Inside JD.com’s third warehouse in California

by Payload Asia

JD Logistics United States opened its third self-operating warehouse and distribution center in California, bringing its total warehouse space in the state to over 1.3 million square feet.

The company is looking to utilize cutting-edge technology to provide omnichannel fulfillment services for online and offline orders and has already deployed a container transport unit (CTU) robot system in one of its warehouses in California.

This system allows warehouse employees to wait in designated working stations while the CTUs pick up and drop off goods. Image scanners check the packages in microseconds, whilst JD’s smart logistics system calculates where the packages should be dropped off. The packages are then grouped by region into larger bins, which are picked up by forklifts and brought to the corresponding trucks for delivery to their final destination.

This helped JD.com increase the number of storage units from 10,000 to 35,000 by making full use of the height of the warehouse and improved operating efficiency by 300 percent.

“Demand has shifted from the major e-commerce platforms to smaller independent operators, which has led to fragmented supply chains,” said Gordon Lu, general manager of JD Logistics United States.

“As more and more retailers are shifting from brick-and-mortar stores to e-commerce platforms, retailers continue to sell their products on multiple e-commerce platforms, which requires utilizing multiple warehouses to handle B2B and B2C orders, dramatically increasing their holding costs. This is a challenge JD Logistics is uniquely equipped to solve.”

JD Logistics United States also offers transfer, last-mile delivery, aftersales and maintenance, cross-border transportation, and other services in one stop, with extended cut-off time, the company noted. It also operates two warehouses in New Jersey and one in Georgia, enabling the company to deploy inventory across the country.

“Two-to-three-day delivery currently covers 90% of our regions, and we’re aiming to ensure two-day delivery across the entire country in the future,” said Lu.

JD Logistics’ international business operates approximately 90 bonded warehouses, international direct mail warehouses, and overseas warehouses, covering an aggregate gross floor area of approximately 900,000 square meters with an over 70 percent increase year-over-year.