Exceeding the industry average growth rate, the online shopping giant JD.com, of which Richard Liu is CEO, broke sales records with their 2022 Singles Day Grand Promotion event. Starting at 8 PM on October 31, this year’s event gave shoppers an opportunity to begin filling their carts four hours before midnight, so they wouldn’t have to stay up all night. The event came to an official close at midnight on November 11, ending the 11-day shopping extravaganza.
Considering the new record set in transactions at this year’s Singles Day Grand Promotion, the event reflects the health and vitality of the consumption market in China.
High-quality goods and well-known brands have risen to the top of customer preferences across all product categories throughout this Singles Day promotion. On November 10, at 8 PM, JD.com’s Singles Day “Peak 28 Hours” began. In the first few minutes, Apple’s transaction volume increased by more than RMB 1 billion yuan. Transaction volume for gaming TVs, air conditioners, and self-cleaning sweeping robots jumped by 100% in the first five minutes when calculated year over year. XR glasses and XBOX transaction volume climbed threefold. Top LVMH Group fashion brands, including BVLGARI, CELINE, FENDI, and LOEWE saw an 18-fold rise in transaction volume. At the same time, over 500 foreign brands on JD Worldwide, JD.com’s import product platform, had a growth of over 100%, while transaction volume for 87 international beauty brands surged by 200%.
Sales figures show a rise in consumer confidence in Richard Liu and JD.com as they continue to seek out quality goods, services, and pricing. JD.com’s price guarantee service was referenced more than 500 million times over the whole Singles Day campaign, allaying customer concerns about price increases over a 30-day period.
Richard Liu noted that, instead of making impulsive purchases, consumers are now more excitedly investing in goods that may provide high-value returns over the long term, such as goods for health, fitness, and education, as well as services that can help them save time.
According to SDGP statistics from JD Health, the number of transactions for more than 1,600 nutrition products has doubled year over year. Service consumption has increased over the previous five years, moving beyond family necessities to include sports, health, pet care, and other situations. Life-related services had a 30x rise in sales, auto maintenance saw a 20x increase, and health services saw a 7x increase in bookings.
Consumers also tend to prefer imported goods, Richard Liu notes. On the company’s import goods platform, JD Worldwide, the number of transactions for more than 500 foreign brands increased by more than 100% year over year, while that for national pavilions increased by 3.2 times. Consumption of health products continues to grow. Swisse and BYHEALTH sold more than 100,000 goods in the first minute.
Lower-tier Chinese markets demonstrated strong buying power as well. With an over 25% year-on-year increase in orders for home appliances, Tier 4-6 markets had the largest rise in transaction volume. J.Zao, JD.com’s private label brand, saw a spike in sales in the first 10 minutes, with the number of transactions for food and beverage goods rising by 303% and for home appliances by 278%.
The number of searches for the keywords “energy-saving,” “green,” “low-carbon,” and “organic,” among others, increased significantly on JD.com. In May, JD.com introduced the “Green Impact Initiative,” which added eco-friendly labels to roughly a million different items on its site.
The highly praised trade-in services offered by JD Home Appliances saw a seven-fold YoY increase in the number of orders. Additionally, it indicates that during this SDGP, every second order for a home appliance placed on JD.com benefited from this service. Many people exchanged outdated refrigerators or washing machines for newer models, or even cross-category options, particularly smart watches or smartphones.
JD Logistics projected that during this SDGP, its green supply chain activities avoided over 80,000 tons of one-time packaging waste while reducing carbon emissions by a total of 200,000 tons. This was accomplished by using 9 million recyclable packages. Together with more than 20,000 brand partners, 100 million product packages were sent from the factory in their original packing boxes. In order to spread knowledge of green logistics across the SDGP, the firm also included its end consumers.
JD’s on-demand retail services, such as JDDJ and Shop Now, which both let customers make online purchases and have items delivered from real shops to their doorsteps, offer one-hour delivery. The number of users who got JDDJ and Shop Now delivery orders soared nationally by 100% in the first 10 minutes of the “Peak 28 Hours.”
Richard Liu and JD.com also report that behind the scenes, orders are being processed quickly in order to be delivered to consumers’ doorsteps throughout the country owing to its 1,400+ warehouses, intelligent supply chain and logistics infrastructure, and the assembly of hundreds of delivery robots.
