Topic

by Yuchuan Wang

In January, JD.com unveiled the “Spring Dawn” initiative, which makes it easier for different types of merchants, including start-ups, self-employed businesses, and enterprises to launch stores on the platform. In just over two months, college students, farmers, veterans, designers, craftsmen and others have taken advantage of this feature to launch their business on JD.

Liang, a college student from Xiamen, Fujian province, is a young entrepreneur who creates self-designed teaching aids such as cell models for biology courses. Seeking to the growth of his business, Liang joined the initiative and opened a store on JD.com. Sales in early March have already increased by over 200 percent compared to the previous month.

The initiative features 12 supportive measures that are aimed at lowering costs and increasing sales for merchants. JD streamlines the store-launch process for individual owners, and it now takes as little as 10 minutes to complete. In addition, JD offers no-cost trial operations and gift packages for newly opened stores, among resources.

Simon Han, vice president of JD.com and head of JD Retail Marketplace Ecology said that JD.com is delivering on its commitment to create a fair, efficient, and easy-to-use ecosystem for merchants. JD will continue to expand marketplace business models, reduce merchants’ operational costs, increase their efficiency, provide end-to-end services to micro, small and medium-sized merchants, and help them achieve long-term stable growth.

In 2022, there was a 34 percent increase year-over-year of new merchants launching on JD.com. As of Q4 2022, the number of third-party merchants on JD.com has grown by more than 20 percent year-over-year for eight consecutive quarters.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

On March 10, JD.com joined representatives from the Colombian Embassy to China and Colombia Coffee Grower Federation (FNC) to host a coffee-tasting salon at JD’s headquarters in Beijing to promote some of the world’s finest coffee to Chinese consumers.

“One out of every ten green coffee beans imported by China comes from Colombia,” said Natalia Tobon, the Commercial Counselor of the Embassy and Director of ProColombia China in her speech We are confident that with JD’s support, this number will continue to grow.” Tobon’s remarks referred to Colombia’s coffee exports to China in 2022, which were valued at $78.4 million, representing a 66 percent increase from the previous year.

Natalia Tobon (middle), Commercial Counselor of the Embassy and Director of ProColombia China

Tao Ren, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD FMCG marketplace, highlighted the rapid growth of Chinese consumers’ appetite for the best coffee from different countries. He also emphasized the significant market opportunity for Colombian coffee – the world’s only arabica proudly branded after a country’s name.

Tao Ren, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD FMCG marketplace

JD.com is currently utilizing a variety of channels to introduce more Colombian coffee products to the Chinese market. These include its market platform, first-party sales, as well as through its pavilion of Latin America and the Caribbean Countries. The national pavilion program is an innovative online sales window on JD.com that is endorsed by embassies to provide diversified authentic imported products from their respective origin countries.

Jiahang Wu, FNC’s Chief Representative for Greater China, highlighted the unique features of Colombia as the world’s third-largest coffee-producing country, ranging from its weather and land advantages, hand-picking harvest and processing technics, colorful aromas and tastes, to its growers’ federation and worldwide branding efforts.

Jiahang Wu, Chief Representative for Greater China, Colombian Coffee Growers Federation 

Participants at the event had the opportunity to try four varieties of Colombian coffee, including Pink Bourbon, Geisha, Castillo, and Sidra, which opened up new senses and flavors for tasters, allowing them to explore coffee in ways they never knew existed.

Mian Li, Founder of S.O.E Coffee who provided brewing service for the event, shared his observation on China’s coffee consumption trend. Li noted that the specialty coffee market is experiencing considerable growth, and emerging types of coffee, such as freeze-dried coffee, drip coffee and many other new products are well received by the young generation of consumers. Li’s company’s sales data showed that the highest consumption demand for specialty coffee comes from the second- and sixth-tier cities as it is generally believed that young consumers living in lower-tier cities have more dispensable income and a stronger passion for trendy products, which further demonstrated the widespread and high demand for great coffee among Chinese consumers.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

 

by Mary Ma

The on-demand delivery service platform from Dada Group (Nasdaq: DADA) (“Dada”), Dada Now, has recently launched an automobile delivery service, to better support small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

To date, the automobile delivery service has been launched in more than 60 cities nationwide, including Beijing, Harbin, Fuzhou, Changsha, Hefei and Shanghai, among others. The accumulated number of fulfilled orders has reached over 3.3 million, and the total delivery mileage has exceeded 38 million kilometers.

Previously in the Chinese market, delivery services have predominantly used two-wheeled electric vehicles to fulfill orders, but Dada Now has now introduced automobiles to better fulfill the demand of SMEs and personal users in various scenarios. Automobiles have clear advantages over two-wheeled electric vehicles in this respect, in being able to deliver heavy load, delicate products for long distances to an extent that two-wheeled electric vehicles cannot.

