Chinese online retail giant JD has opened two new innovative stores at Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) and Hohhot East Railway Station in Inner Mongolia. In a move to further expand the firm’s “boundaryless retail” strategy, the JD travel retail stores use the e-commerce company’s latest retail technology in order to make it easier and more enjoyable for travellers to purchase on the go. The openings add airports and railway stations to JD’s offline retail offerings, which already include convenience stores, supermarkets, and partnerships with hotels.
Located in the departure lounge of Terminal 3 at BCIA for the next three months, JD’s pop-up store will offer popular travel items such as daily necessities, clothing, mobile accessories, beauty products, and bags and suitcases. The store uses JD’s smart store technology to understand how customers interact with products as well as which products to offer them. The integrated JD Zu Chongzhi platform can analyse customer behaviour and traffic flow, such as generating heat maps, in order to assist with product selection and inventory management, ensuring smooth store operations.
“[Stocked] with items popular among travellers, the new shop will not only offer the products they want to buy most on their journeys – it will also allow them to personally experience what shopping of the future will be like, brought to them by China’s largest and most innovative retailer,” a spokesperson for BCIA said.
The 100sqm unmanned Hohhot East Railway Station JD travel retail store opened in partnership with China Railway Express. It also makes the most of JD’s technological capabilities, with features such as facial-recognition payment and smart vending machines. Later, the store will make use of a Mini Program in WeChat so that customers can choose to buy on the spot and take their purchases with them, or shop online and have them delivered to a convenient location.
JD Logistics and China Railway Express have been cooperating in logistics transportation since 2014, and have worked together to help facilitate the JD Luxury Express “white glove” delivery service as well as fresh food delivery via high-speed rail.
“Many of our customers enjoy shopping while traveling and we’re determined to make sure they benefit from the convenience of JD wherever they are,” JD’s GM of social e-commerce and retail innovation, Bing Zhang, said.
The new JD travel retail stores in Beijing and Inner Mongolia will provide them with a truly seamless experience that is unrivalled anywhere”.
