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by Yuchuan Wang

JD signed a partnership with Maoxing E-commerce Industrial Park in Shantou, Guangdong province on November 20^th. According to the agreement, JD will launch a warehouse in the park that specifically handles undergarment manufacturers’ goods, with an aim to help local manufacturers further improve logistics efficiency and reduce costs.

According to iiMedia Research, 43.2% of transactions of undergarments in China in 2019 happened online and Shantou is the largest manufacturing base for undergarments in China. For quite some time, manufacturers in Shantou needed to transport their products to Guangzhou, or Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, where China’s largest wholesale markets and the largest number of online merchants are located. The long journey of transportation has previously been a burden for manufacturers in Shantou, but thanks to JD, the situation will be changed.

With the launch of JD’s warehouse, local manufacturers can finally stock their inventory locally in Shantou. JD Logistics will be fully responsible for the transportation from that point forward, and even last-mile delivery to end customers. At the same time, JD will provide operation, traffic and market insights to both manufacturers and merchants, enabling them to not only tap into JD’s advanced supply chain network, but also digital marketing support to better understand the changing demands of Chinese consumers.

“JD’s enormous customer base and logistics network help us accurately grasp market demands and increase the efficiency of logistics transportation,” said Zefeng Zhang, chairman of the Maoxing industrial park. “The collaboration with JD will build a bridge between manufacturers with customers. We look forward to jointly helping Shantou’s undergarments industry explore new sales channels, raise brand awareness, and accelerate the upgrade of the industry.”

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

Leading Chinese convenience store brand Fook (见福) has achieved extensive expansion in Fujian province and the city of Chengdu in the past two months after cooperating with JD.

Fook is the largest convenience store chain brand in Fujian province, southeast China. JD invested in Fook this August, and after leveraging JD’s supply chain and smart logistics, Fook has covered most of the areas in the 3^rd to 5^th tier cities in Fujian, and built over 100 new stores in Chengdu with one-hour delivery service.

Achieving digitalization in the convenience store industry is not easy, as the stores are usually in different geographical areas, and the direct-sale + franchise model used by Fook means higher standards on products and supply chain. According to Haifeng Chen, general manager of strategy innovation at JD FMCG Omnichannel, JD’s support for Fook mainly covers supply chain, products and omnichannel marketing.

On supply chain management, JD has launched the Fook Flagship store to introduce iconic products from Fujian province to customers from all over China. JD also used big data to analyze the most popular products in Fujian as a supplement to Fook’s supply chain. JD’s Location Based Service allows customers to enjoy on-demand delivery when they shop on the Fook store on JD.

Fook also joined JD’s Omnichannel Fulfillment program and saw its sales of online to offline orders increase over 10 times YoY. Over 100 stores have introduced JD’s smart advertisement screen to provide cloud shelves, advertisement exposure and interaction games with customers.

JD’s extensive logistics network that can reach over hundreds of millions of customers is an important supplement to Fook’s original supply chain, which is more focused on delivering products to stores. “Fook’s business was mostly offline before. After working with JD, we have seen new development opportunities in online and offline integration,” said Li Zhang, CEO of Fook.

“JD’s participation has given us more confidence. Previously, we didn’t have that much confidence to say that we can open 30,000 or 50,000 stores. But now with JD in charge of supply chain and Fook in charge of operations, we think Fook will develop very fast in the future,” said Zhang.

(liuchang61@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

Harvard Business School (HBS) students took a virtual field trip to JD.com in Beijing on Nov. 20^th to hear from Natasha Li, director of supply chain planning products in the value supply chain (VSC) division at JD Logistics (JDL). In a session facilitated by HBS professors Willy Shih and Feng Zhu, Li, a veteran in the supply chain industry with over 15 years of experience, shared on the role of intelligent supply chain in JD’s business as well as the services it has opened up to external partners. Over 100 HBS students from all over the world participated in the lively hour-long discussion.

Natasha Li

“JDL is a supply chain platform based on the strategy of ‘technology-driven, leading the world’s efficient circulation and sustainable development’,” explained Li. She added: “Automation and robotics constitute the foundation of JDL’s intelligent supply chain.” This advanced technology is applied in JD’s automated warehouses as well as smart delivery stations and autonomous delivery vehicles, among many other use cases.

Natasha Li (Weijing Li) and HBS professors Willy Shih and Feng Zhu

Li cited JD’s cooperation with global conglomerate Nestlé on a large-scale smart storage and distribution center as an example. She explained that, using JD Logistics’ superior operational capabilities and technology advancements in supply chain management, the distribution center has is able to identify specific products, recognize their locations and use advanced intelligence to visualize and control the migrations or infiltrations of loads between different provinces.

