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Technology Powers JD Logistics’ Fast Service during Singles’ Day Grand Promotion

by Yuchuan Wang

JD Logistics will leverage multiple technologies to secure steady operations and fast fulfillment for customers’ orders, powered by automation, AI, big data and more, during this Single’s Day Grand Promotion.

As the first logistics company in China to adopt address precision recognition technology, the company utilizes a 5-level address management service which leverages spatiotemporal big data and natural language processing technologies to analyze the address information input by customers. In China, addresses can be quite complicated, and postal codes are not always required for mail, especially for e-commerce parcels. The technology can precisely recognize address information, thus speeding up the fulfillment process and raising fulfillment accuracy.

Additionally, millions of kinds of products will be put in the nearest warehouses to customers and even in the delivery stations in their residential compounds, thanks to sales forecasting, so that couriers can deliver to their doorsteps as soon as the order is made, making delivery in minutes possible in 200 cities across China.

Ahead of this year’s Singles’ Day, the second phase of JD’s Xi’an Asia No.1 logistics park was put into use. Its autonomous delivery vehicles service area will also be expanded to more cities including Wuxi, Guiyang, Nanning and more. This intelligent contact-less automated delivery service also serves Sam’s Club and SEVEN FRESH supermarkets.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

JD.com Supports Merchants’ Growth during Singles’ Day Grand Promotion

by Doris Liu

JD.com released its support plan for merchants of 267 industrial belts across China at a press conference on Oct. 24 for the ongoing Singles’ Day Grand Promotion, among other measures to optimize the environment for businesses under the theme of “A More Solid Life” this year.

Industry belts

The plan, jointly promoted by local governments, business associations, service providers and so on, has been deemed the largest ever for industrial belts with the most comprehensive coverage of product categories to lower the entry threshold and fee standard for merchants, and offer full-chain service with multiple store models. The plan also includes ten supportive measures such as free proxy to set up a store on JD.com, fee reduction, merchant training, supply chain support, etc.

The majority of the industrial belt merchants are small-scale and are scattered across the country, sharing a common demand of moving their main business from offline to online to realize digital transformation, as well as gaining new growth among fierce and homogeneous competition, said Jiandong Jiang, head of business development for the platform ecosystem department of JD Retail.

For instance, a new model of factory store was launched by JD.com to help industrial belt merchants who have excellent products from the source, but lack e-commerce operation ability. In this new model, the merchants can act as upstream suppliers for other businesses with a commission fee as low as 0.5 percent.

Rating and traffic

To precisely tackle operation issues for merchants and stimulate local employment, JD.com has been fully unleashing its advantages accumulated from concrete infrastructure construction in supply chain over nearly two decades, building a stable and reliable relationship with merchants.

In the past five years, the number of merchants participating in JD’s Singles’ Day Grand Promotion increased by 65 percent, with product categories up 83 percent and new brands rising by 40 percent, according to data released by JD’s Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute at the press conference. In the first half of 2022, the average transaction volume of stores on JD.com grew 2.2 times compared with that of the same period in 2019, and more than 25,000 stores achieved over 100 percent sales growth year over year, the institute’s data shows.

JD aims to improve 20 percent of traffic for its merchants within the omni-channel ecosystem, while also providing 102 service products to guarantee a double lift in merchants’ service quality and sales during the Singles’ Day campaign. For example, the latest upgrade of JD’s star rating system will update the store’s rating results every day from more detailed dimensions, so that the system can not only better guide customers’ consumption, but also help high-rating stores gain exposure across more channels with more opportunities to join in JD’s marketing activities, which offer over 100 benefits for merchants. The initiative encourages stores with better service and products to grow, expand and be more easily accessible to customers.

JD Super

JD Super, JD’s omni-channel supermarket business, also ushered in dozens of measures to reduce fees for setting up a third-party store by up to 80 percent during the Singles’ Day promotion. Deposits for merchants who are setting up stores of fresh products, fruits and vegetables was reduced from RMB 20,000 yuan to RMB 5,000 yuan; while fees for food, beverage and the remaining categories were cut from RMB 50,000 yuan to RMB 10,000 yuan. Additionally, JD Super waives the first month of the annual service fee for new merchants of JD Pet, and continues to reimburse the service fee if vendors reach the sales target of RMB 30,000 yuan every month.

Based on a responsible supply chain, JD.com treats the Singles’ Day Grand Promotion not only as a shopping festival for consumers, but also as a partner-focused opportunity to support merchants in reducing costs, increasing efficiency and gaining stable growth.

