Get rid of traffic anxiety. Why do imported health care brands bet heavily on JD.com during the 618 shopping festival?

Currently, anti - aging and longevity technologies, low - inflammation lifestyles, etc., have become popular topics across different age groups.

As the demand rises, the market has expanded rapidly. By 2025, the scale of China's nutritional and health products market exceeded 400 billion yuan. However, behind the high - speed growth, the hidden concerns of the industry have become increasingly prominent.

Since this year, some health products have been exposed for problems such as fake production places and false advertising. This not only puts consumers in a trust crisis and makes it difficult for them to make choices but also makes the entire industry face the structural risk of "bad money driving out good money".

On the other side of the trust fog, there is the performance anxiety of leading brand merchants in the health product industry. The flow dividend has reached its peak, and the cost of live - streaming promotion by influencers is high, but it is difficult to accumulate user assets for the brand and stimulate repeat purchases.

The dilemma of increasing revenue but not profit is driving brand merchants to adjust their channel strategies. Leading imported health product brands represented by WHC and JeongKwanJang are regarding shelf e - commerce platforms such as JD Health as the basic channel for achieving performance growth.

Full - cycle user operation to achieve brand compound interest

Nowadays, more and more leading brand merchants are re - examining the traffic - driven model and are becoming more cautious in their investments.

Take WHC, a high - end Belgian fish oil brand, as an example. In the past, the brand invested a lot of resources in live - streaming by leading influencers. However, with the problems of difficulty in accumulating user assets and continuous repeat purchases, the brand adjusted its strategy.

"The WHC brand has been operating in China for 11 years. During this period, we have accumulated many loyal users who can personally feel the positive physical changes after taking high - purity fish oil," said Zhang Linyue, the general manager of the business of Yibei Group. "We hope to retain users, for example, in the private domain, by providing better services through one - on - one nutritionists, rather than attracting new A3 (those who have been interested and have high intention) people every time we do a live - stream."

"This year, we plan to reduce the proportion of influencer live - streaming from 40% to 25% and invest more resources in JD. Because, in comparison, as long as there is stable daily sales on JD, the link weight will be higher, which is also more conducive to continuous repeat purchases. It is also a healthy and long - term growth model for the brand," Zhang Linyue said.

In line with this, JeongKwanJang (under KGC Korea Ginseng Corporation), a century - old tonic brand, also regards shelf e - commerce as the foundation of its online business, accounting for more than 80%.

Kim Yong - deok, the head of the overseas business department of KGC, has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years and is familiar with the e - commerce ecosystem of nutritional and health products. In his view, "Shelf e - commerce is the most direct and effective channel between brands and consumers. When we identify the target group with demand, the shortest - path way to reach them is through the shelf. Live - streaming or other new models for attracting traffic cannot be completely ignored, but if we over - expand live - streaming or off - site short - videos, the gross profit may not be sustainable."

For imported nutritional and health product brand merchants, the current core requirement is to reach and retain Chinese users who have demand and can pay. JD Health has irreplaceable advantages in terms of user volume and user profile.

It is understood that by 2025, the number of annual active users of JD Health exceeded 200 million, with a compound growth rate of user volume of more than 27%. The main user profile is family consumers aged between 25 and 45. In the nutritional and health product category, JD PLUS members contributed more than 55% of the annual sales. This user group has high platform stickiness and especially cares about product quality, price, and service stability.

Through long - term cooperation with JD Health, the Chinese operation team of the WHC brand gradually found that JD's L1 - L5 membership system is not simply a purchasing power level but can also be deeply integrated with the brand's own membership operation rules.

"We planned exclusive membership months, such as double points in April, to build up momentum for the big promotions in May and June. We also hold regular membership - day activities every month, such as redeeming points for products and offering repeat - purchase discounts, which breaks the habit of users only placing orders during the 618 and Double 11 promotions," Zhang Linyue gave an example. Through refined membership operation, not only has the memory of the WHC brand among users been deepened, but also the repeat - purchase rate has been increased by 10%.

Deep - level membership operation can bring real "brand compound interest". To achieve high growth, brands also attach great importance to the performance increment brought by newly interested users.

