Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com has opened its second 7Fresh supermarket, at the China Resources Dreamport shopping centre in northern Beijing.
This follows the launch late last year of the initial 4000sqm outlet near JD.com’s headquarters in Beijing.
JD.com fresh division president Wang Xiaosong, who is also CEO of 7Fresh, says the supermarket brand is in a “life or death mad rush to cover the entire Beijing market”. Its goal is to open more than 1000 outlets across China during the next three to five years.
Its concept focuses on fresh goods including produce, meat, seafood, bakery goods, ready-to-eat packaged food and cooked-to-order foods. The supermarket also aims to integrate JD’s technical expertise to improve its offering and customer experience, drawing on data analytics to help formulate inventory based on customer behaviour and manage its supply chain.
It also integrates O2O retail into its core business, offering consumers within a several kilometre radius the ability to order groceries online for delivery to their doorsteps within 30 minutes.
The second 7Fresh outlet covers 2600sqm and is similar in layout to the original supermarket, but makes concessions because it is smaller, such as not offering a dining area.
7Fresh is serving as a laboratory for JD.com to further its goal of seamlessly integrating online and offline retail, and redefining retail in China.
JD Fresh was launched in 2016, initially as an online component of the JD.com e-commerce platform.
JD.com, one of China’s largest e-commerce companies, has launched a new accelerator program called AI Catapult that focuses on blockchain and artificial intelligence startups.
Based in Beijing, AI Catapult will start with an inaugural roster of companies that include Bluzelle, a blockchain startup based in Singapore providing database services, Bankorus, a leading Chinese robo-advisory provider, CanYa, an Australian cryptocurrency startup, Nuggets, a London-based e-commerce payments and ID platform built on blockchain technology, Republic Protocol, an open source decentralized dark pool exchange, and Devery, a blockchain-powered product verification protocol.
JD.com said the purpose of the program is to partner with innovation startups to build new businesses and create real-world applications of their technologies at scale.
Uri Ferruccio, the director of strategy and investment for JD.com’s AI Platform and Research Division, said AI Catapult “will support JD.com as it explores how AI can improve the scalability, security, privacy and efficiency of blockchain, and enable novel and improved applications in areas such as distributed AI.”
Bowen Zhou, vice president of JD.com’s AI Platform and Research Division, added, “We are excited to work with some of the world’s most innovative startups to explore ways we can scale these cutting edge technologies for the future of retail and other industries, as well.”
The program will begin in March and will provide selected startups with the opportunity to cooperate with business units throughout JD.com’s retail business and implement their technologies.
The firm also plans to invest in the growth of the AI and blockchain ecosystem through future commercial, strategic and research partnerships.
JD.com already uses blockchain technology in its supply chain to track products and AI to control its logistics drones and automated package sorting centers. The firm joined the Blockchain in Transport Alliance earlier this month to explore the use of blockchain for global freight and logistics. It is also working with Walmart, IBM and Tsinghua University National Engineering Laboratory for E-Commerce Technologies on blockchain applications for food tracking, traceability and safety in China.
JD.com has over 266 million customers and recorded 658.2 billion RMB, or about US$100 billion, in gross merchandise value in 2016.
JD.com has signed a deal with Japanese convenience-store chain FamilyMart.
This will enable users to order goods through JD.com’s 24-hour O2O service Jing Dong Dao Jia (“Door-to-Door JD”) and have them delivered from FamilyMart’s 212 core locations in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu within 30 minutes.
Early this year JD.com launched 7Fresh, its offline fresh-food supermarket, in Beijing. Before that, it invested in Yonghui supermarkets and formed a strategic partnership with Walmart through Jing Dong Daojia. JD.com has also invested in fresh-food delivery app Fruit Day and created a business unit dedicated to fresh food, JD Fresh.
The e-commerce company has also established co-operations with two other Japanese convenience store chains, 7-Eleven and Lawson, as well as international brands. The company now covers nearly 1000 convenience stores.
JD.com says that during January, all convenience stores working with it recorded three times higher sales volume than at the same time last year. For 7-Eleven stores, which joined Jing Dong Dao Jia in 2016, there was a 400 per cent increase in sales.
Aeon and Yahoo Japan have not had tremendous success with their own e-commerce ventures, according to the report.
Softbank’s IT prowess is seen as key to enabling Aeon to make the most of its brick-and-mortar assets in a retail sector quickly evolving as customer data and technologies such as artificial intelligence are leveraged to create better, more personalized shopping experiences.
