With the further penetration of e-commerce in Europe, Europe has become the largest e-commerce market after China and the United States. JD's overseas layout is targeting the European market.
Recently, Ochama, a European omnichannel retail business under JD.com, announced the addition of 19 countries to provide delivery to home services. At present, Ochama has achieved delivery to home services in 24 European countries.
JD's layout in the European market is not limited to retail business, and JD's supply chain expansion is a key business hidden behind retail. So far, JD Logistics has nearly 90 bonded warehouses, overseas warehouses, and direct mail warehouses worldwide, with sea, land, and air transportation routes covering the world. JD has entered the European market for three years and has established its own warehousing network in major countries such as Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and other countries. It has also established collaborative warehouses in major European countries, and its warehousing network service capabilities basically cover major European countries.
The relevant person in charge of JD Logistics International Logistics Europe in an interview with media reporters such as China Business Daily said: JD Logistics' overseas supply chain layout is centered around warehouses, and then extends to the delivery of the overall supply chain. JD Logistics' layout in the European market mainly serves Chinese overseas enterprises and local European enterprises. At present, our core goal is to cover European local distribution centers and integrate warehouse and distribution services
The supply chain business doubles in growth every year
JD Logistics' layout in European logistics is actually less than three years old, but it has completed the construction from 0 to 1, and its growth in the European market has been very fast in the past two years. The supply chain business is doubling every year, and the growth rate of warehouse and distribution integrated business will be higher, "said the person in charge of JD Logistics.
In recent years, JD Logistics has focused on overseas warehouse construction in the European market. It has established its own warehousing network in major European countries such as Germany, Poland, the Netherlands, France, the United Kingdom, Spain, and other countries, and has also established collaborative warehouses in major European countries. Its warehousing network service capabilities basically cover major European countries. While building storage capacity, JD Logistics Europe has actively established terminal delivery capabilities, closely cooperating with mainstream top service providers in various countries, and also establishing cooperation with local underground service providers.
For example, in June of this year, JD Logistics reached a strategic cooperation with international express delivery company Geopost to jointly create international express delivery services covering China and Europe, achieving one day delivery in multiple European countries through self operated warehouses and on-site delivery. In addition, JD Logistics continues to build truck transportation, and through the support of local transportation management teams and professional TMS systems, it can provide high-quality European local truck delivery and major port delivery services.
The above person in charge introduced that the logic of JD Logistics' integrated supply chain service layout in Europe is basically consistent with the domestic market. The core of supply chain business is warehouses, which serve as nodes for end-to-end or integrated supply chain delivery. Therefore, our starting point in the European market is to build infrastructure overseas with warehouses as the core
However, in the early stage of the domestic market, JD Logistics followed the path of promoting logistics through commercial flow. JD Logistics' infrastructure in China was gradually established based on JD Group's early layout in China and gradually opened up to external customers. During the process of JD Logistics going overseas, both logistics and business flow are simultaneously exploring development paths.
JD Logistics' supply chain integration business in the European market mainly serves two types of customers. One type is Chinese companies that go overseas. Due to their overseas supply chain needs, JD Logistics helps them with this layout. Another type is overseas local customers, especially in the To C e-commerce performance scenario, JD Logistics will provide integrated supply chain services from warehouse to distribution. It is reported that about 50% of JD Logistics' customers in the European market are local European brands.
JD Logistics can operate its own warehouses and distribution in the domestic market, but in the European market, end delivery is basically dominated by top express delivery companies in various countries' postal and non postal systems. Therefore, JD Logistics mostly chooses to cooperate with local enterprises in the end delivery mode in Europe, combining JD Logistics' overseas warehouses to provide integrated supply chain services.
In the final delivery stage, the distribution resources used by JD Logistics and other enterprises are basically the same, which means that it is difficult for JD to make truly disruptive optimizations in this stage. So how does JD achieve rapid growth in the European market?
The above person in charge told the reporter: Firstly, in terms of warehousing, our warehouse is able to complete the orders on the same day, especially for some local e-commerce companies that are relatively sensitive to timeliness, which is at least one day faster than their original suppliers. Although it is difficult to achieve disruptive optimization in the end delivery process, we have also adopted some methods. For example, after the orders reach a certain density, we will use our own vehicles to directly deliver them to Deutsche Post or Dutch The nearest delivery station of Lan Post has eliminated the need for them to pick up and sort the goods, which to some extent helps improve the efficiency of logistics delivery
For domestic and European merchants, JD Logistics can achieve end-to-end delivery. That is, the merchant hands over the goods to JD Logistics domestically, transports them to overseas customs clearance, and finally delivers them to European countries, all of which are handled by JD Logistics.
In recent years, Chinese home appliances have continued to go overseas, and JD Logistics has become an important partner for home appliances to go to Europe. It is reported that a well-known domestic home appliance enterprise is one of JD Logistics' partners, with Spain as the core. JD Logistics has built an integrated service network covering Europe for overseas warehouses, distribution, and installation. Through the services of JD Logistics, the company has rapidly improved its warehouse delivery efficiency across Europe, with a daily productivity of 99%, with a 48 hour delivery rate of 96% in Germany. At the service level, JD Logistics' timely response rate to customer needs is much higher than the European average.
In recent years, JD Logistics has gone global by promoting integrated supply chain services, serving many well-known domestic and foreign enterprises overseas, such as Huawei, Honor, Midea, Ningde Times, Mindray Medical, Hunkemler, Swiss, Yunnan Agricultural Reclamation Group, Sany Heavy Industry, etc.
But entering the European market and wanting to do well is not as easy as imagined. The layout of an integrated supply chain is essentially to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and enhance customer experience for customers. JD Logistics also starts from these three dimensions in Europe, but it still encounters many unexpected problems in practical operations.
