JD.com, focus on travel retail

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com continues to extend its operations into the physical world with a pair of pop-ups aimed at the traveller, one in a railway station and the other in the international terminal at Beijing’s airport.

The airport store takes a semi-kiosk form with a circular shape headed by an overhead perforated metal halo bearing the logo: ‘JD.BOX’. The ‘box’ is home to an almost entirely predictable range of goods with suitcases, mobile accessories and beauty products, among other things, but it is the use made of technology that makes the whole interesting.

Facial recognition and a platform that can analyse customer behaviour and traffic flow feature in this store, while in the Hohhot station store, in Inner Mongolia, customers can use ‘smart vending machines’ which process payment when a product door is opened and closed.

In both stores there is, of course, the option to browse and order in-store with the goods being delivered to any chosen location, rather than a purchase in-situ being made.

While both stores are pop-ups, JD.com says that this is the first instance of it making a move into the travel market with the claim being made that what is on offer is a “truly seamless experience”.

Source: New Stores