JD.com, also known as Jingdong, the biggest retailer and largest online retailer in China, is also its biggest by revenue internet online shopping company. Its products cover a vast variety of fresh food, apparel, cosmetics, and electronics. Its amazing fulfillment network is nationwide and covers 99% of the country’s population. It provides delivery the same or the next day at a speed that is unmatched globally. They now plan to venture into retail.
JD.com is a member of the Fortune Global 500. Along with Alibaba-run Tmall, they are two massive Chinese online retailers by revenue and transaction volume. Both companies have immensely benefited due to the pandemic.
Through its JD Fresh division, JD.com announced at a Shanghai press conference through its head of the fruits division, Xiaozhou Zhou, that it has launched an alliance with cherry merchants who have opened JD third-party stores.
Integrating JD’s high-quality resources in its supply chain, talent, and logistics, they hope to empower the third-party merchants with services that will provide the customers with a superior fruit shopping experience with products that will have the JD High Quality authorization. JD Food builds its successful business by forming partnerships through one order at a time that delivers local fresh food.
For the imported fruits, the JD Fresh special team will optimize the supply chain beginning with the cherry category and later expand to other categories, which will include mangosteen, durian, and blueberry. Sales have exploded for JD Fresh and they sold over 16,703 tonnes of fresh produce nationwide including pears, kiwifruit, citrus, and blueberries. Those key fruit products all had breakthrough performances.
JD also provides additional resources that help the merchants expand the imported fruits sales including marketing, traffic flow, and training in quality control.
During the conference, JD also announced the launch of a tailored cherry gift box featuring the zodiac cow and decorated in red with the aim to appeal to Chinese customers who purchase New Year gifts.
JD.com reported a 31% jump in its fourth-quarter revenue as many more shoppers flocked to its website. Revenue should continue to increase with the announcement of the launching of its new “7Fresh” physical stores in the People’s Republic that will complement the online food delivery service.
The e-commerce giant was excited to reveal the details of its plans to open over 1,000 fresh food stores. The first offline 7Fresh food store in Yizhuang, Beijing, covers more than 4,000 square meters. During its trial operation, it averaged a daily customer flow of over 10,000 people. The spacious stores will have thousands of fresh products including the fruit as well as flowers and freshly-caught seafood and imported meats prepared and even cooked on site. JD’s reputation has been to deliver high-quality fresh food to the doorsteps of its more than 266.3 million customers in 30 minutes!
New-concept technologies being tested include ‘magic mirrors’ that automatically provide source and nutritional information on a screen when an item of produce is picked up, “smart shopping carts” that will follow customers and allow them to shop “hands-free”, and other innovations.