“A product can be delivered to a house through supply network just by taking a picture of it at a train station and paying for it. In that case, stores within cities will not be needed anymore.”
Vice-President Jian Pei of JD.com made a keynote speech with a title ‘Future of Data Science Retail Business within Smart Supply Network’ at ‘Gyeonggido Industry 4.0 International Symposium.
Vice-President Jian Pei explained that existence of opening between demand and supply is the reason why supply network is needed. He is explaining that there is a gap between a supplier and a customer due to amount, specification, location, and timing that a customer wants. He said that reason why air conditioners are still made during winter season is to prepare for summer season. Supply network is like a bridge that connects demand and supply.
He explained that a difference between JD.com and Alibaba is a difference between their business models. He said that JD.com is similar to Amazon. JD.com sells many of its products through its offline JD Malls. While Alibaba and eBay earn most of their sales from commissions from its tenants, JD.com earns its sales through distribution and supply.
JD.com was able to establish its supply network through IoT (Internet of Things) and 5G technologies. Smart Carts from JD Malls follow customers and guide them to different products. At stores with no employees, JD.com utilizes AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology to listen to opinions from consumers and compares prices online and offline. It also utilizes AI technology to analyze expressions of customers to find out whether location of a certain product considered customers and why a certain product is staying at a certain spot for long period of time.
Blockchain technology guarantees credibility when it comes to decision-making based on data. “Blockchain technology can find out manufacturing location, production date, supplier, and retailer of a product. JD.com currently has more than 1.2 billion products connected to blockchain.” said Vice-President Jian Pei. Consumers can trust products that they purchase even more as they can find out every information regarding a product through blockchain technology.
JD.com is planning to set up 1 million unmanned stores by 2023. It plans to avoid centralized distribution warehouse by improving its inventory system and deliver a product from anywhere within 12 hours.
“Global consumption and supply have encountered Industry 4.0.” said Vice-President Jian Pei. “Consumption and supply must be changed into consumption and supply that are for people.”
Professor David Thaw of University of Pittsburgh gave a lecture with a topic ‘How Will Changes of Digital Generation and Economic and Legal Definitions of Blockchain Change Our Society?’ followed by Vice-President Jian Pei’s keynote speech.
“Bitcoin and Smart Contract correspond to blockchain 1.0 and blockchain 2.0 respectively.” said Professor Thaw. “We are currently going through blockchain 3.0.” He said that we cannot only depend on technologies when it comes to decision-making of ownership and the right of using digital assets. He emphasized that governments and universities must consider this problem together and that every member of societies must make a decision together regarding this problem.
‘Gyeonggido Industry 4.0 International Symposium’ will be held at Pangyo Techno Valley’s Global R&D Center under topics of AI and blockchain. It is hosted by Gyeonggi-do and Seoul National University and is ran by Advanced Institutes of Convergence Technology.
Staff Reporter Kim, Junghee | jhakim@etnews.com