JD widened scope of its business at CES 2020

Technology and innovation, including application of artificial intelligence, big data and robotics, continue to help China's e-commerce companies drive business while consolidating their retail infrastructure and expanding scope with foreign partners.

At the recently concluded Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, China's Nasdaq-listed JD announced a series of contract signings with several renowned partners, including HP, Microsoft and Kingston, to meet the needs of its more than 330 million Chinese consumers.

One of the two major B2C online retailers in China, JD reported revenue of $67.2 billion in 2018. The company unveiled its intentions at CES to move into other areas, including gaming and data storage, as well as enhancing customer satisfaction by improving its omnichannel, which includes online and bricks-and-mortar businesses.

JD has signed a deal with HP in the gaming PC segment after HP launched its gaming brand OMEN and relevant gaming PC series.

As HP's "Best Worldwide Partner for OMEN by HP Growth" in 2019, JD plans to launch 100 C2M (consumer-to-manufacturer) products in the next two years. With Microsoft China, JD will promote a trial experience to target Office 365 users, the omnichannel retail experience in particular. The two companies have tried the Microsoft Re-imagined Retail at JD's Retail Experience shops in cities, including Wuhan, capital city of Hubei province, Suzhou in Jiangsu and Meizhou in Guangdong.

In the next three years, JD and flash-drive manufacturer Kingston are looking at a potential $800 million in sales after the two renewed their second 10-year partnership.

Ren Tao, general manager of JD's computer and digital products, said the "new commitments" are executed through a "strong partnership, which is forged in trust".

As Western Digital's "Worldwide Most Valuable Partner" for 2019, JD and Western Digital will work as a team to strengthen services in tailored products, supply chain and marketing solutions, to ultimately help Western Digital realize sales growth in the world's second-largest economy.

The Beijing-based JD was established in 1998, originally as a brick-and-mortar store before gradually launching its online business starting in 2004. Following its initial public offering in 2014 in New York, JD opened an R&D center in Silicon Valley.

Currently, its 17,000 engineers home and abroad focus on data science, artificial intelligence, virtual and augmented reality, automation, robotics and autonomous vehicle systems. Their research findings are applied to intelligent pricing to inventory management and fraud detection.

On Nov 11, JD E-SPACE, a custom-built, 50,000-square-meter shopping destination in Chongqing, Southwest China, provided consumers a hands-on shopping experience. At the store, clients can check tech specs of products, including the Microsoft Surface Pro 7 and Surface Laptop 3, by scanning bar codes.