Post‑Mortem of JD International Tech R&D’s 2022 618 Promotion: Preparation, Execution, and Lessons Learned

Earlier this year, JD International Technology R&D completed its first full‑scale preparation for the "618" sales promotion, confronting pandemic‑related pressures and multi‑language, multi‑timezone, multi‑currency, and multi‑business‑type challenges. The team built a rapid‑response mechanism, collaborated closely with business units, and delivered a satisfactory outcome, with post‑event review planned to capture valuable experience for the next promotion.

2022 marked the inaugural overall "618" preparation for the JD International R&D department. Facing a weak international technical foundation and a team re‑organization, the group coordinated with nearly 12 C‑1 departments, establishing regular preparation meetings, a command group, stress‑test and review mechanisms, and identified over 20 improvement points. This effort produced a complete SOP covering initiation, system inventory, stress‑testing/scale‑out, operations & middleware & security support, risk management, daily meetings, degradation, information collection, meeting materials, centralized preparation, architect committee, and business preparation committee.

Highlights: Six full‑link stress tests, twelve chaos experiments (hardware, throttling, security) covering over 300 scenarios, more than 20 technical upgrades, DDoS protection, and five online issues discovered during routine inspections. A data‑driven approach produced an international data dashboard and six operational monitoring screens (traffic, users, sales, systems) to support real‑time strategy adjustments. A home‑based preparation guide was also created to handle pandemic‑induced uncertainties.

Areas for Improvement: Better system issue localization and collaboration, enhanced technical data operations, higher‑fidelity full‑link testing, and stronger reverse value delivery to the business.

The Thailand station remained stable during the promotion, with the product‑detail page bearing the highest traffic and serving as a key stress‑test target. The Indonesia station also operated without incidents, handling traffic exceeding the 328‑peak benchmark and conducting multiple network‑failure drills to ensure rapid recovery of order processing.

Notable incidents included order‑limit throttling at the Thailand gateway and a payment‑notification error at Indonesia’s Midtrans gateway, prompting the addition of business‑level checklist items and coordinated incident‑response reporting to mitigate GMV loss.

The International R&D Test & Operations group followed the promotion rehearsal schedule, completing full‑link stress tests, performance tuning, chain‑inspection mechanisms, and rapid issue resolution with external teams. Chaos drills achieved all target scenarios, though resource and scenario limitations suggest a need for more random attack‑defense exercises.

PMO activities resulted in over 110 documentation artifacts and 175 tracked action items, establishing a unified cross‑border coordination framework, online/offline backup mechanisms, and a level‑0 complaint response group during the promotion.

Cultural activities boosted morale: a lottery with prizes such as JOY dolls, steam eye masks, and commemorative backpacks, as well as “cheering packs” distributed by management to encourage the frontline teams.

James highlighted four core takeaways: (1) adopt a business‑centric perspective for proactive promotion planning; (2) institutionalize promotion preparation with standardized processes to improve efficiency; (3) tier promotions (A, B, C) based on business line requirements to ensure stability; and (4) continuously build technical capabilities through repeated rehearsals, fostering resilience for future large‑scale events.

In closing, the team thanks all members for their perseverance and contributions, looking forward to JD International’s continued success and collective growth.