Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com is aiming to offer the fastest delivery times in the country. The company has revealed its ambitious plan to target delivery times of as little as 30 minutes across China. To achieve this, the shopping firm is planning to greatly bolster its brick-and-mortar infrastructure to get products to customers much faster.

 According to the company's president of its consumer goods business, Carol Fung, part of its latest initiative will be to drastically improve efficiency in its supply chain. This will include the addition of brick-and-mortar locations, including those inside Walmart stores, to directly get products to customers and thereby bypassing traditional warehouses and distribution centers.

Fung mentioned in a statement on Tuesday, that the enhancement of its offline infrastructure will foster more direct channels for orders made on its online platform. Instead of having orders pass through warehouses, delivery stations, and distribution centers, orders can be fulfilled directly from locations that are nearest to the customer.

JD.com revealed plans to use artificial intelligence algorithms to help it determine the closest offline retail outlets to the location of the customer. The company plans to have the AI system automatically choose the best shop to make a direct delivery to a particular customer, cutting processing and delivery times dramatically.

These shops will include the company's wide array of offline channels, such as affiliated supermarkets, convenience stores, and its own brick-and-mortar shops.

As of the moment, JD.com has over 20,000 offline stores located in 54 cities. Some of the stores are located inside 175 Walmart supermarkets, 166 9bianli liquor stores, and 198 Nongfu Spring water stations throughout China. JD.com has a standing business relationship with Walmart, which was established back in 2016.

 The company announced that with further enhancements to further cut out unnecessary steps and to improve retailer efficiency, it hopes to soon have customers receive their orders as quick as 30 minutes. The average delivery time with the new program currently stands at around two hours, but the company hopes to cut that time as it rolls out new improvements.

JD.com also stated that it will be rolling out the new program in more cities around China in the coming months. Apart from providing customers with quicker delivery times, JD.com also explained that its new initiative will be very beneficial to sellers and brands as it will translate to improved turnover rates.

JD.com had been heavily investing in improving its logistics services as evident in its various acquisitions and partnerships of supermarkets and delivery firms. The company hopes that its investments will get it closer to consumers, allowing it to deliver orders as fast as possible.