For example, the employment methods in Europe are very different from those in China. When entering a market, many third-party labor companies and outsourced resources are usually used. After gradually developing, JD hopes to retain outstanding talents and transform them into JD's own employees. Overseas, this process will be longer than in China. The personnel management in the European market is very different from that in China, and there are basically no language issues in China, but There are many European countries, and there are Chinese, Dutch, German, Polish, Ukrainian people in our warehouse. Everyone has differences in language, culture, and other aspects. In addition, some warehouse employees may have differences in religious beliefs, so when scheduling, it is important to consider that these people cannot be on the same shift The person in charge gave an example.
JD Logistics maintains a relatively optimistic attitude towards the development of its supply chain business in the European market in the coming years. Because we have seen some Chinese companies developing very quickly in the European market in recent years, such as the new energy industry, the home appliance industry mainly focused on electrified goods, and the clothing industry, our overall layout is also centered around these things in terms of warehouse layout. At present, covering the distribution center and warehouse distribution integration business mainly in Europe is our core goal. "The person in charge of JD Logistics mentioned above revealed, While continuously focusing on overseas warehouse construction, JD Logistics will also focus on improving the overall capacity of the European supply chain, focusing on building capacity in the final stage, and also focusing on breakthroughs in industries such as large items, new energy, and clothing to achieve rapid growth.
Accelerated retail services in Europe
Due to the different penetration rates of e-commerce in European countries and regions, the development of online shopping in Europe is full of imagination and potential.
More than a year ago, JD.com established the omnichannel retail brand Ochama in Europe. Over the past year, Ochama has rapidly expanded from the Netherlands to countries such as Belgium, Germany, and France. Relying on tens of thousands of square meters of automated central warehouses and strong supply chain capabilities, Ochama is replicating China's innovative omnichannel shopping model to Europe.
Blokker is a 127 year old non food chain store in the Netherlands that mainly sells home goods and operates over 400 stores. But with changes in the market environment, this century old chain store is facing problems such as reduced store traffic and increased operating costs. Last year, Ochama and Blokker launched a pilot program where customers who place orders at Ochama can choose to pick up and order products from Blokker stores. These products are produced by Ochama's automated warehouse in the Netherlands and can be delivered to over 250 Blokker stores throughout the Netherlands.
The new model has driven the omnichannel transformation of this century old European enterprise. The CEO of Blokker stated that the collaboration with Ochama not only enriches Blokker's product supply, but also helps stores obtain additional traffic from Ochama online. This collaboration was also reported by the largest morning newspaper in the Netherlands, The Telegraph, praising the "Sino Dutch alliance to conquer online shoppers".
Since the first self pickup point was opened, Ochama's self pickup model has been expanded throughout the Netherlands, as well as Germany and Belgium. In addition to large chain stores such as Blokker, there are also many small and medium-sized businesses, street stores, restaurants, and beverage stores cooperating with them. The launch of the self pickup model not only solves the high cost problem of the last mile and provides consumers with flexible delivery methods, but also provides commission income and additional traffic for these offline stores.
In addition to the self pickup mode, Ochama also provides delivery to home services and has covered half of European countries. Echo is a student who has just studied in Europe this year. As a senior online shopping consumer, she admits that she has long been accustomed to door-to-door delivery services in China. Ochama has become a must-have in my daily life. I often buy some food, seasoning, and other daily necessities. I don't have any international students around me who don't know about Ochama
Recently, Ochama announced that 19 new countries will provide delivery to home services. After the expansion of the delivery scope, consumers from 24 European countries can purchase a full range of products including food, 3C, mother and baby, beauty, home appliances, etc. through Ochama one-stop.
It is worth noting that Ochama not only serves local brands, merchants, and consumers overseas, but also builds a reliable path for Chinese brands to go overseas.
Several products sold on Ochama by the domestic kitchen ware brand Cooking King have become popular in the European market. Their selection was too precise, and they sold out instantly upon launch, even out of stock. After receiving feedback, we were stunned and far exceeded our original sales expectations, "said Yu Huina, Director of Overseas Business Operations at Cui Dahuang in an interview.
In fact, Emperor Cui has been working in overseas markets since 2018 and has explored many e-commerce platforms. The biggest problem encountered during the process of trying these e-commerce platforms is agnosticism, "Yu Huina explained to reporters, As brand merchants, we know our products, prices, and selling points, but we don't have a very good understanding of the local market and the audience. This is the first unknowability. The second unknowability is logistics, and the logistics process of transporting goods overseas may encounter many uncontrollable problems, and sea freight prices fluctuate greatly, sometimes very high or very low. After the products arrive in the local area, the local objects may encounter many uncontrollable problems Streaming delivery also has great unknowability. The third is that there may be unknown and uncontrollable situations during the customs clearance process
Yu Huina stated that the collaboration between Emperor Cui and Ochama has just broken all the previous troubles. Firstly, starting from product selection, Ochama's selection team will guide us in selecting products based on the preferences and needs of local market consumers, so that we bear very little risk in product selection. In terms of logistics, now we only need to ship from the factory, and Ochama will arrange logistics companies to come to our factory to pick them up. We do not need to bear all the risks involved in the process of bulk and small cargo logistics. In addition, Ochama itself has a presence in Europe Automated warehouses are also very convenient for consumers Yu Huina believes that JD Ochama can minimize costs, benefit consumers, and reduce many risks and overall trade difficulties for brand owners.
As Ochama enters more countries and its penetration rate continues to increase, the future culinary emperor will also enter more European households, "said Yu Huina.