WeChat, Walmart, retail-as-a-service: 4 interesting things JD.com is working on

Jeffrey is a TIA Star Contributor and publishes high-value content that serves the Asian tech community. Read more from TIA Star Contributors here.

I recently accompanied a group of European students to JD.com’s headquarters in Beijing. They were part of the ChinaMed TOChina program from the University of Torino, which is a program connecting students from China and southern Europe.

We took a tour and had some interesting talks.

The students also got a copy of The JD.com Story, which is a pretty good book.

As is my custom, I took a ton of notes during this visit. For this article, I will list the four most interesting things I think JD is working on right now.

1. JD and WeChat are integrating their data for merchants

In the past year, both Alibaba and JD have rolled out a more integrated marketing service. Alibaba calls it “uni-marketing,” and JD has a similar program.

The idea, which has real power, is to offer a unified view of consumers to brands and merchants on the platform and to complement this data with a suite of digital tools. It’s data plus digital tools for greater customer understanding and engagement in one dashboard.

JD and WeChat doing this could be really powerful. Alibaba has ecommerce, location, entertainment viewing, and lots of information on their users. But WeChat dominates social media.

It will be interesting to see how this integration plays out over time.

2. JD’s partnership with Walmart is expanding

JD is now expanding its partnership with Walmart China, and that’s pretty interesting, given Walmart’s capabilities and the concept of “new retail.”

Right now, JD appears to be increasingly integrating inventory. So, consumers buying stuff on JD can have their orders fulfilled with the inventory in the company’s warehouses or at Walmart and its warehouses.

3. JD logistics is dreaming big

4. ‘Retail-as-a-service’