JD.com, China’s largest retailer, is opening its logistics network to consumers to send parcels around the country, marking the first entry by an e-commerce company into the parcel delivery business.
JD’s parcel delivery service enables users of the company’s app in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou to send items intracity and throughout mainland China using the same delivery service they get when making purchases, the company said in its corporate blog.
The company unveiled the parcel delivery service at its 2018 Global Smart Supply Chain Summit in Beijing on Thursday. Other initiatives announced include the launch of a flagship online store on Google’s shopping platforms to sell directly to American consumers by the end of the year; a smart warehouse management system initiative; an expansion of the company’s green initiatives; and the formation of a new energy union with 20 industry partners.
The company has begun user trials of the parcel delivery service with multiple ways for customers to request pickups. In addition to the JD.com app, shippers can request pickups on a JD Delivery mini program in WeChat, China’s largest social network operated by JD’s partner Tencent, and a JD “Delivery Team” WeChat account.
In a recent company survey, 74 percent of respondents expressed a desire for a high-quality, same-day, intracity delivery service, JD said, adding that its service will be most in demand by urban professions.
JD, which will expand the program to include high-value items, aims to eventually make residential and business deliveries for shippers from anywhere to anywhere within mainland China, it said.
“JD is the only large-scale e-commerce company in the world to operate a nationwide in-house logistics network, down to the last mile. The network, powered by the company’s proprietary supply chain management technology, is able to deliver over 90 percent of orders same or next day and reaches 99 percent of China’s population,” the company said in its blog.
The new delivery service offers same-day delivery between different cities; same-day intracity delivery; and next-day or two-day delivery etween cities. All packages are dispatched using JD’s network of delivery staff.
“Depending on the delivery option chosen, packages may be sent by high-speed rail or air,” JD said. “Individual shippers can use the same JD app they use for shopping to schedule a pickup by one of JD’s full-time logistics staff and have a parcel delivered thousands of miles away at the speed they choose. They will even be able to select JD’s luxury white-glove delivery service if they want to make the delivery extra special.”