GUANGZHOU, China, Dec, 31, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Vipshop Holdings Limited (vip.com, NYSE: VIPS), the world's largest Flash Sales online discount retailer of brand-named products, today released its Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2014. The report covers the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities of Vipshop as of December 31, 2014, showcasing the company's practices and accomplishments in terms of social responsibilities, including consumer protection, industry development, environmental initiatives, social contribution, and philanthropy, etc. Focusing on the unique "genuine product + discount price" business model, Vipshop has become the world's largest online discount retailer. It now has over 100 million registered users, and also leads the industry with 80 percent of the sales coming from mobile online shoppers. The report says that in the "Internet+" era social-economic forms and people's shopping habits will be reshaped, and Vipshop will adhere to its unique model of selling selected genuine products at discount prices through "Flash Sales" to embrace the growing demands from consumers, to help build a win-win and sustainable ecosystem, and to provide better online shopping experiences for consumers.

Focusing on consumer protection, Vipshop already has more than 100 million registered members

With the widespread adoption of online shopping and the continuous growth of consumption, consumers are increasingly concerned about the quality of products. Since its inception, Vipshop has been strictly controlling processes such as brand reviewing, brand licensing, certified product procurement, and savvy price comparison. In addition to the quality inspection prior products entering warehouse, Vipshop also guarantees that the products are genuine by purchasing a fake-proof insurance for each product sold on its website from China Pacific Insurance, as another layer of protection for its members.

Furthermore, Vipshop is striving to enhance the protection of its member's privacy and to protect the interests of consumers by improving its technical capabilities. Meanwhile, Vipshop has also set up Assets Protection Department to assist the authorities, including the police, the economic crime investigation agency, and the Internet surveillance agency, in cracking down on illegal activities such as attempts in seeking improper benefits from its members in the name of Vipshop.

Thanks to its unique Flash Sales model and its focus on consumer protection, Vipshop has been able to acquire more than 100 million high-quality registered members in less than seven years, setting up a threshold within the industry of e-commence.

Boosting industry's healthy development through unique Flash Sales model

To date, the Flash Sales model represented by Vipshop has become one of the three mainstream business forms in China's e-commerce sector. In September 2014, Vipshop teamed up with multiple companies to sign a memo with the customs to officially launch the "Global Flash Sales" business (which has now been renamed the "Overseas Selection"). With that, Vipshop has become China's first e-commerce platform connected with the customs for the information with all the three forms--order forms, waybills and payment forms, providing a convenient cross-border online shopping experience of "certified products guarantee, international products, free international shipping, and a fixed price" to its 100 million members.

By focusing on the Flash Sales discount market, Vipshop has amassed more than 13,000 partner brands, of which over 1,600 are exclusive partner brands. While working together to meet the growing consumption demands, they are also driving for a healthier development of the e-commerce industry as well as upstream and downstream players in the ecosystem. By providing big-data analyses including real-time sales data, historical sales data, and competition sales data etc., Vipshop offers specific and personalized services for brands of different categories and at different levels, to explore a mutually beneficial, win-win, and sustainable model for cooperation.

In the meantime, Vipshop has collaborated with four universities in e-commerce technology, bringing together academic and business resources to protect intellectual property rights on the Internet. Vipshopalso teamed up with seven other e-commerce companies to establish the Guangzhou Electronic Commerce Industry Association, helping to promote the exchange and rule-based development of the e-commerce industry in Guangzhou. 

While promoting the healthy and orderly development of its partner brands and the entire e-commerce industry, Vipshop is also striving to improve the "last mile" delivery service on an ongoing basis. The intention is to provide a complete high-quality closed-loop shopping experience for consumers, to drive sustainable development of its logistics partners, and to achieve a win-win result for all the stakeholders including the company itself, the consumers, the partners, and the local regions--in terms of its economic growth.

In cooperation with its logistics partners, Vipshop firstly guarantees enough business to them to make sure that the logistics partners can have sizable revenue to maintain a healthy development. Vipshop collaborates with its partners in fair and ethical manner. In an environment where e-commerce companies are generally lowering their payment to the logistics service providers, Vipshop has again increased its payment to the "last mile" carriers to 6.5 Yuan/order, and has been also providing all-round supports for the carriers including funding, technical support, and personal training. Correspondingly, Vipshop requires that carriers make fast and accurate deliveries right to the doorstep of the customers and use standard courteous languages to the customers. This will help to form a virtuous circle, to ensure the sustainable development of the carriers themselves while providing quality services for the members of Vipshop.

While improving the quality of delivery and consumer satisfaction, Vipshop believes that, by improving its supply chain system, in particular the warehousing and delivery system, it can create abundant job opportunities for the local regions and provide a great help for the development of the surrounding areas too. For example, the North China logistics center of Vipshop is located in a remote rural area, and 50 percent of the warehousing employees are from the local residents. At the same time, Vipshop has been collaborating with local vocational schools through its own warehouses, providing internships and on-job training positions as well as participating in teaching activities, etc., to contribute to the job creation and logistics development in the local regions as part of its corporate social responsibility.

Protecting environment through green operation

While achieving a strong growth in business, Vipshop is also fulfilling its social responsibility on various fronts, to actively promote green working, green sourcing, and green warehousing, and to strive to reduce its environmental impact. 

Vipshop has created a green work environment. It advocates green working in day-to-day operations and adheres to the low-carbon and energy-efficient work styles on a long-term basis. While lowering the company's operation cost, this has also saved resources and reduced environmental pollution. Vipshop has also established the green sourcing standard, giving priority to purchasing environment-friendly, energy-efficient and low-power products.

In the warehousing and transportation operations where it's the easiest to produce pollution, Vipshop optimizes the warehousing and transportation supply chain from aspects including delivery vehicle procurement, delivery route design, and product packaging, to achieve the highest transportation efficiency through the shortest route and the smallest amount of energy, so as to minimize the environmental impact from the company's operations.

Giving back to the society, Vipshop strives in Philanthropy

The report indicates that, while growing its business, Vipshop has never forgotten to give back to the society. In 2011, Vipshop became the first e-commerce company to launch its own foundation, the Vipshop Foundation (i.e. the "Vipshop 365 Love Fund"). The Foundation is dedicated to sustainable programs focusing on areas of great concern to the public, providing help for children who have dropped out of school, people who are living in poverty or with major illness, and seniors who are widowed or living alone, as well as natural disaster relief. The Foundation will continue to support charitable and philanthropic endeavors in the future.

The charitable programs launched by Vipshop cover regions including Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Xinjiang, Guangxi, Jiangxi, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, and Jiangsu etc. As of December 2014, the Vipshop Foundation had donated more than RMB13 million to the society, helped to build 6 Vipshop Elementary Schools and 1 Vipshop Kindergarten in Ya'an, donated 33 thousand pieces of materials, and provided help for more than 30 thousand people.

The Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2014 of Vipshop released this time has demonstrated the importance of corporate social responsibility to Vipshop as the world's largest Flash Sales online discount retailer. In the future, e-commerce still has a tremendous room for growth, and Vipshop will continue to fulfill its corporate social responsibility and strive to achieve a win-win result for consumers, for the industry and for the society, to make a better future.

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SOURCE Vipshop Holdings Limited

Abby Yao, +86 10 5647 9572, +86 18810476746, qin.yao@bluefocus.com