Source丨CHINASHOP Retail InsightsID 丨retailshowAuthor丨CHINASHOP
Recently, JD Seven Fresh supermarket officially opened on the basement level of CapitaLand Mall in Wangjing, Beijing. Taking over the former Hualian site, the store is compact but occupies a prime customer traffic location in the mall. As a key part of JD's offline retail strategy, Seven Fresh is seen as an excellent window into JD's overall retail strategy. Image: JD Seven Fresh Wangjing store Increased Share of Own Brands Stepping into the Wangjing store, the strongest impression is that Seven Fresh's own brands are everywhere. From fresh produce, deli, and bakery to daily necessities like rice, eggs, and milk, and even condiments, baijiu, purified water, and snack foods, each category offers at least 1-3 own-brand products for consumers to choose from. Deep insight, precise targeting of consumers' personalized needs, and clever use of the "time-honored brand + new consumption" cross-border innovation model have become the methodology for creating Seven Fresh bestsellers. In the Seven Fresh team, even post-2000s buyers and sellers are involved in R&D decisions to ensure products truly attract young consumers. Taking fresh produce as an example, Seven Fresh's own-brand organic vegetables saw a 123% year-on-year surge in transaction value in the past quarter, with organic carrots, organic mung bean sprouts, and organic tomatoes ranking among the top sellers. At the same time, various co-branded products have become an important reason for consumer choice and repurchase. This summer, Seven Fresh collaborated with time-honored brand "Longhu" to develop essential balm popping candy, which quickly became a "internet-famous snack" among young consumers due to its unique cooling taste and fun concept. In the month after launch, sales grew over 100% month-on-month, and it has consistently topped Seven Fresh's candy category for several months. According to media reports, Seven Fresh's own-brand product count has exceeded 600, covering all categories, becoming the core engine of its business growth. Since the beginning of this year, Seven Fresh's own-brand transaction value has grown 445% year-on-year. In the past September, on average, one in every two Seven Fresh orders contained an own-brand product. Fresh + Deli Focus on High Cost-Performance and Scenario Solutions The fresh produce area best reflects Seven Fresh's pricing strategy. Almost every category display cabinet features eye-catching yellow "price breakthrough" tags: Shandong Qixia Red Fuji apples, 4 pieces about 950g, priced at 13.8 yuan; chilled pork belly slices, 200g, sold at 6.99 yuan per box. Offline prices are even more advantageous than online. On the day of the store visit, several products were on "buy one get one free" promotions. Unlike traditional supermarkets' clearance or near-expiry discounts, these items are more about driving offline traffic. For example, Fujian Guanxi honey pomelo, single piece 1.2Kg, buy one get one free for two at 9.8 yuan, making each only 4.9 yuan, half the online price. The pre-cut vegetable area's scenario-based display is particularly noteworthy. Three refrigerated cabinets form a small island, displaying various dishes with prepped ingredients and attached recipes. For example, the "Four Water Treasures" combo includes a pack of pre-cut vegetables with main ingredients like lotus root, water bamboo, water caltrop, and lotus seeds, plus carrots, snow peas, and fresh lily—8 ingredients in total. One package is enough for one dish. Consumers can blanch and stir-fry at home to recreate a nutritious and delicious home-style dish. This simple, convenient ingredient solution precisely targets small-family needs, being clean, nutritious, appropriately portioned, and reducing waste. The deli area, though small, covers a comprehensive range from noodles, seafood, and braised items to fried foods. Popular items like mantis shrimp and braised pig trotters look appetizing. On-site preparation has become an important traffic attraction—a small cart next to the deli area offers candied hawthorn sticks, sugar-roasted chestnuts, and other specialties, adding a lively and experiential touch. Deli, as a key category for attracting traffic and increasing average order value, has become ubiquitous in various remodeled stores in recent years. For instance, in remodeled stores like Yonghui, Wumart, and Metro, the deli area is the most popular. Comparatively, from the author's perspective, JD Seven Fresh's deli area has not yet reached an impressive level. Seven Fresh Bakery: High Expectations In the Wangjing Seven Fresh store, the bakery area occupies four islands and a full row of display cases, showing its high priority. Seven Fresh Bakery features "freshly