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by Ella Kidron

JD Worldwide, the international products platform under JD.com, opened a duty free store in Hainan province’s popular travel destination Sanya on Dec. 30, 2020. The store is located on the second floor of the central Sanya Hailv Duty Free City. Some customers eagerly flocked to the opening, while others narrowly missed it in an effort to get home to their loved ones to celebrate the New Year, but all were curious. They wanted to understand what JD brings to the duty free experience that is unique. In their reflection two themes come to light: product differentiation and the JD brand.

“JD’s duty free shop is quite different than others I’ve been to in the past,” said Ms. He. She is a veteran duty free shopper who typically tends towards beauty products, fashion, clothes and bags. “Since it is focused on computer and digital products and small appliances, it stands out in the duty free mall.” JD’s store includes over 30 hot-selling products from brands like De’Longhi. Ms. He continued: “It’s clean and clearly organized by section. Prices are attractive and selection is also expansive.” She offhandedly mentioned that due to people’s curiosity about the store, the lines were quite long on day one.

“When I first heard JD was doing duty free, I wanted to see how prices compared with the online platform,” she said. Products in the store can be found at a discount, on top of the attractive JD platform price. For Ms. He, there’s an added bonus of being in-store. “The person-to-person connection is really important when selecting products.” She appreciates the service element of shopping in brick-and-mortar duty free shops. It leaves her with more satisfaction at the end of shopping.

Ms. Fan is no stranger to duty free shopping, both at home in China and while abroad for business or leisure. She usually buys daily necessities, such as skincare products. Occasionally, she will also splurge on something like a nice bag. The experience of going into the store and getting to touch and feel the products is part of what draws her into the store. She left Hainan on the 30^th, narrowly missing the opening of the JD store. “I’d like to go check it out and see what deals there are,” she said. She’s a regular JD customer. In the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, she took an interest in cooking and bought cooking equipment on JD.

 

 

(ella@jd.com)

 

 

 

by Hui Zhang

To celebrate the coming of the New Year, JD Logistics partnered with Chinese Movie “Warm Hug” to release special delivery boxes with the film’s theme and set up a pop-up store in Beijing to bring the warm-hearted story to consumers.

The movie tells the story of a piano teacher whose deep obsession with neatness and perfection almost leads him to commit suicide. It goes on to explore how his parents’ lack of and aversion to affection drove him to reject human contact. Through the cooperation with the film studio, JD Logistics aimed to bring love and hugs to consumers who have been through a hard time in the past year due to the COIVD-19.

To mark the cooperation, JD Logistics designed special delivery boxes, each of which can stretch out a small hand to make a hug action.

“We wanted to give warm hugs to our consumers when they receive the delivery box and make them feel warm in coherence with the movie’s theme,” said a representative from JD’s marketing team.

JD Logistics also set up a pop-up store in Beijing to bring love to more consumers. Consumers who participated the event offline have the chance to win film tickets for free.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

Following China’s Central Meteorological Observatory issuing its first cold wave warning of 2021, searches for four commuting essentials spiked on JD.

1. Wind Deflecting Blanket

As soon as temperatures drop in Beijing, one can see hordes of busy commuters on their electric bikes outfitted in what looks like a blanket with sleeves. Designed to keep people extra warm against the fierce winds, these blankets, which come in all different colors and prints, keep people fully covered, from head to toe.

2. Hand-Warming Portable Charger

What’s better than a cute and fun portable battery charger? One that warms your hands! This product takes into account the fact that not only do phones run out of battery much quicker in the cold, but that using a phone with gloves on can be finicky.

3. Winter Mask

Hats and scarves are great, but they often leave a fair amount of the face exposed to wind chill. That is why this winter mask, which in some cases covers everything but they eyes, is a high demand item among JD’s Beijing consumers as it is getting cold.

 4. Anti-fog Lens Wipes

You’re on the scooter, masked up and breathing heavily, only to find that your glasses have fogged up. This is not only frustrating, but also extremely dangerous. This is why anti-fog lens wipes, which are used prior to getting on the road, are an essential. A quick wipe of the lenses and any mist that comes your way stands no chance.