From the consumption characteristics of health products, when users browse content such as short - videos, they are easily hit by health anxieties such as aging, insomnia, and hair loss. However, when it comes to the purchase and order - placing stage before taking the products, they will be extremely rational and may even switch to other platforms. For brand merchants, it has been difficult to clearly determine how many users reached through off - site promotion actually enter shelf e - commerce platforms such as JD and complete the conversion.

To connect the closed - loop of off - site interest - building and in - site conversion, JD Health launched the "Doubling Plan Pro" on the marketing side. In addition to resource matching, it also connects the underlying data and product capabilities, tracks the entire chain from A0 (content reach) to A4/A5 (order - placing and repeat - purchase), and conducts refined operation on the interested users who enter the site to improve the sales conversion and investment "efficiency" of brand merchants.

It is reported that the ROI obtained through the Pro model is more than twice that of the brand's separate off - site promotion on JD. Brands such as JeongKwanJang have also participated in the "Doubling Plan" and jointly invested to improve performance through on - and off - site advertising matching.

Control the product portfolio and establish standards to endorse quality

In the first half of this year, affected by scandals such as fake production places and false ingredient labeling, the domestic health product industry faced a severe trust crisis. To gain users' trust in the long run, the product portfolio of imported brands is a deeper foundation. In the health product category, this involves aspects such as raw materials, formulas, processes, and efficacy.

To control quality, JD Health has established a professional and large purchasing and sales team. They often visit the production and research sites of many nutritional and health products to investigate their R & D situation and clinical efficacy. Based on the pain points of user demand and market insights on the JD platform, they cooperate with brands to "reverse - customize" the product portfolio. Their strict control of quality is also becoming a trust endorsement.

However, due to the high unit price of precious and fine products such as red ginseng, new users tend to hesitate when making a purchase. To reduce the decision - making cost of users, JeongKwanJang has deeply cooperated with JD's trial channel and plans to distribute 500,000 low - price trial products to allow users with demand to experience the product efficacy first.

"In the first quarter, through the trial activity, JeongKwanJang completed 37,000 orders on JD Health, reaching 26,000 new brand users and 31,000 new store users. The 30 - day repeat - purchase rate of trial customers reached 32%, significantly higher than the overall repeat - purchase level of the brand. In the second quarter, we will expand the scope of trial products and tap the potential of the channel," Kim Yong - deok introduced. "We cooperated with JD to develop products and packages that can be used by the whole family. We first promoted the trial products of popular items to reach the family members in charge of health procurement and then recommended the whole - family products."

In the past two years, the health product category of JD Health has carried out a special strategic cooperation with the trial channel. "This is also a precise advertising reach. In JD's trial channel, the proportion of female users is very high, and the conversion rate is also quite impressive," a relevant person in charge of JD Health introduced. For middle - aged and elderly users with purchasing power, the platform also conducts cross - category recommendations through scenarios such as fresh food and fashion.

For original imported brands such as WHC, the raw material production and supply chain are overseas, and the customization cycle of products is long. Brands usually prefer to sell full - sized products directly. "For the core new product WHC Little Angel 97% EPA fish oil dedicated to blood lipid research, our team conducted a lot of user research and industry analysis in the early stage, communicated with JD's purchasing and sales team many times, and negotiated with the brand side many times. Finally, we successfully added a new production line for the 10 - capsule Little Angel product this year. This product will be launched on JD's trial channel soon, and the sales volume of WHC Little Angel EPA fish oil on JD is estimated to reach tens of millions in 2026," Zhang Linyue introduced.

Previously, in response to the gift - giving needs of high - net - worth individuals, WHC also jointly developed two exclusive products with the JD Health team. One is the "WHC Promise of a Lifetime Little Princess" gift set for health - related gift - giving needs; the other is the "WHC Superhero Energy Pack" gift set that combines children's DHA brain - nourishing and practicality. Both products have stable sales on JD and are expected to achieve a 100% high - speed growth this year.

Behind the high - growth expectation is the mutual trust between the WHC team and JD Health. Zhang Linyue especially mentioned that "JD is the only platform that invited our brand to trace the origin overseas. Currently, we are tracing the origin in Germany and Belgium together with JD's purchasing and sales team and our users."

Of course, a single origin - tracing verification cannot solve the fundamental problem of consumers' trust in the long run. JD Health focuses more on establishing standardized product standards to help users "choose easily and use with confidence". As early as 2023, JD Health began to formulate category standards for tonic and health products. It started with tonics that are difficult to standardize, such as donkey - hide gelatin, ginseng, and bird's nest, and now it covers dozens of core categories such as protein powder, probiotics, fish oil, and vitamins.

