On September 19th, JD.com held a press conference in Beijing to announce its strategic upgrade for the pet industry. At the conference, JD.com officially announced its BEST strategic upgrade, focusing on four key business directions: "leading growth, ecosystem win-win, quality service, and trend upgrading." The company aims to seize faster growth opportunities, meet more precise user needs, and continue to leverage its industry-leading supply chain, omnichannel capabilities, open ecosystem, and service quality control to work with partners to lead the industry's high growth.
Yao Ting, the person in charge of drafting the pet food management regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and deputy secretary-general of the pet branch of the China Feed Industry Association, and Wang Jinquan, chief scientist of the pet nutrition and food team of the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, attended the press conference and delivered opening speeches.
Meanwhile, to continue leading the industry in controlling the entire chain of pet food safety, JD Pet invited the Pet Health Industry Analysis Technology Professional Committee of Guangdong Provincial Association for Analysis and Testing (hereinafter referred to as the Pet Health Committee) and representative brands of baked food to officially release the industry's first baked food standard, "Group Standard for Baked Complete Cat and Dog Food". This standard will effectively fill the current industry gap in the standardization of baking processes and respond promptly to consumers' needs for new technologies and products.
In addition, JD Pet has jointly launched the industry's first "Pet Food Raw Material Integrity Alliance" with the Feed Efficacy and Safety Supervision and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Xinhua Credit of China Economic Information Service. Together, they will build a credit system for the quality of raw materials for pet food, ensuring the quality and safety of pet food from the source, so that pets can have peace of mind regarding medical care and food.
The core pet cat and dog population in China is projected to reach 120 million, with 72% of pet owners making purchases through comprehensive e-commerce platforms such as JD.com.
At the press conference, Liu Xiaoen, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD Retail's Intelligent Supply Chain Y Business Department, shared the "2022 China Pet Industry Trend Insight White Paper." According to the white paper, the core pet population of cats and dogs will reach 120 million, and the pet household penetration rate will reach 20% this year. Multi-channel consumption in the pet industry is becoming increasingly common, with 71% of pet owners preferring online shopping and 37% choosing offline shopping. Among these, comprehensive e-commerce platforms have the highest penetration rate, with 72% of cat and dog owners having shopped on platforms like JD.com. The abundance of new products and convenient shopping are the two main reasons why pet owners choose to buy online.
Liu Xiaoen, Vice President of JD.com and Head of JD Retail's Intelligent Supply Chain Y Business Unit, shared the contents of the white paper.
Looking at the overall pet market, the size of China's physical pet market reached 115.8 billion yuan in 2022, with pet food accounting for 46% of the market share. Among them, staple pet food accounted for 34%, making it the largest sub-category. Baked pet food is the fastest-growing category among staple pet foods, with GMV increasing by as much as 96 times year-on-year. Therefore, JD Pet has also focused on this trending category and launched a series of support measures in the baked pet food sector.
Focusing on four key business areas, including trend upgrades, to seize faster growth opportunities and meet more precise user needs.
At this press conference, JD Pet officially proposed the BEST strategic upgrade, focusing on four major business directions: "leading growth, win-win ecosystem, quality service, and trend upgrading" to meet the growth needs of multi-level brands and the service needs of various consumers.
Overall, JD Pet aims to boost brand growth. Leveraging its open ecosystem, JD Pet seeks faster growth opportunities through both product and service improvements, meeting higher-quality user needs and achieving a win-win situation for all parties. On one hand, products must capitalize on trends, developing plans based on three key trends to achieve rapid growth in individual products, categories, and brands. On the other hand, services must be user-centric, winning user trust by improving quality and efficiency, becoming a stabilizer for growth, and ultimately meeting the multi-layered needs of brand growth.
Specifically, in terms of trend upgrading, JD Pet will launch three major trend upgrading plans, focusing on three aspects: creating trendy single products, supporting trendy brands, and expanding trendy channels, in order to achieve the strategic goal of "ten billion yuan".
Liu Lu, General Manager of the Pet Business Department of JD Retail Group's Supermarket Omnichannel Business Group, stated that in terms of supporting trending brands, JD Pet will provide comprehensive empowerment in terms of people, products, and venues, offering full-cycle support with the goal of creating trending categories at 10x speed. Regarding the creation of trending individual products, JD Pet will prioritize user insights, leveraging digital intelligence to provide full-chain support for trending sectors, aiming to create hundreds of new trending products worth tens of millions. Furthermore, for channel expansion, JD Pet will reduce brand costs by developing offline local business, accumulating offline user assets for brands, and simultaneously reaching tens of thousands of stores through digital platform upgrades, aiming to achieve a new channel growth of billions of yuan.
Liu Lu, General Manager of the Pet Business Department of JD Retail Group's Supermarket Omnichannel Business Group, released the BEST strategy.
Establishing group standards to link upstream and downstream of the pet food supply chain to lead the industry toward high-quality development.
JD Pets consistently pursues both high growth rate and high quality, and adheres to quality assurance and service innovation as its core. It links the upstream and downstream of the pet food supply chain to form a full-chain control covering seven dimensions: standard system, raw materials, production, testing and research, storage and transportation, user reach, and user feedback, thereby promoting quality upgrades.
