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by Ella Kidron

The 618 Grand Promotion season is officially underway. JD clocked in a 640% increase in pre-sales order volume YOY. During May 24-25, the term “pre-sales” was searched over 150,000 times. The number of brands and merchants participating in pre-sales have increased 126% and 437% respectively.

Lenovo, Xiaomi, Huawei (which placed top three in terms of order volume) and Haier were among the brands which broke the RMB 100 million mark over the two days. Pre-sale order volume of 751 brands increased 500% each while 1,142 sub-categories saw pre-sale order volume increase over 100 times. Such categories include hand-held stabilizers, home-use floor washing appliances, smart clothes dryers, trash sorters and massage chairs. Laptops, mobile phones, gaming computers, refrigerators, casual shoes, flat screen TVs, smart watches and baijiu were also among highly popular products during pre-sales.

Trends during 618 indicate renewed attention on time-honored Chinese brands and breakout trendy domestic brands, as well as FMCG products from Chinese companies. JD Super, JD’s online supermarket saw Mengniu room temperature yogurt, Evergrande natural spring water and Lanji Story cotton disposable facial towels as hot sellers. The top two mobile phones are Xiaomi 11 and Xiaomi 10s, further indicating JD consumers’ affinity for the Xiaomi brand. Many specialty fruits such as cherries from Yantai, Shandong province, Lychee from Hainan and peaches from Wuxi were also flying off the shelves.

Orders of electric scooters increased by 208% YOY. Pre-sales indicate the increasing individualization of consumer needs, especially when it comes to household items. Pre-orders of floor cleaning appliances increased by more than 40 times compared with the same period last year, of which new high-end floor washing devices account for more than 65%, while sweeping robots increased by 400% YOY.

Pets are getting love for sure this 618l. Pre-sales orders of beauty-related grooming appliances for pets increased 26 times while pet gastrointestinal care products were up 23 times over the same period. Health services are also must-buy items. On May 24, the overall turnover of oral health products increased nine times compared with last year, and the turnover over vaccine related services increased by 230%.

This 618 Grand Promotion celebrates JD.com’s 18 years of providing high quality services to consumers all over China. During the pre-sales period, the e-commerce giant’s 30-day price protection, free delivery and worry free return services make consumers more confident to get a head start on the mid-year shopping extravaganza.

 

(ella@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD.com’s private brand Jing Zao (literally means made by JD) announced a promotional campaign on May 27 in partnership with Ziroom, a business unit of China’s residual brokerage Lianjia.com, aiming to provide fresh graduates with high-end home decor products at affordable prices.

The campaign invited KOLs to recommend different decoration styles suitable for rental houses with products from Jing Zao. Additionally, Jing Zao created a package with products including a Latex pillow, hair dryer, humidifier, and intelligent trash can, all of which are necessary for fresh graduates moving into a new rental house. The campaign will last from May 27 to June 3 and will offer various coupons to consumers to make it easy for graduates　to　access high-quality products.

“Jing Zao pays attention to both life quality and the practicality of products. We care about every demand from our consumers, and would like to reduce consumers’ pressure through our customer-to-manufacture initiative,” said a representative from Jing Zao. “We hope to create more high-quality products and understand young consumers’ preferences through our cooperation with Ziroom.”

The creation of Jing Zao in 2018 came from Chinese customers’ real demands. The rising middle-class customers are constantly looking for a comfortable and high-quality lifestyle. What’s more, the desire for a “better lifestyle” is spreading to a larger customer base. Chinese society is experiencing a consumption upgrade. Before, only bigger brands were associated with higher quality, but working directly with factories to develop products enables JD to have strong control over the product quality. Also, without the layers of the dealer network, high-quality products can be sold for cheaper prices.

Ziroom was launched in 2011 and has become the biggest rental housing platform in China. The company so far operates in 9 cities in China, serving 2 million tenants and 300,000 landlords.

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Ling Cao

JD announced today that it will cooperate and provide special resources to over three million offline stores for the ongoing 618 Grand Promotion, aiming to attract over 250 million visits to these stores to support healthy business development.

JD Retail will provide traffic flow resources worth RMB 500 million yuan to help supermarkets, restaurants, flower stores, cinemas and more to interact with more customers. JD will also use livestreaming and other innovative methods to connect customers with industrial chains and other popular places, such as JD E-Space.