JD's purchasing and sales team will cooperate with leading brands and authoritative institutional associations to formulate the standard evaluation systems for "good nutrition" and "good tonics". Products that meet the standards can obtain the "exclusive label" after submitting third - party authoritative test reports and will be presented on the product detail page. The JD team will also implement strict access, testing, and random inspections on products to conduct full - link quality control.

Nowadays, users' attention to the quality of nutritional and health products is no longer limited to raw materials and ingredients but especially focuses on the product's efficacy on the human body. Taking fish oil as an example, different purities, extraction processes, and structural formulas all affect the product's effect and user experience.

Therefore, in April this year, based on the "good nutrition" and "good tonics" standards, JD Health upgraded and established a more strict "scientific evidence - based" nutrition system by referring to the drug evaluation method. This system refers to the technical guidelines issued by the Chinese Nutrition Society and evaluates whether there is real and evidence - based scientific evidence at multiple levels from products, formulas to finished products.

To break the information gap, JD Health presents relevant clinical research journal articles and authoritative institutional reports on the product page. It also uses tools such as "AI explanation" to refine product descriptions, helping users quickly understand the core mechanism of action, applicable population, and taking methods of products, making the information visible and understandable to users.

Through hard - core efficacy verification and rational explanation of the possible efficacy of health products, it is also a powerful attempt to avoid excessive marketing and the so - called "IQ tax" and reshape the trust foundation of the industry. "There are many health product brands that focus on product quality. The platform should let these excellent brands be seen by consumers so as not to disappoint their investment and avoid good products being buried by marketing chaos," a relevant person in charge of JD Health believes.

A "human - touch" health marketplace

Although everyone can say a few common - sense sentences about "how to supplement nutrition", in essence, nutrition is an interdisciplinary subject with a high cognitive threshold. Especially with the rapid development of biotechnology, research information on anti - aging, anti - inflammation, and brain health is also exploding. From Omega - 3, collagen peptides to ergothioneine, many new and old ingredients are competing for users' attention.

When complex clinical research and hard - core test reports are presented to users, aiming at the pain points of users not knowing how to choose and how to take products, as early as 2021, JD Health established a professional nutritionist team. Now, the "AI nutritionist" goes a step further. It can not only provide professional popular science knowledge for users but also customize nutrition plans according to users' health conditions.

"What makes JD different from other platforms is its AI consultation services, including AI nutritionists and AI doctors. They are very professional in knowledge popularization, and the dialogue process has a 'human touch'," Zhang Linyue said. "It makes users feel that it is not just a simple product promotion but a real concern for them, full of humanistic care."

Now, the AI nutritionist service has reached users more than 30 million times in total, and the conversion rate it brings is significantly higher than that of ordinary nutritionists. Against the background of the rapid update of nutrition knowledge, AI can instantly access the latest research results, a large - scale product database, and real product reviews to answer users' relevant inquiries. In addition, based on the connection of the underlying data of the JD platform, the AI nutritionist also has a dialogue memory function, which makes personalized recommendation possible.

The current Chinese health product market is at the crossroads of "differentiation and reshaping". The flow dividend period has reached its peak. After the hustle and bustle, the market will ultimately return to users' trust and real experience.

"Building a brand requires great perseverance," Zhang Linyue deeply felt after observing the ups and downs of the industry. "There will always be various products and white - label brands emerging in the market. Even if we see others achieving temporary prosperity, we firmly believe in long - termism, stick to our own strategy, and always insist on doing difficult but right things."

In the platform selection of imported health brands, Kim Yong - deok summarized the long - term value of JD: "JD Health has 200 million annual active users, enabling brands to efficiently reach high - value users. More importantly, JD has formed a trust moat through brand reputation, genuine product guarantee, and high - quality logistics. On JD, brand merchants can directly inherit this trust and shorten the time to build trust with users."

From in - depth origin tracing, establishing the "good nutrition, good tonics" system to establishing the scientific evidence - based nutrition system and customizing nutrition plans with AI nutritionists, in the long - term journey of rebuilding industry trust, JD Health is moving forward hand in hand with leading brands that adhere to quality.