SHANGHAI, April 14, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- JD Daojia ("JDDJ"), China's leading local on-demand retail platform of the Dada Group (Nasdaq: DADA; "Dada"), recently hosted the second annual Merchant Brand Ceremony in collaboration with the China Chain Store and Franchise Association (CCFA). Celebrating the 6th anniversary of JDDJ, the event focused on digital innovation in the retail sector with the company selecting the top Retail Digital Innovation Cases of 2020 and discussing some of the growing trends in China's retail industry.

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated innovation for the digital economy around the world with global businesses embracing digital transformation to drive sales and optimize the customer experience. For China, however, much of life was already online pre-pandemic, with the country leading the world and accounting for nearly half of global e-commerce sales. Despite this, and according to a study found in "Understanding Chinese Consumers: Growth Engine of the World" conducted by McKinsey in March 2020, Chinese consumers affected by the pandemic increased their frequency of online grocery shopping by 70%. To cater to growing demand, China's leading O2O retailers have proved innovative by moving focus to enable digital omnichannel business models, providing a greater range of digital services and an improved online shopping experience.

Philip Kuai, Founder, Chairman & CEO of Dada Group said, "In the era of micro e-commerce, booming on-demand retail has become a huge opportunity and digital transformation a key focus for China's enormous retail industry. Over the past year, digitalization, omnichannel support, and all-category options have proven to be superior business models. JDDJ, working together with our retail partners, has realized many excellent and practical cases of these strategies."

"Digital transformation has become a major trend in China's retail industry as many pioneering retail enterprises and leading digital empowerment platforms like JDDJ spring up," said Jianzhen Peng, Secretary-General of CCFA. "Together with JDDJ, we have systematically recommended the best representations of the most applicable and most worthy cases of retail digital transformation on the platform in 2020. We hope these cases can serve as a reference for more retail partners looking to enhance their customer digital experience."

Streamlining and Refining Operations Through Tech Innovation

As the post-pandemic future draws closer, brands and retailers are having to rethink their business models. Increasingly, brands are understanding online channels to be imperative in reaching modern consumers, but there still remains many unknowns for how to best incorporate offline with online; posing a challenge for retailers looking to promote sales whilst efficiently allocating resources. 

For major supermarket chain operator, CR Vanguard, the switch to an omnichannel strategy has allowed them to adjust focus from product research towards greater understanding and serving their consumers. Together with JDDJ and a host of digital tools, CR Vanguard has developed new operational strategies looking at products, users, and overall marketing. As a result, throughout 2020, overall sales on the 1,800 stores launched by CR Vanguard on JDDJ increased by 220%.

As a part of Walmart's digital transformation, JDDJ collaborated with the global retail giant to identify and attract key high-value omnichannel customers as part of an exclusive VIP program. The result is a valuable reference for the successful management of digital operations by an omnichannel retailer.

Empowering Omnichannel Operations for Merchants with an All-in-One Digital Tool

Digitalization is often the beginning of the end for supermarket chains where, as more and more online channels are adopted, the challenges of managing cost efficiency whilst growing both online and offline sales often prove too much.

After connecting through the JDDJ platform, the supermarket chain C.P. Lotus discovered the Dada Haibo System. The advanced omnichannel digital solutions provided by the Haibo enabled C.P. Lotus to quickly improve online and offline integration; allowing for greater operational oversight and management.

Developed independently by Dada Group, Haibo System enables system-wide integration with five key capabilities of inventory management, membership operation, event marketing and promotions, omnichannel order fulfillment, and real-time data integration and analysis. The system can assist large and medium-sized traditional retail companies in omnichannel digitalization and improve operational efficiency and transparency. 

Faced with a similar problem during multi-channel promotion, Liansheng Supermarkets made the switch to using Haibo and have since seen a noticeable improvement in overall operational efficiency. In the space of four months, the Haibo system has enabled Liansheng to reduce operational costs whilst optimizing the online user experience, leading to a year-on-year sales increase on JDDJ of 253% for December 2020.

Promoting Innovation-Driven Sales Strategies

As a result of the complex challenges associated with integrating online and offline sales, Chinese retailers are turning to O2O platforms to achieve specific marketing objectives and in doing so, creating their own integrated shopping festivals. As a leading on-demand retail platform, JDDJ can link large numbers of offline stores, effectively diverting online traffic offline and driving sales across the board.

Around the time of the 2021 Lunar New Year, JDDJ partnered with G-Super in launching a 9-day exclusive shopping festival called Super Merchant Day. The event aimed to integrate the online and offline retail businesses, including retailers, stores, brand owners, and e-commerce platforms, to innovate marketing strategy to improve online sales, user base, and brand influence. As a result, G-Super saw new records in both sales and order volume during the 9-day event, with sales increasing by 740% year-on-year.

In August 2020, JDDJ teamed up with four of the most popular consumer goods brands, Yili's Satine, P&G's Whisper, Mars Wrigley's Yida, and Mondelez's Oreos to launch the online variety show, "Sisters Who Make Waves", whilst launching an exclusive "Super Fan Day". The event attracted more than 10 million online fans and was searched 150% more times than during the previous month with total sales for participating brands up 300% year-on-year during the event.

About Dada Group

Dada Group is a leading platform of local on-demand retail and delivery in China. It operates JDDJ, one of China's largest local on-demand retail platforms for retailers and brand owners, and Dada Now, a leading local on-demand delivery platform open to merchants and individual senders across various industries and product categories. The Company's two platforms are inter-connected and mutually beneficial. The Dada Now platform enables improved delivery experience for participants on the JDDJ platform through its readily accessible fulfillment solutions and strong on-demand delivery infrastructure. Meanwhile, the vast volume of on-demand delivery orders from the JDDJ platform increases order volume and density for the Dada Now platform. In June 2020, Dada Group began trading on the Nasdaq Global Market, under the ticker symbol "DADA."

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SOURCE Dada Group