To further the implementation of mixed-ownership reform-related deployments and be a creator of smart living trusted by customers, on 5 November, China Unicom and JD.com held an opening ceremony in Guangzhou to unveil their jointly built Smart Living Experience Store in Guangzhou.
This was the first collaboration project between the two companies since JD.com participated in China Unicom's mixed-ownership reform three months ago. The Smart Living Experience Store also marked the first smart store upgrade project of China Unicom in the nation. He Biao, General Manager of Guangdong Branch of China Unicom, and Lin Chen, Vice President of JD.com attended the event.
As more and more smart electronic products come to the market, customers of China Unicom are eager to be able to experience smart home appliances in person. China Unicom's stores and community cooperation outlets are located across the whole nation. One of the important tasks of China Unicom's mixed-ownership reform is to address how to meet the increasing aspiration of China Unicom's customers for a wonderful information life, to improve the operational capabilities of China Unicom's stores and community cooperation outlets, and to further enhance consumers' O2O consumption experience.
As the first attempt for China Unicom Smart Living Experience Store in the nation, the store revamp breaks out of the traditional images of a telecom operator. The store utilizes JD.com's edges in supply chain to transform the sales areas of over 200 sqm into an integrated store with rich product offerings, serving the dual functions of providing daily life products and developing operator business.
At the same time, the store is fully linked up with JD.com's JDSmart system and JD Finance's iSee system, customer traffic/customer segment analysis system and merchant self-service membership system, which fully enhance the store's operational capabilities and substantially improve user experience.
China Unicom Smart Living Experience Store can predict the consumption demand in that district. With mobile O warehouse, smart product selection, warehouse layout and smart replenishment can be achieved.
JD.com's face recognition technology, Bluetooth-LE, motion sensor, Wi-Fi detector, motion recognition technology, electronic price tags and smart billboards will also be present in the store. The smart retail equipment will improve the store's operation and management capabilities and efficiency. The number of smart living product categories available in the store increases to more than 300 from just over 30 in the past, offering consumers more choices.
During the period, the two companies are holding a "JD.com WO Select" campaign targeted at existing customers. Integrating the multiple channels and touch-points online and offline, leveraging discounted terminal prices, free content giveaways and JD.com's quality service, China Unicom's existing 2G customers are encouraged to upgrade their terminals.
The world's first low-cost modular smart store solution has been deployed in the revamp of the China Unicom Smart Living Experience Store. In the future, the upgrades of China Unicom's offline stores will incorporate various self-developed technologies such as face recognition, user identification, customer traffic monitoring, store/shelf hotspot analysis, display management, etc. Each China Unicom offline store can acquire the necessary technologies based on their own circumstances, in order to achieve high turnover and low inventory.
This cooperation will also explore the integration of the existing customer data of JD.com and China Unicom, so as to break through time and space boundaries, understand customers' consumption preferences and scenarios more deeply, accurately develop customer profiles, and fulfill the needs of brand customers and retailers for boundless and precise scenario marketing based on customer demands