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JD.com, China’s largest retailer, sponsored Chinese-born menswear designer Feng Chen Wang’s London Fashion Week to launch her FW20 collection. The designer’s crossover collection with Pepsi has also debuted online exclusively on JD.com.

“Integrating traditional Chinese elements into my designs is very important to me,” said Feng Chen Wang. “JD has been very supportive of young designers like me and I am really appreciative of this close collaboration.”

This is not the first time for JD to cooperate with Feng Chen Wang. JD.com supported the designer to release her Spring/Summer Collection 2020 show at London Fashion Week last year. The partnership is aligned with JD’s larger mission to help Chinese domestic designers expand their footprint globally, and to bring a wider selection of fashion to discerning Chinese consumers.

“In recent years, the global fashion industry has been paying more and more attention to Chinese fashion. We’re thrilled to see many excellent Chinese designers make their mark on the international stage,” said Kevin Jiang, president of International Business at JD Fashion and Lifestyle. “We are happy to serve as a bridge to support Chinese designers abroad and to provide consumers in China with access to more international designers.

Consumers continue to flock to JD.com in search of distinctive products that they know will be authentic and of high quality. Among the services JD offers to fashion brands, JD Luxury Express, its white glove delivery service, adds a highly-personalized, intimate and innovative offline element to the e-commerce experience.

The Forbidden City, also known as The Palace Museum in Beijing, has collaborated with JD.com, China’s largest retailer, to bring its “Chinese Festival” cultural program online for the first time, to welcome 2020 and the coming Year of the Rat.

As part of the promotion, an exquisite brocade box will be launched exclusively on JD.com as a giveaway on January 2. Consumers who make purchases during the promotion will have the chance to take home one of these special boxes.

Upon opening the box, a poem written by Emperor Qianlong of the Qing dynasty will appear, offering New Year wishes. The Chinese traditional lunch box inside is decorated with Qing dynasty peony patterns and nine auspicious beasts from the 600-year-old Forbidden City, symbolizing property and fortune. The nine auspicious beasts, Dragon, Phoenix, Deer, Crane, Elephant, Tortoise, Qilin, Lion and Xiezhi, also appear on a silk handkerchief, nine different red envelopes, and a drinking glass, all of which are in the brocade box.

A new scarf gift box will also be launched exclusively on the Palace Museum’s flagship store on JD. In addition, 16 domestic and international brands include Dove, Philips and Baidu will join the promotion and provide their own customized New Year gift boxes for sale to Chinese consumers.

To mark the collaboration, JD and the Forbidden City also released the following video in which the nine auspicious beasts offer their New Year wishes.

“As cultural products are increasingly popular among the younger generation, developing practical products that use traditional cultural elements has been a draw for museums and brands,” said Jing Li, Director of JD Brand Marketing. “The collaboration between JD and the Forbidden City gives traditional culture a modern energy, and helps brands to interact with younger customers and create new growth opportunities.”

In 2019, JD launched the “Bring Art to Life” campaign with partners of Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, as well as London’s National Gallery and the V&A Museum to produce an array of well-designed consumer products with brands incorporating elements of classic artworks from the museums’ collections.

On December 28, three days away from New Year’s Day 2020, the first batch of bighead carp of the season was fished out of the famous Chagan Lake in Jilin Province in Northeast China. As the first e-commerce company to partner with the Chagan Lake Fishery for six years, every year, JD.com sells 1/3 of the fishery’s bighead carp both through its online JD Fresh channel and offline 7FRESH supermarket chains, leveraging its cold chain network, and more recently blockchain to ensure this delicacy reaches dinner tables across China.

Known to locals as “White Holy Lake”, Chagan Lake is home to a rich fishing tradition that stretches back thousands of years. The 307-square-kilometer Chagan Lake is the only place in China to preserve the ancient practice of Mongolian fishing. As far back as the Liao and Jin dynasties (916-1234), emperors would lead a party of queens and concubines, and ministers to the lake from nearby capitals to go and catch the lake’s carp, and hold a fish banquet there.