 

 

(ella@jd.com)

by Kelly Dawson

For many brick and mortar stores, 2020 was a test. Droves of Chinese customers went online for the first time, and stayed online even as life began to normalize when the virus was brought under control. For Li Yao, the owner of a convenience store in Chengdu, Sichuan province, his decision to work with JD’s social e-commerce platform Jingxi three years ago proved essential in not only surviving but thriving in a year that saw many offline stores hit hard.

In 2017, Li and his wife were struggling to generate a daily turnover of even a few thousand yuan; and found the work of running the store to be tiring and inefficient. Using a notebook, Li painstakingly noted down daily transactions and calculations, marking products that needed to be restocked, what to buy next, and where he might find the best price. Worse, this process was often inaccurate and difficult to predict, resulting in expired products at the end of some months. Sometimes customers requested popular products that were still en route from the warehouse, and walked out empty-handed.

Li knew that this wasn’t sustainable. He scoured local information about other brand stores to which he might attach his business, but ultimately found that the product selection and prices weren’t to his advantage—until he learned about the opportunity to work with JD’s Jingxi platform, which empowers small business owners.

Li contacted the local account manager, a man named Xiao Jiang, and within a few minutes, had decided to do business with JD.

According to Xiao, Li’s problems are exactly what JD’s empowerment platform is set up to address, with a complete set of intelligent solutions and professional team guidance to improve the efficiency of the store. As Li began working with JD, Xiao visited the store often to provide guidance on how to set up display shelves, how to place orders on the JD shopkeeper app, which products to select, and more.

As a member of the post-1990s generation, Li quickly learned the ropes. “After he showed me how to place the orders, I received the goods the next day in the store. I now have a wider selection of snack foods and popular products to choose from, and it’s the fastest way to stock the store.”

JD provides a smart “butler” store management system and automatic replenishment system, cutting away all the tedious processes that Li had previously struggled with while running the store.

“There are smart recommendations for hot products, and it reminds you when replenishment is needed,” Li said. “The system will also recommend to eliminate products that sit in the store for too long, so you don’t continue to buy slow-moving products. In this way, through the automatic adjustment of the smart product stock, the store continues to do better and better business.”

Li’s store has also transitioned to an omnichannel structure, enabling the store to reach more customers and increase revenues. Xiao helped Li navigate the process of opening a JD Convenience GO mini program for the store. Now, when a customer comes to the store, they will receive a notification of discounts that are available, and be reminded that they can order the product to be delivered directly to their home.

“The future development of shopping will definitely be a combination of online and offline,” Xiao said. “Having a mini program is the equivalent of having an online store for free.”

After linking his business to the mini program, Li’s store gained 500-600 new customers during the 11.11 Grand Promotion. These days, Li’s store easily generates RMB 10,000 yuan in daily sales, compared to his previous daily maximum of a few thousand, before he began working with JD.

“After working with JD, it’s not only my business that has undergone major changes—it’s also my thinking,” Li said. “JD has brought a lot to me, and therefore to my customers, thanks to high-quality products, and a strong store management system that enables me to meet consumers’ changing needs.”

 

(kellydawson@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD.com and ThundeRobot, a leading Asian brand of gaming computers and accessories, sponsored an e-sports league, ACE College League (ACL), which concluded on Jan. 3 with Hainan University crowned champion of the two-day e-sports competition.

“JD has made full use of its advantages in traffic, technology, distribution and supply chain to work with and benefit our partners by organizing e-sports events, and continue to construct a competitive platform for young gaming talent,” said Cui Zhiqiang, gaming operations manager from JD.

As one of the most influential college e-sports events in China, the annual ACL competition has attracted a record more than 4,000 college e-sports teams to participate.

Hainan University won the championship. Nantong University and Yangzhou Institute of Technology came in second and third place respectively.

