October 23, 2018
By Joseph S. Margai in Beijing
Vic Gu (standing) JD.com’s Director of International Media Communications explains via PowerPoint presentation the company’s operations to visiting journalists
Officials at the JD.Com, China’s largest e-commerce company, have told pressmen that they are hopeful of extending the online purchasing technology to African countries in the not-too-distant future.
Already, the company has started exporting electronic gadgets online to customers in North Africa.
JD.Com’s Director of International Media Communications, Vic Gu, said in a meeting with journalists at the company’s headquarters in Beijing, Monday, 22nd October, that plans are underway to extend China’s largest e-commerce company to Africa.
He said that currently their company could deliver goods wherever in China to customers who purchase online, adding that they have over 300 million active users of their online facilities.
“We source the best quality and authentic goods from every source for our customers. We have two qualities that make us to stand out among others, which are authenticity and fast delivery. No matter where you are, once you purchase online our goods, we will deliver them on the same day or at least the following day,” he said.
According to Vic, the company started as a brick and mortar electronic shop in Beijing in 1998 to become China’s largest retailer online on offline, noting that they have the largest e-commerce logistics infrastructure in China, covering 99% of the country’s population.
He said JD.Com has achieved rates of over 90% of orders being delivered same or next day using drones, fully automated cars, etc.
Vic said JD.Com does not manufacture goods but rather buy from factories that produce the best quality products and sell online to their numerous customers.
“We cooperated with Tencent, a Chinese company that owes WeChat, China’s biggest social media platform. We already have one billion Chinese customers through partnership with Tencent. We have also partnered with Wal-Mart and Google June this year. Our hope for the future is to have boundary-less customers,” he said.
He revealed that they have 100 warehouses overseas and there is a very efficient network in their business.
Explaining about the drones that facilitate delivery to customers, he said the company owns different drones, some of them could be in the air for 40 minutes covering a distance of 40 kilometres.
“We have another type of drone that could take a maximum load of 1000kg. These drones take goods from our various warehouses and drop them to an assemble point. The rest of the delivery will be done by the delivery worker,” he explained.
He revealed that since December 2016 JD.com operates 256 warehouses and a total of 6,906 delivery and pickup stations, adding that the company has 120,000 merchants on its online marketplace and 120,622 full-time employees.
He revealed that his company is a member of the Fortune Global 500, saying that since 2016 they have garnered total revenue of 658.2 billion Chinese Yuan.