CE China Daily 2018 - Day 2 Edition

TRADE TALK
Drones, Autonomous Vehicles
and Automated Warehouses
Not the future; today – in China – with JD.com
Chen Zhang is JD.com’s CTO, overseeing the company’s
R&D capabilities with a focus on addressing the ecommerce
industry’s biggest technological challenges. At JD.com, he also
leads the company’s programmes to develop innovative and
cutting-edge technologies, its external collaboration programs,
and its development of international talent. The company
recently started testing robotic delivery services and building
drone delivery airports, as well as operating driverless delivery
by unveiling its first autonomous truck, so we asked Mr Chen
to tell us more.
We now have daily operations for
drone delivery in several locations
in China. We use drone delivery to
lower logistics costs and increase
efficiency in areas where complex
terrain and poor infrastructure make
“last mile” logistics challenging.
JD.com is also building out fullyautomated
warehouses, including
the first fully automated business-toconsumer
warehouse in the world,
which has already begun operations
in Shanghai. Meanwhile, we are
leveraging AI, deep learning and
image recognition technologies to
develop smart logistics solutions.
We’ve been testing autonomous
delivery vehicles in a few university
campuses in China. In the long
term we expect these vehicles to
make urban deliveries in locations
like corporate campuses and office
buildings.
Moreover, we are researching
autonomous light electric vans with
industrial partners for the delivery of
goods from JD’s distribution centres
to delivery stations in the future.
How is big data helping put your
company compete in the market?
JD.com’s advanced big data analytics
are increasingly providing brands and
consumers an enhanced shopping
experience.
Our dynamic pricing initiatives
maximise efficiency through
sophisticated algorithms that
provide real-time pricing for 4 million
products stored in JD warehouses.
JD.com has joined forces with
Tencent, Baidu and other internet
giants in China. The partnerships
give JD the most complete data set
of user habits of anyone in China’s
Internet space – extending JD.com’s
leadership in offering brands
unrivalled insights to help retailers
reach the right target consumers
quickly and effectively, providing
outstanding ROI.
What do you see as being the
key trends in the evolution of
consumer demand in China?
The Chinese e-commerce landscape
is already one of the most developed
in the world, but continues to see
tremendous changes. About 18%
of retail takes place online in China,
about double that of the US. By
2020, Chinese online purchases are
expected to exceed those of the US,
UK, France, Germany and Japan
combined.
China is a mobile-first commerce
market and Chinese consumers look
for the best consumer experience.
On JD.com, about 80% of our orders
come from mobile and for our users
in many parts of China, same-day
delivery is seen as a standard.
Another key evolution is that Chinese
consumers are becoming more
and more discerning. They look for
quality products and therefore, the
demand for imported goods is rising
sharply. The rapid growth of our
cross-border e-commerce platform
JD Worldwide is an illustration of
this trend.
Thoughts on omni-channel?
Today, reaching Chinese customers
means for brands developing an
omni-channel strategy using online
social media channels, CRM & omni
channel strategies.
JD.com has been a global leader in
the shift to omnichannel.
For instance, we have jointly
Chen Zhang
CTO, JD.com
deployed with Walmart a supply
chain and backend system to
integrate inventory management.
When a customer places an order
on JD.com, our order management
system will determine whether a
JD.com warehouse or Walmart
store is closer to the customer, and
dispatch a courier accordingly.
We also launched JD-Tencent Retail
Marketing Solution. We co-develop
a secure database of shopping data
that will give brands the ability to
better understand user preferences
and target potential consumers,
regardless of whether consumers
choose to shop online or in-store.
We are also rolling out offline “JD
Retail Experience Shops”, where
customers can touch and feel
products sourced from JD.com.
JD’s technology, powered by
predictive analytics using big data,
will keep offline stores stocked
with recommended categories and
suggested amounts of products,
while localizing the selection
depending on consumer buying
preferences in each location
BY 2020,
CHINESE ONLINE
PURCHASES
ARE EXPECTED
TO EXCEED
THOSE OF THE
US, UK, FRANCE,
GERMANY
AND JAPAN
COMBINED.
4