A teaming of these companies could also help Aeon keep up with the trend toward rolling out cashierless or unmanned stores, while helping Yahoo Japan become a more formidable, competitive e-commerce player.
As with many strategic alignments between brick-and-mortar and e-commerce retailers, this potential partnership is being seen as an attempt to build an alliance worthy of challenging the international Goliath Amazon, which has set its sights on expanding in Japan.
Physical retailers and e-commerce companies in other countries are becoming especially sensitive to Amazon’s threat as it continues to expand e-commerce interests internationally while also building up a brick-and-mortar presence through efforts like physical bookstores, Amazon Go and Whole Foods.
As the largest retailers in many countries prepare for inevitable war with Amazon, as well as one another in some cases, there are two priorities. One is to become even larger and broader through partnership, acquisition or strategic investment. The other is to have solid footholds in both e-commerce and brick-and-mortar.
Aeon, Softbank and Yahoo Japan are not the only ones evolving with these priorities in mind. We already have seen significant efforts from some of the world’s largest retailers and e-commerce players to do the same. For example, Walmart recently aligned with Japan’s Rakuten. China’s JD.com has been looking to expand into the U.S. and Europe, and fellow Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba is aggressively investing in brick-and-mortar retail firms.
By getting together in one way or another, Aeon and Yahoo Japan in particular may be looking to strengthen what have been weaknesses in their respective retail and e-commerce strategies, but they also would be positioned to play the game at a whole new level — that of a retail superpower fit to tackle new opportunities at home and abroad.
Tencent Holdings and JD.com are buying minority stakes in Chinese retailer Better Life Commercial Chain Share.
A Tencent subsidiary is paying RMB886.9 million (US$140 million) for a 6 per cent shareholding, while a JD.com subsidiary is paying RMB739.1 million for a 5 per cent stake, according to a Better Life filing with the Shenzhen stock exchange.
Also known as Bubugao, Hunan-based Better Life announced a strategic collaboration agreement with Tencent at the beginning of this month, Reuters reports. The three companies and shareholders agreed to the transactions on February 14, according to the filing.
JD.com is both the largest e-commerce company in China, and the largest Chinese retailer, by revenue.
The retailing businesses of the Fung Group are brought together under privately-held Fung Retailing Limited and it is a Hong Kong-headquartered multinational group whose core businesses are engaged in trading, logistics, distribution and traditional and digital retailing.
The agreement between the two companies calls for the establishment of an AI Boundaryless Retail Center that will oversee and manage cooperative research and development projects, and facilitate the sharing of information and expertise relating to AI technology.
Leveraging AI, and combining JD.com‘s extensive online expertise and Fung Retailing’s offline expertise, the two companies aim to develop a new retail format for China and Asia.
This includes creating an AI-driven retail system that seamlessly integrates online and offline retail platforms; developing an end-to-end system that enables the management of products, pricing, storage, order and payment; and enhancing consumer experience through solutions such as AI-driven virtual fitting, unmanned stores and smart shopping assistants.
Speaking at the signing, Sabrina Fung, Group Managing Director of Fung Retailing Limited said, “When it comes to the future of retail, and driving the customer experience, AI is an essential component. Across our retail portfolio, AI is a focal point and this co-operation with JD will, without doubt, accelerate our progress.”
Bowen Zhou, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD’s AI Platform and Research said, “As one of the largest retailers in the world, we believe that figuring out how to deploy AI solutions is critical to our future success. Drawing on Fung Retailing’s global offline retail expertise, this partnership will be important for us as we deliver our retail vision.”
Other areas of focus within the agreement include cooperation on the construction of AI infrastructure, as well as smart retail, creating AI-driven solutions that break down the barriers between online and offline, and exploring the intersection of AI and fashion.
The company with the biggest grip on Thailand’s brick-and-mortar retail market is expecting a partnership with China’s JD.com Inc. to pursue online growth.
Central Group, which controls Thailand’s biggest operator of shopping malls and department stores, expects online sales to account for as much as 15 percent of its revenue in five years, from 2 percent now. The partnership with JD will help it compete in South East Asia’s booming e-commerce market and also open up businesses opportunities in China, Chief Executive Officer Tos Chirathivat said in an interview.
With an empire that also includes hotels, supermarkets and restaurants, Central Group is counting on online growth to help drive sales. The company first announced its $500 million joint venture with JD in September 2017, teaming up with China’s second-largest e-commerce operator. Tos estimates that online retail in Thailand could rise fivefold to 10 percent of the market as the country of nearly 70 million develops and access to the web spreads through smartphones.
