China’s JD.com adds more bricks-and-mortar stores to supply chain to speed up deliveries

This programme currently includes 20,000 offline retail stores in 54 cities, including 175 Walmart hypermarkets

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A worker moves goods at a JD.com logistics centre in Langfang, a city in the Chinese coastal province of Hebei. Photo: Reuters

Published: 12:00am, 25 Sep 2019Updated: 3:37pm, 20 Oct 2020

Online shopping giant JD.com is targeting delivery times of as little as 30 minutes across China by using various offline retail outlets, including Walmart, to directly get products to customers.

Beijing-based JD.com’s latest initiative forms part of efforts to improve the overall efficiency of its supply chain, according to Carol Fung, president of the company’s fast-moving consumer goods business.

“This programme cuts out unnecessary steps, improving efficiency for retailers, maximising resources, reducing costs and improving the customer experience,” Fung said in a statement on Tuesday.

Instead of having every product pass through traditional warehouses, distribution centres and delivery stations before reaching the customer, the new programme has offline channels directly make deliveries of orders processed on JD.com’s online platform.

Delivery drivers wait for orders outside a Walmart store in Shanghai. Photo: Bloomberg

The programme uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to determine the proximity of offline retail outlets as well as JD.com’s warehouses and distribution centres to a customer. If an offline store with the goods on order is closer, the AI system will ask that shop to make a direct delivery.