JD Logistics will provide its 190,000 corporate customers with omni-channel fulfillment services, making their supply chain more agile in order to fit tailored consumption and logistics requirements.

JD Cloud will hold promotions to help nearly 200,000 SMEs use cloud-based services, while JD Health will help offline pharmacy stores achieve digital upgrades, enabling them to provide better services for patients.

Jingxi, a business group under JD focusing on lower-tier markets, will provide support for millions of small and medium-sized stores in merchandise, operation and services.

JD will also provide marketing resources for stores on JD Daojia, as well as using Dada Now to provide instant last-mile delivery services.

Chen Lin, vice president of JD.com and head of the company’s ecosystem business shared, “By working both online and offline with brands, merchants, factories, farmers and other stores, JD targets to help nearly 200 industrial chains expand their sales channels, achieving digital transformation.”

 

(ling.cao@jd.com)

by Hui Zhang

JD.com announced on May 20^th that it will further improve its home improvement services from design, furniture and renovation to home appliances by bringing 300,000 related home decoration products to over 1,600 JD Home Appliance stores in lower-tier cities across 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in China.

It’s a further step since May last year when JD introduced 10,000 home improvement related products from 50 different categories, including kitchen and bathroom, lighting, intelligent door locks, and mattresses, to JD Home Appliance stores in lower-tier cities across China, aiming to provide consumers in fourth- to sixth-tier cities with high-quality products and consumer experiences on par with those enjoyed by customers in first-tier cities.

Well-known home improvement brands, such as Supor, AUPU and Philips, will offer products from about 300 categories at JD Home Appliance stores ahead of JD’s 618 Grand Promotion to prepare for increased consumer enthusiasm during the annual promotion.

“We aim to join hands with more home brand partners to upgrade our services from cooperative sales in the past to the creation of one-stop home improvement services for consumers,” said Chao He, general manager of JD household business, JD Home and Lifestyle.

The innovative “Household + Home Appliance” business model has been widely welcomed by Chinese consumers, as reported by JD’s data. In 2020, sales of related products have increased by 167% YOY. During the May Day Holiday from May 1-3 this year, sales of the new JD Home Appliance store in Panzhihua, Sichuan province, which sells both household and home appliances, accounted for almost one third of the total sales of a single JD Home Appliance store in 2019.

Meanwhile, JD’s traceable services for logistics of large household products, and policies including 3-year warranty, 30-day no-reason return, and 30-day price guarantee, will bring peace of mind to JD shoppers.

 

(Banner photo: Chao He, general manager of JD household business, JD Home and Lifestyle)

 

(zhanghui36@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

The pre-sales period for JD’s 618 Grand Promotion began on May 24 at midnight. The pre-sales provide consumers with more time to think over their purchases without having to worry about missing key deals if they don’t place orders by a certain time on a specific day. It also helps merchants better plan their inventory by having early insight into consumer needs.

This year’s sale involves JD’s own platform, external partner platforms as well as full omni-channel integration. JD has mobilized over 3 million offline stores including SEVEN FRESH, JD Home, JD Convenience Store, JD E-SPACE, JD Auto Shop, as well as small-and-mid-sized pharmacies, other convenience stores, fresh flower shops and auto repair shops nationwide, promising to give consumers the opportunity to buy whatever they want, whenever and wherever they want it.

Chenkai Ling, vice president of JD.com and head of strategy at JD Retail explained that with deeper insights, more potential consumer demands are being discovered. Through precision, JD is helping more goods became hit products. For example, JD and its ecosystem partners will support the closed loop from raising farmers’ incomes to helping make consumers’ tables healthier and tastier.

JD has rolled out a slew of different services and privileges this season. Ninety-percent of products designated by the platform as hot-sellers can enjoy price protection. There are other services too, such as a 24-month interest-free loan for home appliance purchases.

The company is also making it possible for consumers to buy new products during the pre-sales period, rather than having to wait until the official sales period. Some popular items include the Huawei Smart Screen SE Series, the Honor MagicBook X 2012 Laptop, the Redmi Note 10 series, Lancôme Hello Kitty limited edition powder and more.