The ongoing pre-sales phase of the promotion started at 8 pm on October 20. The official sales event will kick off at 8 pm on October 31, and is expected to culminate on the night of the 10th through the end of the 11th of November.

 

(liujun215@jd.com)

Lightning-Fast Refunds and More: JD Upgrades Customer Services

by Yiming Yan

As JD.com kicks off its 2022 Singles Day Grand Promotion with the theme of “A More Solid Life,” customers will enjoy exemplary services as JD’s full link service inputs have increased by more than 50 percent annually.

“The JD 2022 Singles Day Grand Promotion will bring more comprehensive, and warm service for customers,” said Chen Lin, vice president of JD.com and head of platform business for JD Retail.

To address the problem of price fluctuations during the long period of the promotion, JD is offering a 30-day price guarantee policy that covers over 500 million items, also applicable to goods purchased with coupons.

JD has also introduced a number of worry-free return options in the after-sales sector. Home appliances, mobile phones, baby products, and other items are covered by the “180-day exchange without repair” policy, and lightning-fast refunds can return money in as little as one second.

JD has also introduced tailored services for different consumer demographics. For instance, “Elders Exclusive Customer Service” updates seven services specifically for the senior population. To provide pet owners with a full variety of pet-raising services, JD has also launched the website “Pet Adviser.” Parents who purchase diapers from JD can benefit from a 90-day unconditional return or change policy to make sure their baby is healthy and comfortable.

JD will also safeguard customers’ logistic experience throughout this Singles Day Grand Promotion. Consumers in more than 200 cities can enjoy fast logistics experience, with purchases delivered within hours.

Additionally, JD Logistics has unveiled a “full insurance” service that enables consumers to receive a full refund in the event that there are issues with the delivery. To ensure logistics effectiveness, the Phase II Project of JD’s Asia No. 1 Logistics Park also started operating a few days before the Singles Day Grand Promotion.

Service has long been one of JD’s key competitive advantages in addition to cost-effective authority goods, and with more than 50 percent yearly growth in inputs for full link services, JD has elevated the service to a first-class level during this Singles Day Grand Promotion.

 

(yanyiming1@jd.com)

JD Ramps Up Omni-channel for 2022 Singles’ Day Grand Promotion

by Mengyang He

As JD.com kicked off its 2022 Singles’ Day Grand Promotion this week under the theme of “A More Solid Life,” it ramps up its omni-channel capabilities to better serve customers and aims to provide them with an excellent shopping experience.

With the full-fledged participation of JD’s omni-channel businesses, JD will leverage its physical stores of all forms in this year’s activities, including JD MALL, the J Shop, SEVEN FRESH supermarket, JD Auto maintenance stores, JD Pharmacy, JD Worldwide’s experience stores for cross-border products, and more.

In addition, with JD’s on-demand service covering nearly 400 cities across China, JD’s supply chain service will greatly enhance the digital and fulfillment strength of tens of thousands of JD-operated stores and over three million offline stores.

JD also aims to support merchants by increasing 20 percent of their omni-channel traffic during the sales period, further facilitating their operational processes and lowering costs, and introducing 102 service products to boost sales growth and ensure service experiences.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

JD.com 2022 Singles’ Day Grand Promotion: For a More Solid Life

by Vivian Yang

JD.com unveiled its 2022 Singles’ Day Grand Promotion with a press conference on October 24th in Beijing. Under the theme of “A More Solid Life” , this year’s shopping festival promises stronger incentives on prices, products and services for customers, as well as greater growth opportunities for millions of merchants.

The ongoing pre-sales phase of the promotion started at 8 p.m. on October 20. The official sales event will kick off at 8 p.m. on October 31, and is expected to culminate on the night of the 10th through the end of the 11th.

“This year’s Single’s Day Grand Promotion will feature easier rules, greater discounts, more varieties of new and trending products, and fuller and thoughtful service experiences,” said Chen Lin, vice president of JD.com and head of JD Retail’s platform business center at the press conference.

Chen Lin, vice president of JD.com and head of JD Retail’s platform business center 

Better Prices, Products, and Customer Services

An RMB 50 yuan discount is offered for every RMB 299 yuan spent on JD.com across all categories during the promotion period. JD PLUS members are entitled to extra subsidies. Cell phone shoppers will enjoy a 1.2 times price guarantee and so forth.

JD Cloud will support cities like Shanghai, Wuhan, Taiyuan, and more to distribute shopping coupons, and JD Technology will join hands with several banks to give out red envelopes totaling tens of millions of digital Yuan in 23 pilot regions across the country.

