news

following the "1 billion yuan" follow-up investment in clothing at the end of august and the 50% discount subsidy for all items in mid-september, jd fashion has ushered in a major offline layout.

on september 24, a reporter from the daily economic news learned that jd.com will launch omni-channel outlet business operations and open the first jd.com outlet offline store in china in heilan pegasus water city, jiangyin city, wuxi city, jiangsu province in october. at the same time, the jd.com outlet official flagship store will also be officially opened.

the outlet project is a joint venture with heilan group, a leading domestic clothing company. the reporter further learned that jd.com will open its own related products for sale in "jd outlets" stores, and heilan group will provide a rich supply of goods in terms of offline supply and store operations to create price advantages.

in terms of store settings, the reporter exclusively learned that there will be six major areas: sports shoes and apparel, outdoor, men's and women's clothing, children's clothing, light luxury, and shoes and boots. in terms of brands, there will be clothing brands including under armour, adidas, puma, etc., positioning themselves as "deep discount sales."

the insider also revealed exclusively to the reporter of "daily economic news" that "in the future, jd outlet offline stores will be opened in many cities across the country." behind the outlet project is jd fashion's "fierce attack", and jd fashion is experiencing a major increase in investment.

for all key projects, jd.com has always taken the route of "two legs" parallel online and offline. the same is true for the offline layout of home appliances and supermarkets. the e-commerce "apparel war" is a battle for inventory. now that the opponent has taken "drastic measures", jd.com has become more powerful.

many clothing brands have settled in jd.com outlets, and jd.com will also "open supply"

the reporter exclusively learned that the jd outlet omni-channel project focuses on two aspects of cooperation. one is that jd will open its own related products for sale in "jd outlet" stores, and heilan group will provide support in offline supply and store operations, especially further enriching the store's product supply, and at the same time, through the coordination of the supply chain, focus on forming an advantage in "price power".

the other is to simultaneously launch the jd outlets official flagship store on the jd main site app.

in fact, jd.com's online main site already has a "big brand outlet" channel, and currently all products in this channel are from brand self-operated stores and official flagship stores, with 3,600 brands participating. in addition to the various brand outlet stores, there are also self-operated stores such as the "luxury outlet jd self-operated zone".

the reporter had previously learned exclusively that after the end of this year's "618", starting from the third quarter, jd.com's key project will be jd.com apparel, including but not limited to large-scale marketing, category subsidies and event promotion.

at the end of august, jd.com announced an additional investment of 1 billion yuan to comprehensively develop the clothing category. a large part of the additional investment was used for the 50% discount subsidy event for clothing in mid-september. september was chosen to take advantage of the "seasonal change" and september is also a critical period for preparations for double 11.

the latest data from jd.com also shows that the 50% discount on clothing has a significant effect. the overall transaction volume of women's clothing increased by 230% year-on-year; in terms of men's clothing, the transaction volume of men's down jackets increased by 12 times year-on-year.

tmall may have felt the pressure. on september 20, tmall clothing officially announced "large cooling subsidies" and launched a new autumn and winter clothing product venue, with all major brands offering 50% off.

this attack and defense shows the tension between the old rivals. in particular, some clothing brands have begun to return to the jd platform. jd data shows that since the beginning of this year, the number of leading domestic and foreign footwear and clothing brands on jd has increased by more than 60% year-on-year, and the number of third-party merchants has increased by more than 200% year-on-year. in addition, the number of new products in hundreds of clothing categories has increased by more than 5 times year-on-year.

why does jd fashion choose the outlet model?

outlet is the abbreviation of outlets. after decades of development, it now focuses more on the definition of "brand direct sales shopping center". from the past "factory direct sales stores", gradually gathered together, slowly formed large-scale outlet shopping centers, and gradually developed into an independent retail format.

why did jd fashion choose the outlet model for its offline layout?

the outlet industry itself has a clear growth momentum. according to the "2023-2024 china outlet industry development white paper" released by the china department store association, there are about 239 outlet projects in operation nationwide, with sales of about 230 billion yuan, an increase of about 9.5% over 2022, the highest growth rate among all retail formats. in 2023, 17 new outlet projects will be opened throughout the year.

the outlet model itself is also consistent with the current e-commerce's main "low price" route. the outlet format has always been labeled as a discount store for famous brands. in addition, the open space and independent brand management of outlets make it easier to achieve "experience" in terms of model, which is also one of the main functional supports for the offline layout of clothing categories.

another trend in outlet projects is the tendency to build them into "new lifestyle" places that integrate shopping, entertainment, family gatherings, sports and leisure. for a comprehensive e-commerce platform like jd.com, there is room to implement more layout forms and business model experiments.

the essence of the outlet model also lies in the supply chain. to run an outlet project, you generally need a company or platform with a strong supply chain to support it. from the perspective of jd.com and heilan, both companies currently have certain supply chain capabilities in their respective fields.

the subsequent focus of the cooperation between the two parties will definitely be on the coordination of the two parties in the supply chain, including deep integration into the outlet model, and at the same time, docking and cooperation in clothing, brands, merchants, etc., as well as running-in in terms of price, category, new products, etc., which will ultimately determine the smooth implementation of the project.

after its offline layout shifted to home appliances and supermarkets, jd.com chose to bet on clothing

in recent years, the speed at which e-commerce platforms deploy offline business has slowed down significantly, and the model has begun to shift towards more flexible and lightweight small store formats.

in addition to the influence of external factors such as major changes in the consumption environment, the overly large and heavy offline business has a clear "drag" on performance. the leading platforms are generally focusing on their core business and main site, while returning to the "low-price" route.

in response to the news that alibaba is considering selling its department store and shopping mall operator intime retail, alibaba group chairman joseph tsai said at the third quarter earnings conference for fiscal year 2024 that alibaba still has some traditional physical retail businesses on its balance sheet. they are not core focus businesses, and it is reasonable to exit.

but this does not mean that offline formats and physical retail layouts have been completely abandoned. alibaba has not given up, and jd.com, which started with self-operated business and has a higher degree of adaptability to offline formats, has not given up either.

in the past few years, jd.com has made many offline attempts in home appliances, supermarkets, fresh food, etc. home appliances are jd.com's traditional advantage projects, and jd.com's offline layout of home appliances has matured, including jd five star appliances, jd home, jd super body, etc.

jd.com has also made many attempts in the offline layout of supermarkets. however, thanks to the rise of online channels for supermarkets in recent years, jd.com, which has its own logistics system, has always performed relatively strongly in the online supermarket business.

yao yanzhong, senior vice president of jd group and president of jd retail hypermarket business group, previously revealed at jd supermarket's 10th anniversary event that in the first half of this year, jd supermarket's new users grew by 20%, order volume grew by more than 30%, and revenue achieved high double-digit growth.

by the end of 2023, jd supermarket will have more than 50 super brands with annual sales exceeding 1 billion yuan, more than 100 brands with annual sales of 500 million yuan and more than 500 brands with annual sales of over 100 million yuan.

therefore, jd.com has made some adjustments to its offline supermarket layout. at the end of june this year, jd.com opened its first full-category discount supermarket in beijing. jd.com chose the discount supermarket strategy that is more in line with the current low-price route. with the overall shift in offline layout, jd.com has undoubtedly chosen to "bet" on the clothing category that has shown a high growth rate. after the initial accumulation period, everything has begun to speed up again.

daily economic news