“We obviously want to be the leading player in the 10 percent so it doesn’t really matter what kind of percent of the group it is,” Tos said in the Jan. 3 interview at his Bangkok office. “The important thing is to be the leader in the market itself.”
Central Group and JD are competing in an increasingly crowded market, with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. expanding in South East Asia through Lazada while Amazon.com Inc. kicked off with a beachhead in Singapore last year.
Southeast Asia is home to more than 600 million people and the region’s internet economy, which includes e-commerce, online travel and ride-hailing, may grow fourfold by 2025 from an estimate of $50 billion in 2017, according to a joint research report by Google and Temasek Holdings Pte.
While Central Group is a privately-held investment arm of the Chirathivat family, the company controls a number of publicly traded businesses. Central Pattana Pcl is a mall developer, Central Plaza Hotel Pcl operates resorts and restaurants, Robinson Pcl has a chain of department stores and COL Pcl does office supplies.
All four gained in 2017, with Central Pattana surging 50 percent in 2017, Central Plaza jumping 47 percent and COL more than doubling, all outperforming Thailand’s benchmark SET Index.
Outside the country, Central Group owns Italian luxury department store La Rinascente, Danish retailer Illum and in 2016 acquired the Big C hypermarket chain in Vietnam.
Central Group is targeting annual revenue growth of 13 percent in 2018 based on the company’s five-year strategy plan, said Tos. That number may be higher with mergers and acquisitions, and the company could consider deals in the billions of dollars if the opportunity is right, he said.
Local sentiment is helping the company, with consumer spending in Thailand picking up after the October cremation of late King Bhumibol Adulyadej ended the nation’s yearlong mourning period.
“If the trend continues like this then this year should be good,” said Tos.
Three Chinese e-commerce giants led by Tencent are buying into shopping centres as part of an alliance that will help fund property magnate Wang Jianlin’s HK$30 billion (US$3.8 billion) plan to take his Dalian Wanda Group private.
Jianlin describes it as the world’s biggest single alliance between the new economy and bricks-and-mortar businesses as he vows to turn his flagship commercial property unit into an online-to-offline service provider.
After shedding properties in Australia, China and the UK to help reduce debt, he is now selling off nearly 14 per cent of Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties to some of the mainland’s biggest internet and retail players.
An investor group led by Tencent, along with e-commerce heavyweight JD.com, electronics retailer Suning and Wanda partner Sunac China Holdings, the stake is being sold for RMB34 billion (US$4.36 billion).
On its website, Wanda presents the share sale as part of a transformation of the company from a real-estate developer with nearly 240 shopping centres across China into a commercial management company focused on integrating online and offline consumption.
As part of the deal, Dalian Wanda Commercial Properties will be renamed Wanda Commercial Management Group.
However, the new partners may lead the financing of new malls, with the website statement noting “Tencent, Suning and other investors will use their financial prowess to continuously support Wanda Commercial to speed up its growth, helping the company to achieve its goal of 1000 Wanda Plazas in China as early as possible”.in
Wanda says the partners are keen to relist the commercial real-estate unit, still privately held after a 2016 buyout led by Wang, “at the earliest opportunity”.
Also, the new group will use the online resources of Tencent, Suning and JD.com as well as its own offline commercial assets to “carry out various collaborations, jointly building a new consumption model in China that will integrate both online and offline services”.
Wanda Commercial’s total debt at the end of June was RMB279 billion, according to ratings agency S&P.
Tencent’s investment of RMB10 billion gives it a 4.12 per cent stake, while Suning and Sunac’s twin outlays of RMB9.5 billion will them a 3.91 per cent stake each, and JD.com’s RMB5 billion yields a 2 per cent stake.
Meanwhile, WeChat owner Tencent last week said it might buy into French retailer Carrefour’s China business, along with local retailer Yonghui Superstores. This follows Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods for US$13.7 billion.
JD.com announced yesterday that it has opened a Paris office. The move follows an agreement with France’s official trade promotion agency, Business France, to sell €2 billion (US$2.4 billion) in French products to Chinese consumers over the next two years.
It’s a strategic move, putting JD.com in close proximity to many of the world’s top luxury brands at a time when China’s leading e-commerce platforms are battling for a bigger share of the luxury market.
JD.com France’s Managing Director, Florent Courau
JD.com first made public its intentions to woo French retailers earlier this month when French President Emmanuel Macron made a state visit to China. This visit also coincided with another landmark announcement that French luxury fashion house Saint Laurent would be officially partnering with JD.com to sell its collections on the e-commerce site’s luxury platform, Toplife, joining the ranks of La Perla, Tod’s, Emporio Armani, and more recently, Derek Lam.