Cost-effective and high-quality products will be highlighted, such as C2M (Customer-to-Manufacturer) products, farm-to-table fresh produce, duty-free imported products and more. These highly popular types of products, coupled with attractive prices are intended to help consumers genuinely feel the benefits and practicality of engaging in the shopping festival.

Meanwhile, more than 3 million products have been labeled environmentally friendly following JD’s “Green Impact Initiative”. Their buyers will be rewarded “carbon energy” points that can be redeemed for goodies.

Additionally, customers will no longer need to wait or worry about price changes. To provide consumers with peace of mind to make orders whenever they want during the promotion season, JD’s price guarantee program has covered almost all physical products now, with over 500 million products supporting more than 30 days of price protection, and many electronic products offering change-only service within 180 days, an industry-leading after-sales service spearheaded by JD.com.

With the expansion of front warehouses in JD’s nationwide network, consumers in over 200 cities across China now have the opportunity to experience flash delivery service in mere minutes.

All-Round Support for Merchants 

“JD will continue to open its experience and capabilities in the supply chain to the whole industry and the whole society,” said Hui Liu, director of JD.com’s Consumption and Industry Development Research Institute. “By providing stable, efficient, and reliable supply chain support, JD strives to help our partners to cope with external challenges and achieve steady growth.”

According to the institute’s data, in the past five years, the number of users participating JDs’ Singles Day Grand Promotion increased by nearly 90 percent, that of merchants up by 65 percent, while types of products grew 83 percent and new brands rose by 40 percent. In the first half of 2022, the average transaction volume of stores on JD.com reached 2.2 times that of the same period in 2019, and more than 25,000 stores achieved over 100 percent sales growth year over year.

JD’s omni-channel businesses will fully participate in this year’s activities, including JD MALL, J Shop, 7Fresh supermarket, JD Auto maintenance stores, JD Pharmacy, JD Worldwide’s experience stores for cross-border products, and tens of thousands of JD-operated stores and millions of offline stores supported by JD’s supply chain service.

In addition, Shop Now, JD’s one-hour delivery service has been connected with more than 200,000 physical stores across the country that enable sales growth for many retailers and a convenient shopping experience for more customers.

Thanks to a thriving omni-channel ecosystem, JD vows to increase 20 percent of traffic for its merchants during the sales period, further streamline their operational processes and costs, and introduce 102 service products that aim to boost sales and service experiences for all merchants.

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

U.S. Sports Brand Oakley Launches on JD.com

by Mengyang He

California-based Oakley launched a flagship store on JD.com on October 12, featuring the American brand’s renowned high performance and providing consumers with an array of sports equipment, such as sunglasses, goggles, shirts, sweaters, bags, and more. The flagship store is available on the J Shop, JD.com’s upgrade of its Fashion and Lifestyle business.

Founded in 1975 by Jim Jannard, Oakley has evolved from a global leading eyewear manufacturing brand into a professional sports brand with varied product lines, including sunglasses, clothes, shoes, watches, accessories, etc. With over 750 patents, Oakley continues to innovate, offering high-performing gear for world-class athletes.

“We are delighted to partner with Oakley for high-quality sports products, and we hope to deepen the cooperation, diversify product offerings, and achieve sales growth,” noted Yu Zhang, Head of Outdoor Shoes and Clothes Department at the J Shop.

The J Shop deeply integrates JD’s businesses in apparel, lifestyle, cosmetics, sports, luxury fashion, watches and service in omni-channel retailing, and strives to provide consumers with a smooth shopping experience.

 

(hemengyang5@jd.com)

How JD.com Made a Produce Star out of Suqian Hairy Crabs

by Vivian Yang

More than 160,000 “Suqian Hairy Crabs” were sold on JD.com in less than three weeks during the first Harvest Carnival and Shopping Festival of Agricultural Specialties this September. The crabs emerged as a top-ranking best-selling category on the platform during this crab season, marking another milestone for JD in empowering high-quality yet less well-known agricultural products, an ambitious goal the company has set for itself in contributing to China’s rural revitalization on its own terms.

Suqian, a humble city in northern Jiangsu province, is blessed with variegated waters including the Hongze and Luoma lakes. These lakes are perfect breeding homes for hairy crabs, but their marketability has long been curbed by conditions including scattered raisers, varying quality resulting in the undercutting of purchasing prices, and weak branding.

