Top Three Online Shopping Festivals in China

Who doesn’t love a bargain? No one, that’s who. Chinese consumers are no exceptions and love sales and special promotions. All major and minor local and international festivals in China will be accompanied by some brands and e-commerce platforms offering general or category specific sales promotions. 

But there are also three major online shopping festivals that have purely been invented to promote e-commerce sales with each of them offering attractive opportunities for foreign brands to increase brand awareness, market to Chinese consumers and achieve higher sales. 

Double 11

The largest e-commerce festival of the year in China is on November 11, better known as Single’s Day or Double 11 (双十一). Double 11 makes America’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday seem puny. In the first 68 seconds after midnight in 2019 Chinese consumers had spent $1 billion on bargains online. In the first hour, they had spent $14.3 billion, roughly half of the total recorded during the previous year’s Thanksgiving shopping weekend in the United States. At the end of the event, gross merchandise value (GMV) stood at 268.4 billion RMB ($38.3 billion), a 26% rise from the 2018 figure.

The most popular Double 11 purchases include skin care and cosmetics, clothing and shoes, daily necessities, mother and baby products, as well as electronics.

618 – June 18

618 is considered China’s second most famous online shopping festival after Double 11. Although it was originally created 16 years ago by Alibaba’s main competitor JD.com to celebrate their anniversary, its growing popularity means that promotions are run on all e-commerce platforms. 2019’s 18 day shopping festival resulted in record sales revenues of $31.53 billion on JD alone, up 26.57% on 2018, a figure that does not include the large sales made on other platforms. More than 110 brands on Tmall surpassed 100 million RMB in sales during the festival with Pinduoduo proving to be the best performing platform with more than 1.1 billion orders.

Compared to Double 11, which takes place in late autumn, the hot June weather contributes to air conditioning units, fridges and electric fans being some of the top ranking products alongside the perennially popular makeup and food. 

Double 12

The Double 12 shopping festival is the last big e-commerce shopping festival before the end of the year. Double 12 is basically the follow up event for those who missed out on Double 11, but still boasts impressive sales figures. It is also more accessible for smaller merchants who do not fit the strict requirements for taking part in Double 11 and small brands are highlighted during this festival.

Platforms have not yet released official sales figures for Double 12, but it is still a significant date in China’s e-commerce calendar with hundreds of millions of deliveries being made. It gives brands with lower profile and budgets the chance to run a promotion away from the noise of Double 11.

Conclusions

These shopping festivals are important parts of the retail calendar in China. Innovative marketing and use of new media, such as livestreaming, has seen consistently staggering sales figures that somehow manage to increase beyond comprehension every year.

However, the e-commerce industry in China is a big cake and everybody wants a piece of it. This means it can be difficult for new brands to stand out amongst the competition. A solid strategy needs to be in place in good time to make the most of the sales opportunities these festivals provide. Even then, with the emphasis on discounts, a brand must consider how profitable such a shopping extravaganza can actually be. 

Despite the challenges, it’s well worth talking to your distributor or marketing agency about how they think they can leverage these festivals. Of course, ADN is always here to help on marketing and introductions to buyers who can help your brand maximise the potential in the China market.