Today, the tradition is preserved through the annual Chagan Lake Winter Fishing Festival, held every year in late December. In temperatures as low as -30°C, fishermen drill holes in the ice, harness their horses to enormous nets, and slowly pull up their catch, a process that can take eight to nine hours. In 2014, the tradition captured the interest of Chinese viewers when it was featured in “A Bite of China,” a popular documentary series by CCTV introducing Chinese food and related culture from all over China.

Despite the surge in interest in Chagan Lake’s carp that resulted from the program’s broadcast, most Chinese had very limited ways to acquire the delicacy before JD stepped in. At the time, the only existing supply chain option was for the fish to be transported from the lake to the nearby town of Songyuan, then to the city of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, about 600 km away, and only then to smaller regional centers. With so many intermediate links, the cost of distribution was high, and it was strenuous to get fresh fish outside of the northeastern provinces.

Shortly after the “A Bite of China” episode aired, JD signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Chagan Lake Fisheries, becoming the first e-commerce platform to partner with the fishery. JD has streamlined the distribution process by deploying its own cold chain logistics directly to the lake shore, where temperature-controlled transportation vehicles are loaded up with freshly caught carp, which are now delivered to tables in more than 300 cities across China in as fast as in 24 hours after the fish is caught.

As the fame of the fish has risen over the years, a large amount of fake Chagan Lake fish has been popping up on in the market. To give consumers confidence, JD will for the first time apply blockchain technology to guarantee the authenticity of Chagan Lake carp this year. By scanning the unique blockchain ID of each fish, customers are able to find out production and transportation details such as the origin, qualification and even the fisherman’s name.

“JD’s partnership with Chagan Lake Fisheries demonstrates the raw potential of our self-built nationwide logistics network: fulfilling the wishes of Chinese consumers by giving them access to options that were previously unavailable to them,” said Jie Wang, key projects lead, fresh food sourcing, JD.com. “The partnership also lends a helping to hand to Chagan Lake local residents, increasing fish sales, raising their brand profile and promoting the continuation of their ancient Chagan Lake winter traditions.”

Yan Laisuo, director of Chagan Lake Fisheries, said that the fishery insisted on exclusive cooperation with JD because of its superior logistics and e-commerce capabilities: “We appreciate how JD’s strictly controlled cold-chain logistics network preserves the integrity of our delicious Chagan Lake bighead carp as it is distributed to consumers throughout all corners of the country,” he said. “This ensures that the traditions of Chagan Lake stay intact and that more people can appreciate this bountiful natural resource and be inspired to visit us one day.”

JD.com has just launched the first of its SEVEN FUN lifestyle spaces in Beijing. The new concept, which is one of a kind in China, pioneers a unique combination of dining + drinking + social. Offering breakfast from sunrise, drinks into the late night and lunch, afternoon tea, snacks and even daily groceries in between, SEVEN FUN caters to all needs of busy professionals, serving as a third place, after home and the office.

Located in Galaxy SOHO on the second ring road of Beijing, SEVEN FUN is designed specifically to cater to working professionals aged between 26 to 45 in first tier cities, providing not just a space but a lifestyle.

As global consumers are shifting from going to the store to buy products to going to the store to experience products and buy services, delivering experiences has been essential for retailers to attract and retain consumers. This was some of the thinking behind SEVEN FUN. With an area of around 1,000 square meters (approximately 10,000 sq.ft), SEVEN FUN is a destination offering networking and fun, rather than purely a destination to make a purchase.

The inaugural SEVEN FUN in Galaxy SOHO offers more than 3,500 different products such as fresh food, baked goods, fresh flowers, and groceries. It also features 12 selected eateries selling international delicacies, including three bars offering wine, Japanese sake and craft beer. In addition to providing mealtime solutions to the approximately 200,000 working professionals within a one km radius of the space, SEVEN FUN also serves as a gathering place that offers band performances, themed parties and more. It can even be rented out to serve as a socializing or networking space for personal or corporate events.