With its multitude of offerings, JD will help over 120,000 small and medium-sized merchants double their transaction volume growth and over 230 brands achieve over RMB 100 million yuan in orders placed.

Jun. 1-15 will be designated sales days for specific categories or business areas such as for fashion and lifestyle, supermarket, phones and home appliances. JD will also hold PLUS DAY on Jun. 8 to reward its JD PLUS members. The peak sales period is from Jun. 16-18, followed by two final days to wrap up 618 Grand Promotion shopping from Jun.19-20.

 

(ella@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

The global toilet paper frenzy which erupted during COVID-19 and sent massive jolts to paper products supply chains is a well-known and hot topic to discuss. Less is mentioned in terms of what happened in China where the mad dash to buy and store toilet paper was not as apparent, but masks and disinfectant wipes certainly saw massive spikes in demand. Even as the pandemic seemed to ebb in the country of nearly 1.4 billion people, demand for these products have remained high as wearing a mask is now part of the wardrobe.

On May 26, the JD Big Data Research Institute shared its report on China’s paper products market trends, shedding some light on the topic. The comments were made at the International Household and Sanitary Paper Products Forum hosted by the China National Household Paper Industry Association (CNHPIA), under the China Paper Association.

“We’ve seen that more and more consumers are accustomed to buying paper products online, regardless of age, gender or origin,” said Fei Dong, senior analyst at the JD Big Data Research Institute. “Female users are playing an increasingly important role in household paper products and are very sensitive to sales promotion. Categories such as wet wipes, which given that they are a ‘nice to have’, are representative of the consumption upgrade phenomenon in China are soaring and there is still much room for growth in lower-tier markets. In ‘on demand’ retail, FMCG products represented by paper products, have gained consumer recognition and are worth more attention from brands,” she added.

Fei Dong of the JD Big Data Research Institute

The upward trend of paper products sales across wipes, household paper products and absorbent sanitary products (think diapers, sanitary pads, etc.) can be seen from 2018 data, but is much more apparent when looking at 2019 vs. 2020 data. According to The Business Research Company’s paper industry outlook report, rising e-commerce is expected to drive the market for paper products. The global paper products market is expected to grow from US$837.6 billion in 2020 to US$885.6 billion in 2021 at a CAGR of 5%. According to the report, the Asia Pacific is the largest region in the global paper products market, accounting for 35.3% of the total in 2020, followed by North America, Western Europe and other regions. The market in China is expected to gain the most in China at US$41.2 billion.

Specifically looking at the three categories named above, the household paper products category is higher than the other two. Overall sales volume of paper products has increased 66% YOY between 2018 and 2020. The absorbent sanitary products category increased the fastest in 2020, reaching 115%. According to China National Household Paper Industry Association statistics, the overall size of the paper products market grew 2.6% from 2018-19, reaching RMB 119.8 billion yuan.

Purchasing moves online

Furthermore, as is the case with most categories, more and more consumers are now accustomed to buying paper products online. In the wipes category, wet wipes, cotton towels and moist toilet paper are the top three sub-categories in terms of sales volume, among which cotton towels have experienced significant growth, reaching 50 times the same period last year. In the household paper products category, the top three are napkins, toilet paper and pocket tissues. Growth in the napkins and kitchen paper towel categories is most notable. It should come as no surprise that the top three products in the absorbent sanitary paper category are masks, baby diapers and pullups among which sales volume of masks has reached 15 times the same period last year

Demographic breakdown

Age 26-45 consumers are the main force of wipes consumption. The proportion of age 16-25 consumers is growing the fastest while it is comparatively shrinking for age 36-45 consumers. Compared with the age distribution across JD’s platform, consumption by age 36-45 users in the paper products category is noticeably higher.

Female users are playing an increasingly important role in household paper products consumption. From the perspective of consumers’ genders, the portion of female consumers in the wet wipes category has remained high from 2018-2020, reaching 70% in 2020. Female consumers are found to prefer cotton towels and kitchen cleaning towels, and pay more attention to facial cleansing. Male consumers prefer moist toilet paper and wet wipes. In the absorbent sanitary products category, male consumers account for a relatively high proportion of mask and baby goods purchases. Over the past three years, the share of male consumers has increased slightly, by 1.8%. Female users, on the other hand accounted for 62% of total purchases in the absorbent sanitary products category, of which products such as tampons and sanitary pads accounted for more than 80% of purchases.