Cosplayers Standing By a Display of ThundeRobot Computers

JD is ambitious in constantly exploring the field of e-sports. In the PC gaming field, JDG has become one of the top teams loved by gamers, and it will be one of China’s representative teams to participate in the League of Legends World Championship 2021. In the mobile gaming field, JD was also the exclusive e-commerce partner for KPL Spring, KPL Fall, and the Honor of Kings Anniversary in 2019.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

Under COVID-19 in 2020, the auction industry, like many other industries that have gone digital, has been reaping the benefits of the internet for expansion. This year on JD Auction, JD’s online auction site, more than 15,000 users won their house biddings, about 4,500 people got their cars, and more than 60,000 items were auctioned starting from RMB 1 yuan and sold for a good price. Here are the six main bidding fields that JD Auction offered products in the past year:

1. Houses

Houses have been the most popular auction items on JD.com. In 2020, 15,224 houses were successfully sold through JD’s legal auction platform. A commercial building in Chengdu, Sichuan province, eventually sold at RMB 1.24 million yuan after the bidding started at RMB 1 yuan.

In the meantime, JD’s services including VR house tours, legal consultancy, big data-powered house appraisal and more provided extra support to facilitate users to make wise house buying decisions online.

 

2. Cars

More than 4,500 vehicles were auctioned on JD this year, including 42 luxury cars entrusted by Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, amassing more than RMB 2.92 million yuan. In addition, 144 buses were auctioned in a dedicated online vehicle auction event with 100% conversion rate and 157% premium rate.

Watching and bidding for used cars on JD is particularly exciting as there are oftentimes cases in which a BMW valued at more than RMB 100,000 yuan  would be sold at only 30,000, and an over RMB 10 million yuan worth Rolls-Royce went for one-tenth of its original price.

 

3. Luxury products

Men’s watches were the favorite items among the more than 10,000 second-hand luxury products sold on JD Auction in 2020, and took up about one-fifth of the overall luxury item sales. For instance, the auction of a Rolex submariner automatic mechanical stainless watch attracted near 4,500 onlookers online and was finally sold at a high price of tens of thousands yuan.

Another commemorative watch adorned with the iconic ink wash painting of horses by the famous Chinese painter Xu Beihong (1895-1953) was sold at RMB 5,029 yuan, nearly half of its original price of RMB 9,860 yuan. What’s more, the buyer also got a surprising gift of a calligraphy painting by Xu Beihong’s wife Ms. Liao Jingwen (1923-2015) who was also a well-known artist in her own right.

 

4. Big-ticket auction for air, sea and road

Through close collaboration with courts and customs at different levels in China, JD Auction made big-ticket auctions more transparent and effective online. The auction of the He-Hui Expressway, an unfinished road construction project, became the most expensive deal of the year, closing at over RMB 3.1 billion yuan.

In addition, the LJ Airline at RMB 800 million yuan, a hydropower station at RMB 260 million yuan and a ship building company with right to use a coastal area at RMB 850 million yuan, all found their new owners on JD Auction.

 

5. Arts and crafts

Sifting for treasures on JD Auctions has become a habit for many JD customers. A total of more than 50,000 treasures were sold on JD last year including tea and wine, purple sand ceramics, antiques, jade jewelry and more.

Cooperated with JD Foundation, JD Auction held a charity event in last November to promote China’s intangible cultural heritage. All the funds received from the auctions of crafts masters’ works were used to help women in impoverished areas and ethnic minority groups to encourage their pursuits of art and cultural creations.

 

6. Everything is auctionable

Besides the abovementioned conventional auction items, there were also a number of eye-opening auction deals made on JD Auction last year, such as 11.4 tons of rice, 3,160 tons of sugars, 23.74 tons of dried mung beans, 13 tons of raw jade materials, a Sharp GF-777 cassette recorder and more.

Furthermore, to commemorate the fight against the pandemic in 2020, JD Auction organized a special auction campaign in September to solicit and auction memorabilia related to the COVID fight, in which many touching and inspiring stories emerged and became a source of hope and encouragement for many more people.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)