China’s second-biggest e-commerce company is now using robots to deliver items for its customers.

JD.com, second only to Alibaba, used the new service on the last day of a two-week-long shopping bonanza that recorded sales of around US$17.6 billion.

Designed by JD, the white, four-wheeled droid can carry five packages at once and travel 20 km if fully charged.

It can climb up a 25° incline, and find the shortest route from warehouse to destination. Once it reaches its destination, the robot sends a text message to notify the recipient of the delivery. Users can accept the delivery through face-recognition technology or by using a code.

It’s the first time that the company has used delivery robots in the field.

JD tested its first delivery robot in November last year. At that time, the cost of a single robot was almost 600,000 yuan ($115,000).

Reducing delivery costs

The company has since lowered the cost to around 50,000 yuan ($9,600).

Robots can reduce the delivery cost from 7 yuan (less than $1) per human delivery to 1.5 yuan (about $0.2) per robot delivery.

In their first mission earlier this month, the bots delivered packages in Beijing university campuses such as Tsinghua University and Renmin University.

JD is also testing the world’s largest drone-delivery network, including flying drones carrying products weighing as much 1000kg (one metric tonne).

“Our logistics systems can be unmanned and 100% automated in 5 to 8 years,” said Liu Qiangdong, JD’s chairman.