At the press conference, JD Pet, together with the Pet Health Committee and representative brands and factories such as Petxi, Afei and Buddy, and Liaoning Haichen Organic Pet Food, jointly launched the "Group Standard for Baked Complete Cat and Dog Food" project.
Launch Ceremony of Group Standards for Baked Complete Cat and Dog Food
This standard will systematically specify relevant terms and definitions, processes, raw materials and additives, nutritional requirements, experimental methods, testing rules and packaging, etc., and will invite expert teams and pet evaluation experts to jointly participate in the development of the standard, promote the project establishment and file it with relevant national departments.
At the press conference, Qian Yurong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Pet Health Committee, stated that the current market for "baked pet food" is rife with substandard products, and there are no standards to follow for complete cat and dog food produced using existing baking processes, seriously harming consumer rights. This joint initiative with JD.com Pet to launch a group standard for baked complete cat and dog food, through corporate self-regulation supplemented by an industry committee, can effectively address the current lack of standardized baking processes, enhance the competitiveness of excellent products, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of both consumers and businesses.
Qian Yurong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Pet Health Committee, explained the project proposal for the "Group Standard for Baked Complete Cat and Dog Food".
Launching a pet food ingredient integrity alliance to create a green and traceable ingredient supply chain.
At the press conference, JD Pet also jointly launched the "Pet Food Raw Material Integrity Alliance" with the Feed Efficacy and Safety Supervision and Testing Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs and Xinhua Credit of China Economic Information Service. The alliance will take it as its mission to "create a green and traceable raw material supply chain for China's pet food industry" and promote the improvement of pet food quality.
Specifically, the alliance will promote the improvement of research and testing capabilities for pet food ingredients, promote the construction of traceability systems and capabilities from raw materials to users, establish a quality credit system for pet food ingredient suppliers and manufacturers, conduct quality credit evaluation and public disclosure for pet food ingredient suppliers and manufacturers, pilot the transparent display of pet product ingredient information on e-commerce platforms, and actively promote public education and dissemination related to pet food ingredient food safety.
Currently, the Pet Food Ingredient Integrity Alliance has received enthusiastic participation from over 100 authoritative industry organizations, brands, and manufacturers, including the Feed Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Pet Industry Branch of the China Animal Husbandry Association, the Pet Health Committee, and New Hope Liuhe.
Pet Food Ingredient Integrity Alliance Signing Ceremony
At the press conference, JD Pet also jointly unveiled the "Pet Food Integrity Alliance Innovation and Entrepreneurship Base" with New Hope Liuhe, and the "Pet Food Quality Laboratory" with Eurotherm, a leading global third-party food safety testing organization. JD Pet will focus on building new research bases for quality strategy in these two projects, safeguarding the pet food testing and R&D capabilities of the JD Pet platform.
JD Pet has consistently engaged deeply with users and paid close attention to user feedback. Previously, it has provided users with high-quality products and services through initiatives such as quality rankings, quality promotion, and the 5S Pet Care Program. At this launch event, to demonstrate JD Pet's commitment to ensuring the quality and safety of pet food, JD Pet issued an initiative to its platform partners to jointly build a "Green and Trustworthy Supply Chain" for the pet industry, creating a "responsible and compassionate" pet supply chain.
In addition, leveraging massive consumer orders and based on multi-dimensional evaluations from consumers, media, and industry professionals, JD Pet also presented six annual brand awards at the press conference, including the "Outstanding Brand Award," "Best Partner Award," and "Best Distributor Store Award." A total of 64 brands won awards, which aims to encourage brand partners to continue producing high-standard, high-quality pet products and bring better services to consumers.
Over the past two years, JD Pet's growth rate has been three times higher than the industry average, making it the industry's recognized largest source of sales growth for brands and helping many brands achieve certain growth in an uncertain market environment.
In terms of brands, over 200 brands have achieved year-on-year business growth of over 100% on JD Pet this year, with over 100 brands experiencing growth of over 50%. Regarding users, the number of users has grown by over 38% year-on-year, with more and more pet owners becoming users of JD Pet's services. Meanwhile, JD Pet has also achieved industry-leading growth rates in trending categories such as baked goods, freeze-dried food, and smart litter boxes, becoming a major platform for growth in trending pet categories.
In addition, JD.com's September Super Category Day for Pets will also feature over 100 trendy new pet products from numerous well-known and emerging brands, including Myfoodie, Royal Canin, Weish, NetEase Yanxuan, Bona Pet, Sheba, Zuichong, and Solid Gold. Search "stock up on cat and dog food" on the JD.com app to enter the Super Category Day. During the peak period on September 22, there will be coupons for 100 RMB off purchases over 299 RMB, and PLUS members can enjoy a 25% discount on purchases over 199 RMB.
Liu Lu, General Manager of the Pet Business Department of JD Retail Group's Supermarket Omnichannel Business Group, stated that with the most guaranteed quality and industry-leading service, JD Supermarket has become the preferred channel for consumers to purchase pet products and services, and is also a high-growth, profitable, and certain omnichannel supermarket for pet brands. Relying on a "responsible supply chain," JD Pet will provide brands with comprehensive online and offline omnichannel solutions, driving more brands onto a fast track of high growth, becoming the industry's largest stabilizer, the largest growth engine for brands, and the largest incubator for trends.