To tackle these hurdles and build up a local specialty image, the Suqian Rural Bureau joined hands with JD.com in early 2021. Under an all-around partnership, JD supported local farms to establish standardized crab-raising systems, jointly developed product criteria for “Suqian Hairy Crabs” and its source-tracing system, and set up near-shore warehouses for temporary crab farming, hand-picking, packing and fresh delivery. On the marketing and sales side, JD offered over RMB 10 million worth of resources and leveraged its omni-channel capabilities to incubate the brand, as well as implementing strict brand authorizing policies, with the sole purpose of introducing the best Suqian hairy crabs to customers nationwide.

Thanks to all these efforts, during last year’s Singles’ Day Grand Promotion, sales of Suqian hairy crabs increased 600 times YoY; and that of the whole year rose by 173 times. Moreover, JD also brought the crabs to the limelight during China’s 2022 Spring Festival gala show on national TV , which JD was selected as this year’s exclusive interactive partner, to let the whole country know about the name of the crabs.

“Many people of my generation who grew up in the countryside are eager to change our hometowns for the better, but oftentimes, our condescending and wishful thinking will do no good,” said Richard Liu, Chairman of JD.com. As a Suqian native who feels indebted to his hometown and the village folks who all chipped in for his university tuition, Mr. Liu has a natural calling and grounded understanding of supporting rural development. “We need to bend down, see the details and think in their shoes, then start with patience from the basic business infrastructure work,” he added.

As early as 2015, JD.com introduced the “3F plan”, namely Factory to Country, Finance to Country, and Farm to Table, which is designed to form a complete loop to boost the rural economy in which farmers receive financial and other support in selling produce, and then are able to purchase more industrial supplies for a better life and greater reproduction.

After years of investment on infrastructure in rural areas, in October 2020, JD.com further announced the “March to Rich Plan (MRP)”, aiming to establish a modernized circulation system with its digitally intelligent supply chain capabilities, to promote both high-quality agricultural products and the consumption upgrading in China. The plan vowed to drive RMB 1 trillion yuan output value for rural areas in China in three years’ time span, and by this August, it has achieved more than RMB 620 billion yuan in 22 months. Millions of farmers have directly benefited from the MRP that helped increase their income remarkably.

 

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

JD.com is Runner-Up Chinese Company on Forbes’ 2022 World’s Best Employers

by Vivian Yang

JD.com jumped 52 positions to No. 30 on Forbes’ list of 2022 World’s Best Employers, released on Oct. 12. It is the fifth year in a row that the company has been listed on the ranking, and this year JD.com came in second place among Chinese companies.

The ranking is compiled through surveys of 150,000 full-time and part-time workers from 57 countries working for multinational companies and institutions, regarding aspects of their corporate impact and image, talent development, gender equality, and social responsibility.

Providing quality work and boosting staff well-being have been essential pursuits for JD.com in the company’s long-term development. By the end of 2021, the number of JD employees (including those from non-listed affiliates) surpassed 420, 000. They consist of a huge talent pool in a variety of businesses in which JD engages, ranging from retail, logistics, technologies, healthcare, finance, industrial development and more.

According to the characteristics of different positions, the company offers a whole set of customized HR solutions, including clear career prospects, diversified training, competitive compensations, and thoughtful employee benefits.

As of today, JD has allocated over RMB 1.4 billion yuan in its staff housing plan, and nearly RMB 100 million yuan for its employee relief foundation, among an array of other measures that aim to enhance employees’ sense of belonging and happiness.

JD.com also provides a minimum of 128 days of maternity leave for its employees (with most regions offering 158 days, and some regions offering up to 190 days). In certain regions, employees are entitled to an additional 30 days of maternity leave as a welfare benefit. Depending on the regulations in different regions nationwide, JD.com provides a minimum of five days of parental leave for employees, and expecting fathers are entitled to a minimum of 10 days of paternity leave, allowing both fathers and mothers to be with their children. The company also offers paid leave for employees to attend parent-teacher conferences, enabling them to better accompany their children’s growth. In addition, depending on the nature of the job, JD.com provides flexible working hour policies for certain positions as well as work-from-home policies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

JD.com creates many fast-growth opportunities for the younger generation. In the past four years, JD has continuously opened a significant number of positions for fresh graduates, which has opened 358 types of positions and accumulatively offered nearly 60,000 job opportunities.

JD’s staff promotion statistics in early 2022 showed that nearly 50 percent of employees from campus recruitment gained promotions and nearly 70 percent of newly graduated technical staff in their late twenties have become core members of the teams, with many starting to shoulder important management responsibilities.

Read more about JD’s employee support efforts in our 2022 ESG Report.

 

(vivian.yang@jd.com)

Posted in ESG