by Ella Kidron

JD hosted a press conference today to announce plans for its upcoming Singles Day Grand Promotion at its headquarters in Beijing. At the conference, JD Vice President Simon Han provided further color on JD's plans for the upcoming shopping festival, with a focus on how customers can get the most out of their Singles Day experience. Han explained that 2020 was a very trying time for China and the global economy. With China's epidemic prevention and control now entering a period of normalization, Singles Day is key in the continued revitalization of consumers.

JD Vice President Simon Han during Press Conference in Beijing

Among the highlights cited by Han, JD will offer more than 200 million goods at 50% off. New products will also be a big focus of Singles Day this year. Han announced at the conference that JD will offer 300 million new products during the 21-day festival period.

Han explained that livestreaming, which was a key element of the 618 Grand Promotion, will continue to play an important role in this years' Singles Day. JD will invite over 300 celebrities and over 500 executives into its livestreaming room. November 10th, 'JD Live Super Night 2020' will see over 30 blockbuster stars, yet to be revealed, join. Gamification promises to keep consumers engaged throughout the shopping season. JD has several online games where consumers can earn cash or even free fruit.

During Singles Day, PLUS privileges are expected to save RMB 16 billion yuan for members of JD PLUS, the premium membership program. JD PLUS will contribute RMB 1 billion in rights and subsidies. A limited number of members will be able to get the JD PLUS 'buy one get 10' membership card, getting access to benefits from life services platform Meituan, ride hailing platform Didi Chuxing, Burger King and more. PLUS members will also enjoy 5% off from the PLUS brand alliance which includes over 730 brands. November 8th, which has been designated as PLUS DAY, will enable members to enjoy 20-times JD beans (京豆)across all categories. As announced on October 16th, JD PLUS has exceeded 20 million members.

In shopping festivals, one of the most daunting things is how to navigate the myriad of coupons available to consumers given that some are full category, some are across the platform, and some are buy X/deduct Y, while others are a certain percentage discount. JD takes the guesswork out by automatically calculating the most advantageous combination of coupons across the platform at checkout based on what's in the shopping cart.

JD's Singles Day is not only online but multi-channel. Over one million stores in JD's omnichannel ecosystem will attend the festivities. In some cases, location-based-services (LBS) will provide connectivity between online and offline promotions. Furthermore, services like JD's full-price trade-in service, refund without return, the price guarantee from JD Super, JD's online supermarket, and more will ensure consumers a worry-free Singles Day shopping experience.

During the press conference, ahead of the announcement of its Singles Day plans, the company officially released its pre-recorded talk show, which was simultaneously broadcasted on JD Live and to the audience. The show invited popular Chinese comedians as well as JD employees, including a courier, a customer service representative and a buyer, to give a monologue expressing some of the common frustrations with online shopping, while JD Retail CEO Lei Xu and JD Vice President Simon Han provided commentary on each of the performances and provided detailed explanations of how JD ensures customers steer clear of such concerns.

For example, one comedian expressed that he bought a 1.8 meter mattress for a 1.5 meter bed from an e-commerce platform, and that the time it took to contact customer service, fill in confusing forms about the return, and more exceeded the seven-day return window. JD executives highlighted the company's 30-day return guarantee for large home appliances as one of the many benefits for choosing JD for these types of products. The audience erupted in laughter throughout. This is the first time for JD to use such a format to communicate its Singles Day strategy.

(ella@jd.com)

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JD.com Inc. published this content on 19 October 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 19 October 2020 14:24:03 UTC