The alcohol selection at SEVEN FUN is much more extensive than your average bar, with more than 300 different types of sake and over 1,000 craft beers sourced via 7FRESH’s supply chain offered over the course of a year annually at SEVEN FUN, making it the best place in Beijing for quality liquor. Professional sommeliers are also available to guide consumers through an experience commensurate with what might be expected in a five-star hotel, but at an affordable price.

“As a lifestyle retailer, SEVEN FUN is innovating the retail landscape in China,” said Jonathan Wang, Head of 7FRESH, JD.com. “Through this concept, JD.com provides an unprecedented “SOLOMOME” (social, local, mobile and personalized) offline experience that serves as a pioneering model for future brick-and-mortar stores.”

As a brand under JD’s 7FRESH, SEVEN FUN offers a comprehensive omnichannel solution. Consumers can order anything in the store from the 7FRESH app to be delivered to their doorstep.

Future expansion of SEVEN FUN is expected to focus on tier-one cities, targeting working professionals with annual income of over RMB 100,000. It also adopts a partner model that encourages the core team of SEVEN FUN to become store partners. The ultimate goal of 7FRESH, the recently launched the 7FRESH LIFE community shop, and now SEVEN FUN, remains to deliver the best shopping experience for all kinds of consumers.

JD.com recently launched the “My Pet Profile Initiative” for its customers to receive recommendations for pet products and services.

This is a new function where customers can store detailed profiles of their pets online, including breed, age, gender, vaccination history, and more. JD’s big data and analytics capabilities will enable customers to get ongoing updates of suitable products, services and care instructions. This initiative was inspired by data showing that Chinese pet owners are willing to devote more money, time, and energy in choosing the right products and services for their beloved pets. The 2019 China Pet Products Consumption Report recently released by JD and Nielsen shows that Chinese pet owners are now more engaged with their animals and more interested in improving their pets’ health and longevity.

To improve their pets’ health, happiness, and quality of life, owners are willing to pay more for premium pet products that they know are nutritious and safe, even if they have to be imported. In fact, according to JD data, in 2018 the year-on-year sales increase of imported pet brands was 118% higher than that of domestic brands. Services related to pets are also on the rise, such as grooming and medical care.

For JD’s brand partners, the My Pet Profile Initiative offers new insights about the pets themselves, not just their owners. With this information, brands can improve their product specifications and target marketing campaigns to specific pet demographics, for example showing cat food formulated for senior felines to those customers with older cats. Nestlé Purina’s Pro Plan brand piloted the initiative recently, and saw their click rate quickly double among customers who received targeted recommendations.

Currently applicable only to cats and dogs, China’s most popular domestic pets, the initiative could be expanded to offer tailored information about other pets, such as aquatic creatures.

“By providing insights not only on pet owners, but for the first time also on their pets, JD has taken us to the next step,” said Zoe Zuo, Marketing Director, Nestlé Purina. “The My Pet Profile Initiative represents an expanding database of growing importance for us because it helps us improve our products and strategies. We will leverage these insights to recommend products to customers with more precision, helping ensure our customers have longer and happier relationships with their beloved pets.”

“JD is always looking for ways to better serve our customers and brand partners through our big-data and analytics capability,” said Tianyang Fan, head of pet products for JD Fast Moving Consumer Goods. “This initiative does that by providing a better shopping experience for pet owners, while also serving brand partners who are looking to improve their products and marketing solutions based on consumer insights.”

Apart from being a trusted advisor for pet owners, JD also strives to become their one-stop destination for pet-related information and the types of high-quality pet products that are increasingly welcomed by Chinese consumers. During this past Singles Day shopping festival, high-end and smart pet products were highly popular. In the first hour on Nov. 11, sales of smart pet products increased 69 times compared with the same period last year, and during the Nov. 1-11 festival sales period, sales of high-end imported pet food brand Petcurean Go! increased 23 times year-on-year.