(Yicai Global) Aug. 18 -- China’s Wanda Hotels and Resorts and JD.com have opened their first hotel today as the five-star hotel chain teams up with e-commerce to provide customers with an enhanced experience.

Ningbo Wanda Moments Hotel｜J.ZAO in Ningbo, southeastern Zhejiang province features 40 guest rooms decorated with the JD.com brand J.ZAO. Customers can instantly buy J-ZAO-branded products by scanning the QR code on the electric toothbrush, hair dryer, massagers and other facilities in the rooms, parent firm Wanda Group said on its WeChat account.

The cooperation is an attempt by an e-commerce platform to conduct marketing at hotels, said Chen Mengchao, senior vice president of Beijing-based Wanda Hotels. The two parties will collect feedback from online and offline customers and analyze purchasing behavior in order to continuously improve the user experience and accelerate the upgrading of service models, he added.

The pair first teamed up last year by linking their membership programs to enable members of Wanda hotels to redeem points on J.ZAO products.

Beijing-based JD.Com is not the first internet firm to enter the hotel sector. Search engine giant Baidu teamed up with InterContinental Hotels Group over smart hotel solution in 2017 and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding launched its FlyZoo Hotel, run almost entirely by robots, in late 2018.

Editor: Kim Taylor