such as users’ lack of trust in telemedicine doctors, doctors’ response speed to online queries, and how personalized their feedback can be, as well as concerns as to the source, quality and transportation safety of medicines ordered online.

“As an industry precursor under the country’s ‘Digital China’ blueprint in the 14th Five-Year Plan, Sanofi China is accelerating our own digital transformation and adopting various digital innovations to improve patients’ prognosis, committing to building a higher level digitalized medical ecosystem,” said Dr. Pius S. Hornstein, country lead, Sanofi China. “JD Health’s excellent service capabilities and complete ecosystem in these areas give a good push for this cooperation to offer all-round support to customers in China.”

Lijun Xin, CEO of JD Health noted that “JD Health is an integrated ‘internet +healthcare” platform combining both online and offline services. We hope to bring in all kinds of chronic disease management service abilities on this platform in order to create diversified service experience for our customers. JD Health and Sanofi have great potential to collaborate further in this area. Both sides will pool premier resources together to advance the establishment of integrated healthcare solutions including disease prevention, diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, follow-up cares and more, promoting the standardization of the ‘internet+healthcare’ industry.”

Since October 2020, JD Health and Sanofi China have cooperated on providing comprehensive services for diabetes treatment and management, spanning online medical consultations, prescription refills, cold chain distribution of insulin, blood glucose management, and diabetes education. A number of Sanofi’s cold chain medicines, such as Lantus and Dupixent, are available online via JD Pharmacy and distributed to patients nationwide through JD’s proprietary cold chain network.

Banner photo: Dr. Pius S. Hornstein (third from the left), country lead, Sanofi China and Lijun Xin (third from the right), CEO of JD Health at the cooperation launching ceremony

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)