Looking at the overall sales of paper products in provinces and cities across the country, sales in Guangdong, Beijing, Jiangsu, Shanghai, Sichuan, etc. are higher, while sales in Tianjin, Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong, Jilin, etc. have achieved rapid growth. Looking at the proportion of sales of various paper products in each market, wipes account for a relatively high proportion in 1^st and 2^nd tier markets, while household paper products capture the attention of consumers in 3^rd-6^th tier markets. The distribution of absorbent sanitary products across city tiers is relatively uniform

Sensitivity to promotions

Looking at the change in the proportion of users from the perspective of sensitivity to promotion and reviews in the past three years in the wipes category, consumers pay more attention to promotions and will chose align purchasing with promotions. Products with high attention to promotions are baby wipes, where as there is lower attention to promotions for ordinary wet wipes. In terms of attention to reviews, attention to reviews for moist toilet paper is high while attention for kitchen towel is low.

In household paper products kitchen paper towels is relatively high, whereas the proportion for napkins is relatively low. From reviews and keywords, consumers pay attention to thickness, liquid absorption, and cleaning effectiveness. When it comes to buying baby products and tampons, where attention to review is high, attention to promotion is also high, indicating that consumers will consider both when making purchases. People who pay more attention to goods such as tampons, pullups and baby diapers are more concerned about reviews and promotions overall. Looking at reviews and keywords, consumers pay attention to high quality, convenience of putting on/removing, aeration, and comfort.

New brands and new channels

Looking at the number of brands and products in the different paper categories for 2020, within the wipes category, the increase in new brands reached 135% and the increase in the number of products reached 168% indicating that more brands chose to invest in the wipes market. In the absorbent sanitary products category, the increase in the number of brands and products reached 75% and 68% respectively. There are relatively few new entrants into the tissue paper category, while the increase in new products reached 66%.

Finally, in “on-demand” retail (defined as delivery within a few hours, rather than days), FMCG products, represented by paper products, are gaining more attention from consumers. Food and beverages, fresh, paper products and personal care, remain the top categories for on-demand retail.

 

 

(ella@jd.com)

by Ella Kidron

The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD) released new standards concerning e-commerce deliveries of alcohol on May 25. JD.com, the first member to join IARD from China, was featured in IARD’s Global Standards for Online Sales and Delivery report for giving consumers the option to opt out of alcohol-related marketing.

As mentioned in the report, JD provides consumers with the flexibility and functionality to customize and control the alcohol marketing messages that they see on its e-commerce platform. Consumers who do not wish to see alcohol marketing can simply click an “X” that is displayed next to the products. JD’s recommendation engine uses artificial intelligence (AI) to determine which products will be promoted to customers and therefore can quickly learn consumers’ preferences. After a short period of time, JD.com’s platform will stop displaying alcohol-related product marketing to consumers who opt out of it.

According to IARD’s report, e-commerce alcohol value growth between 2015 and 2020 was 120% and total sales in 2020 were $36.8 billion. Furthermore, IWSR Drinks Market Analysis finds that across 20 key markets, the value of e-commerce alcohol sales is forecast to grow by 74% between 2020 and 2024.

IARD is a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing harmful drinking worldwide and promoting understanding of responsible drinking, among those who choose to drink. IARD is supported by its member companies from all sectors in their common purpose of being part of the solution to reducing the harmful use of alcohol. IARD’s member companies are commercially active in more than 100 countries and contribute to sustainable growth and embrace a whole-of-society approach to improving health.

IARD’s CEO chair, Albert Baladi (who is also president and CEO of Beam Suntory), said in the report: “Within the alcohol e-commerce sector, there are already responsibility practices and different business models in place – but now with the growth in online sales and alcohol deliveries rapidly accelerating, it is urgent that we build and leverage robust responsibility standards across the world and throughout the entire supply chain.”

“E-commerce also presents many opportunities to further combat the harmful use of alcohol – it is a direct channel for us to provide consumers with information on harmful drinking, and for them to engage with our brands in a responsible way,” he added.

 

(ella@jd.com)