Jun 8, 2020| JD Retail

When All Things Considered– Sales of Durian Increased 17x in the First Hour of JD 618

Yuchuan Wang
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by Yuchuan Wang

On June 1st, the first day of JD’s 618 Grand Promotion, transaction volume of fresh food increased over 8 times year-on-year. Among the many best-selling products is durian, a seasonal fruit that is increasingly welcomed by Chinese consumers. In the first hour of 618, transaction volume of durian on JD increased over 17 times compared with the same period last year.

In Asia, durian is known as the “king of fruits.” As early as in April this year, JD imported multiple durian varieties from Thailand including the popular Golden Pillow, rare Puangmanee and Chanee. The total volume filled thirty 40ft containers.

In Asia, durian is known as the “king of fruits.”

Every durian imported by JD goes through a comprehensive screening process. In the early stages of picking, JD.com’s fresh food business team will cooperate with growers directly to ensure quality.

“During the epidemic, we specifically worked on a stricter quality control plan. To put it simply, every durian from Thailand needs to go through at least six testing procedures and meet over 10 specifications before it can be delivered to our customers,” said Wen Li from JD Fresh’s quality control team.

JD will typically pick the durian to be exported to China when it is about 75% ripe, so that the durian is tastiest 7 days later when it arrives. Once at JD’s warehouse in China, the fruit will need to pass several evaluations, ensuring, for example, that the fruit cracks at the standard diameter, ripeness, weight, shape and sweetness meet the standard, and more. Durian that does not pass the evaluation screening will not go for sale on JD. Even after being accepted to JD’s warehouse, JD’s quality control team will do regular checks to make sure every durian sold to its customers is of high quality.

Every durian imported by JD goes through a comprehensive screening process
JD Fresh includes a note with every box of durian about how to enjoy durian

Durians are most popular in first and second-tier Chinese cities like Beijing and Guangzhou, but demand is growing in lower-tier regions where previously the fruit was not easily accessible.

As China’s largest fresh food retail platform, JD now offers 320,000 SKUs (stock-keeping-units) covering seafood, fruit, vegetables, meat and poultry and more from over 50 countries and regions. JD offers various fresh food, including durians from Thailand and Malaysia, through its online channel JD Fresh and offline supermarket chain 7FRESH.

 

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com)

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