JD.com brings smart tech to travel market

JD.com has opened stores at Beijing Capital International Airport (BCIA) and Hohhot East Railway Station in Inner Mongolia, as part of its Boundaryless Retail strategy.

Located in the departure lounge of Terminal 3 at BCIA for the next three months, a pop-up store will offer the likes of clothing, mobile accessories, beauty products, and bags and suitcases. It will utilise JD’s smart store tech to understand how customers interact with products as well as which products to offer them. An 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.

China Railway Express and JD have cooperated at Hohhot East Railway Station to open a 100 square metre unmanned convenience store, tapping facial recognition payment and smart vending machines. Plans are afoot for the store to use 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.

Bing Zhang, General Manager at JD Social E-commerce, says: “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. The new stores in Beijing and Inner Mongolia will provide them with a truly seamless experience that is unrivalled anywhere.”