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 20th 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.
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 announced on February 27 that it will join hands with Chinese motorcycle maker CFMOTO to support the Germany-based Racing PruestelGP team as it competes in the Moto3 World Championship 2023.
PruestelGP’s bike rebadged with JD Auto’s logo
CFMOTO made its debut in Moto3 in 2022 and achieved the seventh place out of 16 racing teams in the Grand Prix. This year, CFMOTO Racing PruestelGP will be represented by two racers: Xavier Artigas (No. 43) from Spain and Joel Kelso (No. 66) from Australia, both 20 years old. Artigas scored 83 points for the team in the 2022 season, and Kelso had his first full season at Moto3 last year.
CFMOTO Racing PruestelGP, Xavier Artigas (right) and Joel Kelso
JD Auto and CFMOTO started comprehensive cooperation during the 618 Grand Promotion in 2022 on aspects ranging from branding, new product releases, fans operation, customer financial services on vehicle purchase, and enrollment in riding schools.
In 2022, a number of CFMOTO’s new motorcycles such as the 450SR, 250SR and 250CL-X series were exclusively launched on JD Auto. The number of CFMOTO vehicles sold on JD Auto increased nearly 30 percent YoY in the past two years. In 2023, the two sides will continue to deepen cooperation in various fields, such as online and offline integration, new product releases, offline maintenance services, and so on.
Two-wheel vehicles and their aftermarkets are important businesses for JD Auto. Last April, JD Auto launched China’s first online library for motorcycle models, which included 119 brands of mainstream motorcycles and electric vehicles sold on the Chinese market, presenting users with one-stop service for vehicle shopping.
On February 27, one day before the global “Rare Disease Day,” JD Health pledged to step up efforts on supporting people with rare diseases through its “Twenty Million Care Project,” referring to the estimated number of affected patients in China.
Under the project, JD Health launched a new “doctor-searching map for rare diseases” in collaboration with Bo’ao Winhealth Rare Disease Medical Center, gathering information about doctors with experience in treating rare diseases across China and classifying their geographical locations. There’s a saying that goes, “Doctors for rare diseases are even rarer than patients.” JD Health’s digital map is thus created to fill this information gap.
With the help of the map, patients can conveniently look up and contact doctors relevant to their health conditions in areas close to their residence. In some cases, doctors and patients can directly chat online before making in-person appointments.
At the same time, in order to make medicines for rare diseases more accessible, JD Health has been building its medicine supplies in this field since 2021, and as of now is offering nearly 80 percent of medicines and all types of food for special purposes for rare diseases that are available on the Chinese market, becoming China’s most comprehensive online retailer for medicines of this category.
Thanks to JD’s well-established infrastructure of nationwide logistics and omni-channel drug store network, JD Health blazes the path to deliver rare disease medicines whenever and wherever people need them in the country. In 2022, 71,000 patients acquired their medicines for rare diseases and corresponding medical services through JD Health.
Additionally, JD Health’s rare disease care foundation has so far allocated RMB 2.23 million yuan to patients living with any of 35 types of rare diseases. The project also organized 34 charity activities that helped raise more than RMB 700,000 yuan, and attracted over 50,000 merchants on its platform to join this charity program through making voluntary donations per sale. To date, the program has received more than 55 million donations.
Enlin Jin, CEO of JD Health, pointed out that the issue of rare diseases is not only a medical challenge, but also one that affects the whole society. Besides charitable activities, JD Health will continue improving the services for this group of patients, letting more people truly feel supported with medicine supplies and other medical resources, which will be easily accessible and inclusively affordable. Meanwhile, JD Health, as a platform, will also do its best to raise awareness across a wider range of society to support people with rare diseases.
JD Logistics United States, JD.com’s North American logistics arm, recently announced the opening of its third self-operating warehouse and distribution center in California.
The new warehouse, together with the company’s No.1 and No.2 California warehouses, will create more than 300 local jobs while growing the JD.com’s footprint to over 1.3 million square feet of warehousing space throughout the state.
Joining the company’s best-in-class global logistics network, JD.com’s new warehouse provides omnichannel fulfillment services for both online and offline orders and is a testament to the company’s commitment to utilizing cutting-edge supply chain technology.
“Demand has shifted from the major e-commerce platforms to smaller independent operators, which has led to fragmented supply chains, adding further complexity and challenges to supply chain management, said Gordon Lu, General Manager of JD Logistics United States. “As more and more retailers are shifting from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce platforms, retailers continue to sell their products on multiple e-commerce platforms, which requires utilizing multiple warehouses to handle B2B and B2C orders, dramatically increasing their holding costs. This is a challenge JD Logistics is uniquely equipped to solve.”
In this new generation of fulfillment, JD Logistics is replicating elements of its world-class logistics operation in China and bringing those capabilities to address supply chain challenges in North America, Lu explained. This includes providing greater flexibility, inventory optimization, and storage cost reduction to retailers.
One of JD Logistics’ warehouses in California utilizes a container transport unit (CTU) robot system.
Goods are delivered to the warehouse by trucks, where they’re offloaded onto a network of automated conveyors and swiftly scanned, sorted, and stored by fast-moving, self-operating robots. This system allows warehouse employees to wait in designated working stations while the CTUs pick up and drop off goods. Image scanners check the packages in microseconds, while JD’s smart logistics system calculates where the packages should be dropped off. The packages are then grouped by region into larger bins, which are picked up by forklifts and brought to the corresponding trucks for delivery to their final destination.