Another critical application of technology is behind the scenes and heavily reliant on an intelligent solutions system. “The application of smart technology like AI has greatly improved the efficiency of our supply chain,” said Li. She explained that, through AI, JD is able to efficiently and orderly manage over six million SKUs maintaining an industry-leading 34.3 inventory turnover days, all while delivering over 90% of first party retail orders in just 24 hours.

JDL is opening up its capabilities to other companies as a service, and is becoming a platform.

JDL’s value supply chain (VSC) empowers various industries with supply chain technology. In the discussion, Li shared one example of Company W, an automobile company that is a beneficiary of JD’s VSC. She explained that the company needs to manage tens of thousands of after-sales spare parts. Previously, the company was heavily reliant on a very rudimentary Excel-based system, requiring huge amounts of manual labor and guess work, resulting in the company facing high inventory and logistics costs, no ability to conduct sales forecasts, mismatched capability planning, and inharmonious collaboration between suppliers and automobile company.

JDL’s VSC team used JD’s technology to set up a smart decision making engine, an algorithms platform covering AI, optimization and forecasting, and a simulation center. Through the “Jinghui” digital supply chain platform product, JD helped Company W realize systematization of supplier – RDC (regional distribution center) – “4S” stores, and set up demand driven forecasting, big data insights-driven decision making and more. Implementing the Jinghui system reduced the supply hierarchy and enabled the company to achieve network-wide collaboration. As a result, customer service improved 10% and inventory turnover days were reduced from 50-80 to 30-35.

Agility is one of the core advantages of JD’s supply chain and also the secret to its peak performance, as well as that of its partners. “The adoption of big data application and AI algorithms makes all aspects of the supply chain, such as demand forecasting, inventory allocation, and operations scheduling more accurate, efficient and perceptive to change.”

This is something that was made clear at the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. “During the pandemic, the agility of JD’s supply chain made it possible for the company to quickly respond to emergencies and ensure the recovery of production capabilities.” For example, JDL quickly increased inventory in its various front warehouses based on consumption big data to make sure that goods were placed as close to customers and could be delivered as soon as possible. Separately, at the end of December 2019, before the official COVID-19 outbreak was called, JDL’s monitoring system flagged a significant increase in mask sales in Wuhan, Hubei province, and immediately prepared 70,000 masks for its courier in the city and carried out replenishment and internal alerts.

The session concluded with an interactive Q&A in which students asked about a wide range of topics including returns, sustainability and more. On returns, Li explained that efficient logistics for returns is an important aspect of JD’s customer service value proposition. She explained: When it is easy to make returns, it helps customers feel more comfortable about making decisions to place orders more quickly because they know that if something doesn’t fit or isn’t the right color, they can return it hassle-free. As for sustainability, Li mentioned that JD plans to reduce carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 as part of a long-term commitment to increasing sustainability in the supply chain.

(ella@jd.com)

by Yuchuan Wang

The second annual Divine Farmer Forum was held in JD’s headquarters in Beijing on November 16^th. At this forum, JD introduced the latest developments in its JD Farm project, which leverages advanced technologies such as IoT, blockchain and big data to advance the farming industry. Nearly 40 JD farms have been launched across the country so far.

Established in 2019, the Divine Farmer Forum is committed to exploring the development path of agriculture. Co-organized by Renmin University’s China Cooperative Research Institute, JD Farm and Flyteam, a Beijing based agricultural consulting company, over 400 representatives from China’s Ministry of Agricultural and Rural Affairs, municipal governments, agricultural associations, consulting companies and enterprises attended the forum.

JD showcased some examples done by JD Farm at the forum. In Linqu, Shandong province, the locally bred “Little Qiao honey peach” is tasty because it contains more sugar than average, but it easily cracks during the growing period and can be affected by low temperature during Springtime. In 2018, JD Farm began to equip the traditional peach farm with advanced technologies.

According to Yongjun Gao, general manager of “Little Qiao” family farm”, JD Farm applied an IoT digital agricultural system which is able to monitor water source, soil, climate and insect infestation. With real-time data, the system is able to forecast and provide alerts for natural hazards, suggest how fertilizer and pesticides should be applied, and improve the overall quality of fruits.

Little Qiao family farm is also able to sell its honey peaches across China online, thanks to JD’s e-commerce platform.

“Leveraging JD’s technology and e-commerce abilities, we bring produce directly from farms to consumers’ tables at the best price,” said Baozheng Long, vice president at JD.com. “The application of smart supply chain, IoT, blockchain, AI and big data will further drive the industry to develop and help farmers earn more.”

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)