Dada rider waited to pick up a flower bouquet  for on-demand delivery

The service has been adopted by hundreds of thousands of SMEs and personal users. Also, as for intra-city, long-distance orders, the average delivery time of automobiles is 20 minutes faster than electric vehicles.

Since launching in July 2021, Dada Now has established a comprehensive delivery capacity, including electric vehicles, automobiles and autonomous delivery, to provide high-quality, efficient delivery services at an affordable cost.

About Dada Group

Dada Group is a leading platform of local on-demand retail and delivery in China. It operates JDDJ, one of China’s largest local on-demand retail platforms for retailers and brand owners, and Dada Now, a leading local on-demand delivery platform open to merchants and individual senders across various industries and product categories. The Company’s two platforms are inter-connected and mutually beneficial. The Dada Now platform enables improved delivery experience for participants on the JDDJ platform through its readily accessible fulfillment solutions and strong on-demand delivery infrastructure. Meanwhile, the vast volume of on-demand delivery orders from the JDDJ platform increases order volume and density for the Dada Now platform. In June 2020, Dada Group began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market, under the ticker symbol “DADA.”

 

(mayiqian3@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

For the second consecutive year, JD.com is listed as one of the Top 10 retailers worldwide, according to the Global Powers of Retailing 2023 Report released by Deloitte in late February. The company rises from ninth to seventh place in this year’s ranking.

Deloitte analyzed the top 250 retailers around the globe, and the analysis is based on the financial performance and operations for the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2022.

As the only Chinese company to make the list, JD.com is also identified as the fastest growing retailer among the Top 10 global retailers, with a 25.1percent year-on-year growth rate. Deloitte also highlights that despite the challenging retail environment in China, JD.com is driven by sales of general merchandise and increased active customers.

This June marks the 20^th anniversary of JD.com. The company is also recognized for having made enormous effort in environment, social and governance initiatives. JD released its second annual ESG report in May 2022, and was selected by the UN’s Global Compact China Network as one of the “Best Practices for Enterprises to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals 2021.”

The report also notes that the top 10 retailers boosted their digital capabilities via in-store technologies or through enhancing omni-channel offerings. For example, JD.com launched “Shop Now,” an on-demand retail service that provides one-hour fulfillment.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Vivian Yang

JD.com’s Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute released the 2022 Female Consumption Report in conjunction with International Women’s Day on March 8, revealing a host of trends related to women’s shopping preferences for better health, self-realization and sustainability.

Consumption data showed that the spending growth rate of the so-called “She Power” on JD.com exceeded males’ by 5.51 percent in the past year. Some key data and findings include:

• The consumption growth rate of personal care products increased significantly among female shoppers on JD.com in 2022, outpacing that of the beauty category. Although fewer social interactions due to COVID-19 partly contributed to this result, the contrast showed female users’ growing pursuit for their own care and interests.
• Women are leading the way in healthy eating. They bought 2.49 times more organic food products than men on JD.com in 2022. In general, women are stronger buyers of fresh produce. JD’s data showed that sales of vegetables increased 81 percent YoY, and that of low-temperature milk grew 54 percent. Grapes, cherries, blueberries, and other fruits all achieved over 40 percent growth. Healthy-scented and fruit tea, and fruit wines are also popular choices among women.
• In the same vein, female users bought an increasing amount of inner-beauty-building products such as antioxidant astaxanthin and collagen products, which saw 63 percent and 49 percent sales growth respectively YoY. Meanwhile, the transaction volume of immune-enhancing health products such as amino acids and protein powder increased by 42 percent and the growth rate of vitamin/mineral health products rose by more than 50 percent.
• Female users’ spending on education and training-related products on JD.com increased nearly 30 percent YoY, with remarkable growth rates being seen on training courses for arts (8.18 times), investment and finance (2.56 times) and postgraduate entrance examination (2.71 times).
• Women also spent 1.43 times more than men on fitness and outdoor gear. Their overall expenditures on outdoor, fitness, cycling, swimming, yoga, and roller skating products account for 88.72 percent in this category.
• Psychological health is of equal importance when it comes to women’s preferred consumption. JD Health’s data showed that female users spent more on its platform on services related to personal emotional management (17.5 times), workplace psychological counseling (16.2 times), and marriage counseling (5.6 times) compared with 2021.
• The report also pointed out that women play a leading role in many households in driving sustainable consumption. They showed a stronger preference for energy-saving, recyclable, and trade-in products, especially when shopping for home appliances, decorations and furniture.

Read more about JD.com’s observation and efforts on women’s role in driving sustainable and inclusive development.

• JD.com and APEC Women Leadership Forum Co-Launch Report on Women’s Contributions to Sustainable Consumption and Production
• JD.com Recognized for Best Practice of Women Empowerment by APEC
• JD.com Included in 2023 Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index

(vivian.yang@jd.com)