JD.com’s CTU system helped increase the number of storage units from 10,000 to 35,000 by making full use of the height of the warehouse and improved operating efficiency by 300%.
In addition to warehousing, JD Logistics United States is among the few third-party logistics companies to provide transfer, last-mile delivery, aftersales and maintenance, cross-border transportation, and other services in one stop. JD Logistics’ industry-leading logistics automation capabilities also extend the order cut-off time from the industry average of 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM, giving merchants who work with JD Logistics an extra hour each day to have their same-day orders processed for delivery.
In addition to its three California warehouses, JD Logistics United States also operates two warehouses in New Jersey and one in Georgia, enabling the company to deploy inventory across the country and ensure products are placed closer to end-consumers, further shortening delivery time.
“Two-to-three-day delivery currently covers 90% of our regions, and we’re aiming to ensure two-day delivery across the entire country in the future,” said Lu. “This will eliminate barriers in the supply chain and enable us to elevate the already best-in-class logistics services we provide to our customers.”
JD Logistics operates over 1,500 warehouses in China, and its international business operates approximately 90 bonded warehouses, international direct mail warehouses, and overseas warehouses globally, covering an aggregate gross floor area of approximately 900,000 square meters with an over 70 percent increase year-over-year.
JD Auto and China Building Material Test & Certification Group (CTC) jointly launched a set of quality certification standards for paint protection films on February 23 in Shanghai during an industrial forum held by CTC, an authoritative national quality certification company. These standards will measure four key performance metrics of paint protection films, including resistance against yellowing, aging, impact and glue properties.
Based on these standards, JD Auto will grant distinguishable tags to qualified paint protection film merchandise on its site, together with detailed quality test reports. It will also conduct regular spot checks on certified products to ensure consistency.
At the same time, a number of leading brands including Eastman, 3M, MOXIAOER and other film makers reached an agreement with JD Auto and CTC for deeper collaboration throughout the product management process, ranging from user research, product iteration, platformization of the certification system, increasing online traffic for brand stores, to after-sales service.
“This cooperation on building quality certification standards reflects a desire for synergy between JD Auto and our brand partners, which on the one hand will help JD supply high-quality paint protection film products on our platform, and on the other side, enable certified brands to gain an increasing number of customers’ attention and trust,” said Xiaowei Che, general manager of JD Auto’s car goods department.
Additionally, JD Auto offers a “product+service” package, by which consumers can enjoy free-of-charge installation service after ordering paint protection film products on the platform, lowering the costs for both sellers and buyers. Meanwhile thanks to higher cooperation and consumption efficiency, such service also enables JD to continuously provide high-quality automotive products at competitive prices.
With the phenomenal success of POP MART and similar brands in China’s art toy or “chao wan” market, JD Super, the FMCG department under JD.com, reported 82 percent YoY sales growth in the collectible toy category in 2022.
Collectible toys by POP MART
China’s increasing customer base of so-called ‘kidults’ has driven the industry boom, with data by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences showing that the market grew at a compound annual growth rate of more than 34 percent in the past seven years from 2015 to 2021. JD Super worked closely with leading players such as POP MART, Rolife, 52TOYS, BANDAI, and more, to bring the craze online with rich merchandise diversity and novel shopping experiences.
For example, to create an immersive experience for fans of Tencent’s Honor of Kings (HoK), the world’s largest mobile game, JD Super and HoK jointly launched a Super IP Day in 2022. During the promotional day on HoK’s JD flagship store, all of the IP’s collectible toys were made available in this single launch; 1,000 limited characters’ skin cards that bridge the physical and virtual worlds were sold in a blink of an eye. The campaign aroused wide attention beyond HoK fans, drawing 260 million clicks and 850 million viewership across the internet.
JD Super also took decisive actions to set up dedicated staff to identify emerging IP brands, recruit new sellers, and provide store assessment and training programs to help merchants effectively operate their online stores.
For 2023, JD Super will continue to enhance the variety of merchandise, expand the categories of art toys, and support brand partners to strengthen their market competitiveness, said Juan Ding, the general manager overseeing the toy category at JD.com.
Luxury products, watches, beauty products, and gold and pearl jewelry remain popular Valentine’s Day gift choices among JD.com’s customers, demonstrating remarkable sales growth during the promotion period, according to a report released on February 14 by the J Shop, JD’s upgraded fashion and lifestyle omni-channel business.
LV, Tiffany and Bulgari became the most popular luxury brands among consumers, as shown by J Shop’s sales data. From Feb 8 to 13, the transaction volume of nearly 200 luxury and watch brands increased by more than 100 percent year-on-year on JD Luxury, and that of top luxury brands increased by more than 5 times year-on-year. Sales of Roger Viver and CELINE increased by more than 10 times year-on-year, and became the top luxury brands with the fastest growth rate during Valentine’s Day.
Moreover, Tiffany & Co. officially joined JD.com, which marked the brand’s first official third-party online flagship store in China, adding a new channel for Chinese consumers to access more choices and experiences for luxury shopping.
Meanwhile, beauty and skincare gift boxes saw a strong increase in sales. Lipsticks, facial essence, gift sets, perfumes and lotions ranked as the top 5 in the beauty and skincare category of J Shop.
Sales of gold jewelry, value-for-money pearl jewelry, as well as more personalized jewelry surged as well. Gold items such as gold necklaces, bracelets and more grew by more than 100 percent from Feb 8 to 14. Pearl brands overall increased by 213 percent in sales year-on-year, among which minimalist models were most preferred.
