Walmart, JD kick off Aug 8 shopping festival

Walmart and JD have launched an Aug 8 shopping festival as part of their efforts to further enhance the integration of customers, stores and inventory as well as to deepen their collaboration on retail supply chains.

It's the second time the two retailers have worked with each other to do online and offline promotional activities. This year the two are offering 1,200 coupons to nationwide customers who visit Walmart stores and JD.com.

The shopping event, which last 90 days starting from July 19, has focused on fresh foods, own-brand products and locally merchandised products.

Last year, the integration of stores has boosted Walmart's sales.

Walmart's official flagship store on JD.com has grown 500 percent in terms of sales in the first six months of this year. Currently, more than 200 Walmart brick-and-mortar stores in 30 cities in China have set up their businesses on JD Daojia to provide one-hour delivery service to customers.

According to Walmart, online sales generated from collaboration with JD Daojia in June alone are 3.5 times those of last year.

In terms of integrating inventory and distribution, when a customer places an order on JD.com that is available at the Walmart store nearby, delivery personnel are able to fetch products from the Walmart store, which has greatly improved JD's delivery speed.