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by Vivian Yang

Ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival, Beijing resident Mr. Liu ordered more than ten hairy crabs from JD.com on Sept 22^nd. A few hours after receiving the order, he discovered that several of the crabs were dead. He immediately reported this to JD, and received the standard double refund within a day. Case closed, right? Not so fast. Mr. Liu discovered later that it was actually his six-year-old son who was the crab-tampering culprit.

On the day when the order arrived at home, Mr. Liu placed the crabs in a basin covered by a piece of cardboard so the crabs could not run away. He then answered an important phone call in another room. When Mr. Liu returned to check the basin, he peeked into the basin and noticed that several of the crabs were dead.

Mr. Liu immediately called JD – according to the company’s fresh crab delivery promise, customers are eligible to receive a double refund for each dead crab received during the Mid-Autumn Festival. His request was quickly processed to his satisfaction.

It was not until the next day when Mr. Liu was doing a casual review of his home monitor video that he discovered that his six-year-old son had facilitated the crabs’ “prison break”, going so far as to tie small ropes to the crabs in an attempt to walk them like dogs, and pretended to battle the crabs. During the “play” session, several of the crabs died.

When Mr. Liu returned from his phone call, his son was too scared to admit what had happened. It was only the next day when the boy was confronted with the video that he admitted what had actually happened.

Mr. Liu called JD’s customer services at once, and apologized for previous wrong complaint. He insisted on returning the refund.

“If it hadn’t been for the monitor video, I wouldn’t have known what really had happened at my home,” Mr. Liu said.  “I felt embarrassed for requesting a refund.”

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

by Martin Li

American industrial products giant 3M has opened a flagship store on the JD MRO e-commerce platform.

JD MRO is JD’s B2B subsidiary for industrial maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products and services.

3M’s online store on JD MRO is aimed at providing enterprises with an efficient procurement channel for industrial products by combining 3M’s quality supplies and JD’s experience in e-commerce operations and understanding of enterprise consumers. JD will use its advantages to help 3M to display its industrial products online to increase selection and procurement efficiency for enterprise customers.

“We chose to cooperate with JD MRO for its technology, resource and experience in the digitalization of industrial products, all of which are expected to provide strong support for the digital transformation of 3M’s channel. In the future, we will continue deepening our cooperation with JD MRO to explore smart procurement solutions, with an aim to better serve consumers,” said Yang Tong, director of 3M’s industrial product channel for Greater China.

3M has developed more than 60,000 products in the past over 100 years, becoming a household name in China. Each year it unveils several hundreds of new products.

The companies signed a cooperation agreement at the 22^nd China International Industrial Fair in Shanghai earlier this month.

During the fair, JD also signed a cooperation deal with Linde (China) Forklift Truck Corp., Ltd, subsidiary of KION Group, which is a leading global manufacturer of forklift trucks and warehouse trucks, and a solutions and services provider for intralogistics.

JD and Linde will deepen cooperation in business-to-manufacturing model and online-to-offline integration.

(bjlihao3@jd.com)

by Rachel Liu

Mooncakes are essential snacks for Chinese consumers during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional festival for family reunion. However, the mooncake-making industry in China is not standardized. For example, some bakery and confectionary choose nearly expired flour to make mooncakes, or use artificial ingredients to replace high-quality ones. JD’s buyers ensure that consumers can buy high-quality mooncakes on JD with peace of mind.

“Although the government has very high standards about the quality and proportion of mooncake ingredients, many factories are still finding opportunities to lower the cost by using low-quality ingredients,” said Shuai Feng, one of the mooncake buyers from JD.  “Hygiene is also a big issue for the industry. Our job is to select high quality and tasty mooncakes for our customers.” Feng and other buyers personally taste the mooncakes to ensure quality, and some of them gained over 10kg in a single month as a result.

Half a year before the Mid-Autumn Festival, Feng and his colleagues started to visit the mooncake brands to identify reliable sources for the mooncakes on JD. Before selling on JD, each brand needs to meet a complete set of criteria. JD’s quality control department will also strictly inspect the production process to ensure the quality of each mooncake.

In its commitment to ultimate satisfaction, JD allows its customers to return the mooncakes that they are not satisfied. The returned products will not be sold to another customer, even if they don’t look like they have been tampered with.

Sales of mooncakes on JD have surged in the last few months. From July 21^st to September 16^th, sales of the Forbidden City themed mooncake gift box developed through JD’s Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) initiative increased 143% YOY, and became the most popular mooncake gift box on JD. The Starbucks mooncake box also saw sales increase among young customers. “Customers not only care about the quality of mooncakes, but also the taste. We need to follow the trends closely and provide the most popular mooncakes to consumers,” said Feng.

To develop new products, the mooncake buyers spent a lot of time analyzing customer profiles and market trends. For example, sugar-free mooncakes, particularly suitable for people with diabetes and people on diet, received great popularity once launched. Feng also found that with the consumption upgrade, customers are not just looking for cheap products. Expensive, high-end mooncakes are chosen by more and more customers on JD.

(liuchang61@jd.com)