Company representatives called the collaboration with France a “milestone” for the e-commerce giant. The newly appointed Managing Director for JD.com in France is Florent Courau, who worked as COO of Sephora in North Asia and, before that, at LVMH for 12 years, six of them in China.
JD.com intends to leverage stronger relations with the country to broaden its luxury portfolio in Europe, giving its customers access to a wider range and a better quality selection of not only fashion brands, but categories like cosmetics, food, and wine and spirits.
“Our customers value the quality of French products, making this a critical market for us to further expand our brand relationships,” Courau said in a statement. “Our Paris office will be committed to providing tailor-made support to our French partners who want to seize the immense opportunity that JD offers.”
A new report released by Bain last week revealed that many luxury consumers were still wary about making purchases online and preferred shopping either at brick and mortar stores, on the brand’s official website, or on its WeChat platform. Luxury aggregators like JD.com’s Toplife and Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Pavilion were the third most-preferred resource for these consumers.
But both JD.com and Alibaba have been ramping up their efforts to secure the trust of both consumers and brands in the luxury sector with the launch of these ‘pure play’ platforms—JD.com launched Toplife last fall—that keep luxury goods separate from their other mass market offerings and even counterfeit goods.
These platforms also let JD.com cater to the specific demands of luxury consumers through offering better customer service, guaranteed authenticity, and a “white glove” delivery service. JD.com has also spent much of the past year forging stronger networks in the luxury industry beginning with $397 million deal with UK luxury platform Farfetch.
“Since we launched Toplife the goal has been to provide the convenience of online with the personalized feel of making a luxury purchase online,” VP for International Corporate Affairs at JD.com Josh Gartner said. “Our physical presence in France brings us closer to the world’s leading luxury brands and helps us understand them better so we can ensure the integrity of their offline brand identity when they come online with us in China.”
To smooth the process of entering China’s world of online retail, JD.com also plans to offer a new training program for senior executives on reaching China’s online shoppers, as well as build a logistics center to smooth out the overseas shipping process.
“Now, we want to bring the best of France, not only in terms of world-class brands, but also in terms of a world-class shopping experience, right to the doorsteps of our luxury consumers,” Gartner said.
Clashing head-on with manufacturers who sell through its platform, China’s JD.com has introduced its own brand, Jing Zao.
Its initial 38 products range from towels to suitcases in similar style to Japan’s Muji or US luggage maker Samsonite, but at a lower price. Both companies sell their wares through JD.com.
JD.com knows which products are popular with customers and can tailor its offerings accordingly, plus it has its own logistics service for deliveries.
Its house brand follows its venture into physical retail stores. This month it introduced its first fresh-food supermarket in Beijing.
Meanwhile, JD.com has confirmed it is a co-investor in Vietnam’s Tiki e-commerce platform, becoming one of its largest shareholders.
Chinese online retailer JD.com Inc has made an investment in Vietnamese e-commerce firm Tiki.vn, expanding its Southeast Asia business amid growing competition in the region from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Amazon.com Inc.
JD.com co-led the financing with Vietnamese entertainment and social media firm VNG Corp, which is an existing investor, China’s second-biggest e-commerce firm behind Alibaba said in a statement on Tuesday.
The firm did not disclose the size of the funding but said that JD.com will become one of Tiki’s largest shareholders alongside VNG following the deal.
Vietnamese media had reported in November that the round was worth roughly 1 trillion dong ($44.04 million). JD.com declined to give a dollar number for the investment.
“With JD’s expertise in leveraging social media for e-commerce, Tiki.vn’s partnership with VNG in social network and mobile payments is a natural fit,” Winston Cheng, president of JD.com’s international business, said in the statement.
Vietnam is the latest focal point in JD.com’s strategic push into Southeast Asia, where Alibaba and Amazon have also made significant investments in the past year.
JD.com will tap Tiki.vn’s warehousing and delivery system, as well as its technology and payments capabilities.
Tiki.vn and VNG’s tie-up has similarities to the partnership between JD.com Inc and internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, which is an investor in JD.com and Asia’s largest tech firm by market cap.
JD.com leverages data and payments from Tencent’s WeChat, China’s most popular social media app, and will seek to build similar capabilities with VNG and Tiki.vn, Cheng said.
While Southeast Asia’s e-commerce market is still nascent compared to the China‘s, improvement in internet services and an increase in mobile-based payments have attracted large international e-commerce firms to the region.
