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by Ling Cao

JD announced a premium store list of 2020 on Jan. 19, which is based on products’ quality, delivery speed, enquiry-solving ability, as well as after-sale service. JD will provide these stores with subsidies and resources, such as four free marketing events in 2021. The list could also serve as a shopping guide for JD’s customers.

Based on the scoring system, stores on the list performed 51% higher than that of the average stores in the above four criteria, providing customers with a better shopping experience.

Shangyuantang Drug Store on JD is on the list. According to the store head Lei Shen, this store responded quickly very early in the outbreak early last year, and prepared abundant masks and other medical supplies. When customers began desperately searching for the items online, Shangyuantang didn’t raise prices by even a penny, despite the price hike of raw materials. Due to good customer service and its commitment to ensuring the livelihood of customers, the store got a 100% satisfaction rating from hundreds of thousands of customers.

The premium store list covers integrated categories for various stores on JD, such as Bayer for healthcare products, Durex, Nestle, TCL for home appliances and daily necessities, GAEMIN for watches, and cosmetics from Perfect Diary.

Other stores on the list also performed well. For example, Puppy home appliance store on JD launched a central after-sale service in the industry for the first time, offering customers free repairs and trade-in service even if the product has been damaged by customers.

“JD aims to optimize the business environment by providing resources and support for high quality merchants, promoting their business to be larger and stronger, and providing customers with more premium products,” Feng Zhang, head of marketplace business at JD said, “JD will continue to promote governance innovation, joining hands with merchants together to build a new ecosystem in retail.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

Tom Dixon debuted its new lighting series on JD.com with VR accessibility during the Chinese New Year Grand Promotion from Jan. 20 to Feb. 12. JD is the first online platform in China to sell the lights, for which the design was inspired by Chinese lanterns and umbrellas.

In addition to participating in JD’s grand promotion to mark the upcoming Chinese New Year, the renowned British design and manufacturing brand specialized in lighting and furniture is also relying on JD’s 3DVR technology to move the brand’s offline stores online, bringing consumers an immersive shopping experience.

Consumers can not only appreciate the artwork-like products vividly, but also are allowed to turn on voice guidance to learn more about the product while listening to beautiful music.

Compared with regular categories such as apparel and bags, the size and shape of household products are more personalized and difficult to present completely with a flat view. Thanks to JD’s 3DVR technology, consumers can easily access the offline products without going outside during the pandemic, and are able to place an order online if they find any products they prefer.

JD sponsored Tom Dixon exclusively in November 2020 to support the brand participating in the 2020 “Design Shanghai” event. All of the art pieces presented were also available on JD. Additionally, Tom Dixon launched a flagship store on JD.com on May 30th, making JD the first e-commerce platform to partner with Tom Dixon in China.

“With more and more international household brands such as Tom Dixon, Italian trendy home design brand SELETTI and French leading brand for silver cutlery and silver accessories Christofle selecting JD to expand their business in China, JD has become one of the important destinations for Chinese consumers to choose high-end household products,” said Kevin Jiang, president of International Business at JD Fashion and Lifestyle.  “In the future, JD will also join hands with more brands to deliver beauty and refinement and create a more diversified, exquisite aesthetic for consumers.”

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD Auto Services, JD’s omnichannel car maintenance store chain, announced that it will provide free anti-virus gift bags for customers who visited its 10 locations in Beijing from Feb 1 to 5. The pack will include PPEs such as masks, gloves, sanitizers, a guidebook of anti-virus measures for car users, and some new year celebration decorations.

“Given the reoccurrence of the virus in Beijing and people’s service demand in the lead up to the Spring Festival, we are also adapting our services to ensure customers can enjoy a healthy car environment,” said a spokesperson of JD Auto Services.

In addition, JD will roll out a number of car-care services in nearly 100 JD Auto Services stores in 7 cities before the Spring Festival, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Suzhou, Xi’an, Kunming and Chengdu.

Activities will include free-of-charge services for freeze point checking of the coolant, adding engine coolant, charging pole maintenance, electric vehicle rescue within 5 km of the store and more. Other promotional activities include buying 2L of windshield washer fluids at RMB 1 yuan, getting a whole car ozone sterilization service at RMB 9.9 yuan and more.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

By Vivian Yang

A book titled Will Drink Tea （《将饮茶》） by Yang Jiang (1911-2016), a well-known Chinese writer and translator, was auctioned at RMB 66,500 yuan on JD’s auction platform on Jan. 12, after 153 bidding rounds with a starting price of RMB 500 yuan. There are two pages of handwriting dedication between the cover and the title page by Yang and her husband, which makes this book a collectable item.  The inscriptions are poems expressing their mutual respect and appreciation.

Yang was the wife of late Chinese literary giant Qian Zhongshu (1910-1998), who is best known for his satirical novel Fortress Besieged （《围城》）, which is considered one of the masterpieces of twentieth century Chinese literature and widely recognized internationally.

Yang Jiang (left) and Qian Zhongshu

The couple became household names in China not only because of their literary achievements, but also because of their love, recounted through written stories about their relationship and family. In the auctioned book, Madame Yang wrote about how she met and fell in love with Qian, and how they supported each other during their studies in the UK and France from 1935 to 1937, and during the decade-long turbulent period in China from 1966 to 1976.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD Auction is offering exclusive collectables autographed by the soccer superstar Lionel Messi and former NBA superstar Yao Ming for public bidding on Jan. 19.

Messi’s items are 3 jerseys and a soccer ball, all signed by the captain of both the Argentina national team and Barcelona football club. The three different jerseys, with a starting bidding price of RMB 9,900 yuan each, include two Argentina national team’s uniforms for home and away matches, and a Barcelona FC shirt. The soccer ball, with a starting price of RMB 6,600 yuan, was previously for the club’s match use.

Approaching the age of 34, the soccor player has created a lot of beautiful memories for people around the world. For his fans in China, his memorabilia would be a perfect gift for the upcoming Chinese New Year.

Another collectable item that will be offered on JD Auction at the same time is a signed basketball by Yao Ming, the legendary player, starting at a price of RMB 6,600 yuan.

As Chinese people are encouraged to stay where they work for Spring Festival holidays from Feb. 11 to 17 to reduce the possibility of being infected with the coronavirus, many fans in China will likely watch the 2021 NBA all-star game at home. The game will be held Feb. 13 to 15.

“We hope to add some color to the home life of those sports fans during this year’s holiday,” said a spokesperson of JD Auction. “These collectables are very special and rare gifts for the new year.”

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)