baked" concept, health positioning, and high cost-performance. The product line is comprehensive: from bread, toast, egg tarts, and cakes, everything is available. Representative products include the rice bagel bread, which combines rice and wheat aroma with a chewy texture, priced affordably at 5.9 yuan; Danish butter pineapple pastry with crispy exterior and rich filling; and walnut European bread that blends healthy whole grains with crunchy nuts... In terms of health trends, some bakery items have reduced sugar, and the "clean ingredients" series promises no artificial additives, no GMOs, and no trans fats. Innovation is another killer feature of Seven Fresh Bakery. Seven Fresh has an independent professional bakery R&D team that quickly responds to market trends and continuously launches multiple bestsellers, such as the "Ginza-style" Japanese banana cake roll made with real banana pulp and 100% animal cream. There's also Inner Mongolia milk skin yogurt cake, blending traditional techniques with innovative flavors. Overall, Seven Fresh Bakery's R&D approach is innovative yet personalized. First Introduction of Seven Fresh Water Bar The Wangjing Seven Fresh store introduces the Seven Fresh water bar for the first time. Judging from the menu, the water bar's offerings are similar to typical freshly made tea drink stores, including fruit teas, milk teas, and coffee, with prices concentrated in the 12-16 yuan range. The store features three seasonal fruit teas: Full Cup of Berry Jelly, Berry Mulberry Lemon Tea, and Red Date Ginger Oat Milk Tea. According to a salesperson, the seasonal drinks at the water bar will be adjusted according to the season later. Overall, the water bar menu offers 13 drinks, not a large number. The 12-16 yuan price range is mid-level in the tea drink industry. Regarding delivery, the salesperson said that during the trial operation, the water bar does not offer delivery; consumers can only purchase on-site. This is quite unique within the Seven Fresh system, which is centered on instant retail, and it also sparked the author's thoughts on the water bar's usage scenarios—the water bar is located at the supermarket entrance, but with professional tea shops everywhere in the mall, and without obvious advantages in price or product selection, the water bar's competitiveness remains to be tested by the market. Final Thoughts The opening of JD Seven Fresh Wangjing store reflects JD's strategic thinking and layout logic in the face of industry changes. First, instant retail has become an undeniable second growth curve for JD. Against the backdrop of slowing traditional e-commerce growth, the instant retail market with continuously increasing penetration is a must-fight battleground. JD Seven Fresh stores carry the strategic task of combining overall product strength with instant delivery capabilities to build a "everything to home" consumption scenario. Stores are no longer isolated sales terminals but a collection of front warehouses, experience points, and traffic entrances. Since 2025, Seven Fresh has significantly accelerated its expansion pace. In June, Seven Fresh opened 18 warehouse stores densely in the Beijing-Tianjin area. By year-end, it is expected that the total number of central stores and satellite small stores in Beijing will exceed 100. Under the "1+N" model, Seven Fresh has pressed the accelerator, using a strategy of one central store radiating multiple satellite small stores/warehouses to quickly achieve regional expansion in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area. Second, supply chain advantages are JD's core strength in offline layout. Seven Fresh's outstanding own brands, high cost-performance fresh produce, and "price breakthrough" products all benefit from JD's years of deep investment in digitalized social supply chain. Through direct sourcing, large-scale centralized procurement, and efficient logistics networks, it achieves "quality without high prices" while controlling costs. This is its core barrier against traditional supermarkets offline. Furthermore, multi-format complementarity further strengthens JD's offline layout. In addition to Seven Fresh, JD's other supermarket format—JD Discount Supermarket—has opened 6 stores nationwide, located in Suqian, Jiangsu Province, and Zhuozhou and Gu'an in Hebei Province. The large-format discount stores target lower-tier markets, with large store sizes (generally over 5,000 square meters) and multiple SKUs (over 5,000 products), complementing Seven Fresh in regional distribution and business format. From this perspective, JD, which has already captured consumers' online mindshare, clearly has greater "ambitions" in the retail sector. A model reconstruction centered on "omnichannel" is quietly underway.