E-commerce giant JD.com has opened a 24/7 store chain, 7Fresh Life, in Beijing.
At the same time, the firm has launched its first Seven Fun lifestyle space in Beijing, intended to serve as a “third place” for working professionals.
The 7Fresh Life food chain supermarket, which launched last month, offers mealtime solutions within a 300–400sqm area. The venue is located in the Huilongguan residential area in northern Beijing, one of the largest residential neighbourhoods in Asia.
Targeting especially young mothers and kitchen owners, the chain is conceived of as a restaurant, fresh food store and convenience store combination, providing more than 3000 selected fresh items of produce, daily groceries and also ready-to-cook and ready-to-eat food, equipped with an in-store dining area.
It also provides a location-based online channel through its app for consumers to buy from the community shop anytime and have items delivered to their doorstep within as fast as 30 minutes from the time of order. The home-delivery service covers a 1.5km radius, including 38 surrounding communities and three office areas, reaching 50,000 families and 1000 office professionals.
As a brand under 7Fresh, Seven Fun consumers can order anything in the store from the same 7Fresh app to be delivered to their doorstep.
In addition to the items offered in-store, a large number of products from JD’s e-commerce platform can be ordered through the chain’s online channel, such as seasonal, large-size, beauty and baby and maternal products. It also provides services such as power bank rental, 24-hour parcel pick-up lockers, bill payment, top up, courier and a dry cleaning service, among others.
“With JD’s deep understanding of consumers and our strong supply chain providing global and local fresh produce and mealtime solutions, 7Fresh has become a trusted source for consumers buying fresh food offline,” said JD’s head of 7Fresh Jonathan Wang. “7Fresh Life will better serve the diverse and unique needs of Chinese families, providing for each person at any time for any need, online or offline.”
Dine, drink and socialise
The firm’s Seven Fun concept is a dining, drinking and social venue offering breakfast from sunrise and late night drinks as well as lunch, afternoon tea, snacks and daily groceries.
Located in Galaxy Soho on the second ring road of Beijing, the roughly 1000sqm store is designed specifically to cater to working professionals aged between 26 and 45 in first-tier cities. It was designed to meet the trend of global consumers shifting from going to the store to buy products to going to the store to experience products and buy services.
The inaugural Seven Fun outlet offers more than 3500 products such as fresh food, baked goods, fresh flowers, and groceries. It features 12 selected eateries targeting the 200,000 working professionals within a 1km radius of the store.
“As a lifestyle retailer, Seven Fun is innovating the retail landscape in China,” said Wang. “Through this concept, JD provides an unprecedented “Solomome” (social, local, mobile and personalised) offline experience that serves as a pioneering model for future brick-and-mortar stores.”
Future expansion of Seven Fun is expected to focus on tier-one cities, targeting working professionals with an annual income of more than RMB100,000 (US$14,360).
