For many, the 618 Shopping Festival came too soon. On 13 May, barely a week after the May Day holiday, the mid-year e-commerce sales event had already started its presale, and platforms began taking pre-orders. The two major rivals, Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com launched their presales at 8pm on 13 May and Douyin, TikTok’s Chinese sister app, began in the early hours of the same day.
Data shows that by 1:30am, top beauty livestreamer Li Jiaqi had sold between 2.5 to 3.5 billion RMB (346.92 to 485.68 million USD) in GMV, over 62 brands sold over 10 million RMB (1.39 million USD), with Proya, SK-II, L’Oréal, Lancôme and Kefumei earning more than 100 million RMB (13.88 million USD). Meanwhile, Dong Yuhui’s Walking with Hui channel also sold 176 million RMB (24.42 million USD) of electrical appliances on the first day.
The biggest change this year, apart from the longer sales period, is that many platforms did away with “xx RMB off for each xxx RMB bought” types of discounts in favour of straight up price reductions, coupons and “red envelope” cashbacks. Merchants, including Walking with Hui, leveraged governmental and platform subsidies for appliances. However, some consumers feel that the reduction is not as substantial compared to the International Women’s Day (IWD) sales in March, let alone Double 11 last year.
This year, e-commerce platforms ended the “refund only” no-return refund policy and introduced more merchant-friendly subsidies and support policies. Rednote is reportedly working with both Alibaba and JD.com to provide better seeding and analytics. Taobao ditched mandatory shipping insurance as part of its participation in driving sales for merchants. JD.com, on the other hand, introduced an automated process for merchandise to participate in the sale without the need for merchants to apply. Meanwhile, Douyin gave out commission-free vouchers.
With platforms no longer using “lowest price on the web” slogans, and providing more services and convenience for consumers and merchants alike, the 618 Festival this year might not be as competitive. However, it signals a strategic pivot for e-commerce platforms to go back to basics.
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