Alibaba has invested heavily in payment and e-commerce ventures in Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. U.S. retailer Amazon also launched its subscription-based Prime service in Singapore last month in a bid to challenge Alibaba-backed online retailer Lazada Group in Southeast Asia.
JD.com launched a local online retail business in Indonesia two years ago, and now claims to be the country’ largest retailer by revenue. It also formed a $500 million e-commerce venture with Thai retailer Central Group.
Besides VNG, Tiki.vn’s previous investors include Seedcom, Sumitomo Corp and CyberAgent Ventures.
Alexander McQueen China has partnered with JD.com to launch a store on the e-commerce giant’s luxury platform Toplife.
It will offer the full Alexander McQueen fashion ranges as well as accessories.
While the UK luxury fashion brand already has 15 on-ground stores throughout China and Hong Kong, it aims to bolster its online reach through JD.com’s logistical infrastructure as well as its understanding of the Chinese luxury e-commerce.
“This is a strategic addition to our physical presence in China, part of our multi-channel experience,” says Alexander McQueen CEO Emmanuel Gintzburger. “JD.com’s advanced capabilities will allow us to engage with a larger local clientele while respecting the creative expression of the house.”
Launched in October, Toplife aims to fill a gap in the Chinese e-commerce market by offering only full-priced items from premium global brands. It offers international luxury brands access to its allround system, which seamlessly incorporates an online store, premium customer service, delivery services and marketing and branding expertise.
Santander UK has partnered with Chinese retailer JD.com to give British brands access to China’s massive retail and consumer market.
As part of the agreement, small and medium-sized business customers at Santander with turnover of at least £10 million and international trading experience will be able to launch stores on JD.com, which is known as one of China’s largest B2C online retailers.
The online marketplace has a customer base of over 266 million people, and its extensive delivery network has attracted top European and American brands. Luxury brand Saint Lauren was the latest to join the platform this week as it announced its launch on JD.com’s Toplife.
The Santander/JD announcement comes after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in July 2016.
Deputy general manager of JD.com worldwide Kaisi Li commented: “This partnership with Santander opens up many more opportunities to small and medium-size enterprises across the UK. Demand for imported products in China is strong and growing rapidly, and we’re excited to work with Santander to enable more UK-based brands to benefit from the growth of this huge market.”
JD rival ecommerce site Alibaba features brands such as Burberry, Hugo Boss and Gucci.
China Unicom has signed business cooperation framework agreements with Kuang-Chi Technologies and KuangChi Science, subsidiaries of Kuang-Chi Group.
The agreement is an integral part of a series of cooperation framework agreements which Unicom signed with strategic investors in key industry verticals participating in its mixed-ownership reform, the Chinese operator said in a statement.
Under the agreement, Unicom will work closely with Kuang-Chi Technologies and KuangChi Science in areas such as military-civil integration, public security, smart cities and smart transportation. The companies will also cooperate to explore new opportunities in cloud computation, big data, internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), digital content and payment finance.
Unicom announced its 77.9 billion yuan ($11.7 billion) ownership reform plan in August 2017, bringing in 14 new strategic investors including large internet companies, industrial groups and industry vertical companies and financial enterprises. The operator has already signed framework agreements with internet and e-commerce giants Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Jingdong (owner of the JD.com brand).
After forming an e-commerce partnership with China’s JD.com, Thai retail giant Central Group expects online sales to account for as much as 15 per cent of its revenue in five years’ time, from 2 per cent now.
CEO Tos Chirathivat says the $500 million JV, announced in September, will help it compete in Southeast Asia’s booming e-commerce market and also open up businesses opportunities in China.
Tos estimates online retail in Thailand could rise fivefold to 10 per cent of the market as web access spreads via smartphones.
While Central Group is a privately held investment arm of the Chirathivat family, it controls a range of publicly traded businesses – Central Pattana is a mall developer, Central Plaza Hotel runs resorts and restaurants, Robinson is a chain of department stores and COL is an office supplies company. Central Pattana turnover surged 50 per cent last year, Central Plaza 47 per cent and COL more than doubled.
Outside of Thailand, Central Group owns Italian luxury department store La Rinascente, Danish retailer Illum and the Big C hypermarket chain in Vietnam, along with interested in retail chains including Nguyen Kim (Vietnam) and B2S (Thailand).
Central Group is targeting annual revenue growth of 13 per cent this year, says Tos. Local sentiment is helping the company, with consumer spending in Thailand picking up after the October cremation of King Bhumibol Adulyadej ended the nation’s year-long mourning period.
