On 6 May, it was reported that JD.com had soft-opened its first offline JD Mall in Beijing for a week, starting just before the May Day holiday. The mall itself is located near the Haihutun station on Line 8 of Beijing Subway, in the Dahongmen (大红门) area in South 3rd Ring Road, known for its apparel wholesale centres. With a whopping 70,000 square metres of space, it is by far the largest JD Mall.
The mall is divided into 7 floors. Ground floor, of course, will host the roots of JD.com, consumer electronics and computers. It will have interactive touchpoints such as an AR smart watch try-on service and an e-sports experience. A coffee culture experience area is located on the first floor, along with a personal care department.
There is a home department with furniture and home renovation services. A bookshop and a children’s play area will also be available to entertain your family while you shop. However, the food and drink zone in the basement will not be available until the grand opening on 17 May.
During the soft launch, the mall had a slew of promotions, including JD’s 10% platform discount on top of the government’s 20% subsidy for electrical appliances and consumer electronics.
JD.com invested over 500 million RMB (68.54 million USD) in the South 3rd Ring Road offline branch of JD Mall alone. A second Beijing branch is also set to open near the end of this month, in Shuangjing, East 3rd Ring Road. It will be slightly more modest but still large at 50,000 square metres and will incorporate e-sports, EV, outdoor activities and dining experiences. As of 30 April, there are 20 JD Malls in China, with new branches planned for cities like Taiyuan, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Zhengzhou and Tianjin.
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