JD Autonomous Delivery Robot delivers orders in Changshu, China.
Courtesy of JD.com

When Shanghai, China’s biggest financial hub, went into a strict COVID-19 lockdown in the spring of 2022, JD.com—one of the country’s largest retailers by revenue, with some 600 million customers—mounted an extraordinary effort to keep delivering essential supplies. Drawing on its logistics prowess and supply chain, it built makeshift warehouses in the city and by June had delivered over 150,000 tons of vital items, including rice, medicine, infant formula, and diapers. The company also waived certain merchant fees to the tune of nearly $30 million, and its telehealth clinic, JD Health, connected people to doctors in more than 15,000 hospitals.

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