Cai Lianshe | New Consumer Daily News, June 19th (researcher Liang Youyun), this year's mid-year promotion finally came to an end, although most platforms cancelled the pre-sale mechanism, but the nearly one-month promotion schedule gave platforms more time to stimulate consumption.

In order to attract more consumers' attention, spot goods were sold in advance, rotationally shouting "lowest price on the whole network without fear of comparison", digital anchors attracted attention, brand CEOs personally promoted sales, billion-yuan subsidies became common benefits, and large subsidies were issued for different categories... Platforms' loud propaganda and innovative marketing have become the hottest spot of this year's 618.

On June 19th, platforms such as Taobao, Jingdong, Kuaishou, and Suning released performance growth data reports.

Platform good news is frequent, and live-streaming e-commerce is still a growth point.

Taobao Tmall data showed that as of 24:00 on June 18th, 365 brands on Tmall's 618 achieved transaction volume exceeding 100 million yuan, with over 36,000 brands achieving doubled transactions. Under the Tmall billion-yuan subsidy activity, the overall transaction volume increased by 550% year-on-year, of which 3C digital increased by 878%, small appliances increased by over 800%, and fresh food increased by 549%.

In terms of live streaming performance, Taobao has achieved new growth. During this year's 618 period, Taobao's live-streaming transaction volume exceeded 100 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 53%, with 34 live-streaming rooms of top performers achieving over 100 million yuan, and 47 live-streaming rooms of stores achieving over 100 million yuan. In comparison, during the double 11 period in 2023, Taobao's live-streaming transaction volume exceeding 100 million yuan was only 58, and only 38 store live-streaming rooms achieved this goal.

Xiaohongshu's e-commerce live-streaming has also achieved significant growth during this year's 618 period. It has repeatedly released phased growth data during the entire promotion period, indicating the company's satisfaction with the accelerated growth of its e-commerce business.

As of June 18th, Xiaohongshu's live-streaming orders increased by 5.4 times compared with the same period last year, and the number of users who made purchases in live-streaming rooms increased by 5.2 times YoY. Among them, the orders completed through store live-streaming increased by 9.4 times YoY, and the number of personal shoppers who achieved over 1 million yuan in sales per session was three times that of last year.

Jingdong, which has also stepped up live-streaming e-commerce this year, has also released its latest sales report. The data showed that Jingdong's 618 turnover and order volume hit new highs, and the number of Jingdong live-streaming orders increased by more than 200% YoY.

Outside of the live streaming room, 83 brands on Jingdong's 618 platform achieved a turnover of over 1 billion yuan, and over 150,000 small and medium-sized sellers achieved sales growth of over 50%. Under the billion-yuan subsidy activity, the number of online products on Jingdong increased by over 100%, and the number of users and orders under the billion-yuan subsidy activity increased by over 150% YoY.

In the digital appliance category, where Jingdong is more proficient, sales of over 700 home appliance and home furnishing brands increased by over 100% YoY, with sales of brands such as Midea, Haier, Gree and Xiaomi exceeding 1 billion yuan.

At the same time, the "trade-in program" is driving the new round of consumer demand growth. Jingdong and several provinces and cities have jointly launched related subsidy activities, of which household appliances and home furnishings in Hubei, Shenzhen, Beijing, Xi'an and other 7 provinces and cities achieved turnover growth of over 100% YoY.

Suning Yunji, which has also continued to promote the "trade-in program," not only intensified promotions in offline stores this year, but also continued to promote its retail cloud business aimed at the sinking consumer market.

During 618, Suning Easy Purchase trade-in orders increased by 46% MoM, of which 3C trade-in orders increased by over 100% YoY. In the sinking market, retail cloud under Suning Easy Purchase showed that trade-in orders increased by 75%, of which the trade-in volume of air conditioners increased by 255% YoY.

After replacing their old appliances, many consumers chose middle and high-end products with higher cost performance and better quality. According to Suning Easy Purchase, during the 618 period, orders for mobile phones with a price of over 10,000 yuan increased by over 70% YoY, AI intelligence control and high-end imaging experience became the focus of consumer attention. The market share of middle and high-end brands in the air conditioning category has also significantly increased, with sales of new first-class air conditioners increasing by 45% and sales accounting for over 90%. Among them, sales of voice-controlled air conditioners increased by 87%, and kitchen air conditioners increased by over 500% YoY.

On the Kuaishou platform, the growth rate of the 618 consumer electronics and home furnishings industry's turnover has also been rapid, and the GMV of brand merchants has increased by more than 83% YoY. Especially for summer cooling appliances, the GMV of the fan category increased by 44% YoY, and that of home appliance sets increased by 62% YoY.

However, compared with Douyin, Taobao, and Jingdong, which are all-in on live-streaming, Kuaishou did not release any live-streaming-related data this year. The bright spots of Kuaishou's growth lie in the overall linkage of pan-shelf, search payment, short videos and live-streaming-driven sales. It is reported that during this year's 618, Kuaishou's brand distribution GMV increased by more than 53%, and the GMV of brand merchants' pan-shelves increased by more than177% YoY.

There are always people making money! Channel "man, goods, and field" feature differentiation.

Although platforms have released their "war reports," many merchants remain cautious.

Before the start of the 618 promotion in previous years, many merchants expected to leverage it to drive sales explosion. However, as the concepts of "promotion" and "low prices" become more commonplace, merchants pay less and less attention to special promotion periods.

When ordering non-essential consumer goods, consumers will think twice, and the anchor's sales pitch will no longer be effective. Consumer loyalty to platforms is lower and often wanders between different e-commerce platforms such as Pinduoduo, Taobao, JD.com, Douyin, and Kuaishou. In similar quality situations, consumers will compare prices among three platforms.

Before and after the 618 promotion, Pinduoduo and Douyin upgraded their price adjustment systems around "real-time low prices," while Taobao insisted on remote areas with mandatory free postage and mandatory shipping insurance. Several platforms followed the "refund only" function.

Some merchants stated directly during the promotion that they were "working for the platform" and were afraid of "bargain hunters." Many were dissatisfied with "selling more and losing more." Merchants who were uncomfortable with the new promotion rules chose to proactively withdraw. Some chose to participate but had a "lying flat" mentality and no longer placed hopes on completing annual growth targets through individual concentrated promotions.

Because new brands, new products, and many small and medium-sized businesses are still seeking growth under pressure, platforms have also responded.

According to Taobao's data, during the 618 period, the turnover of 1.9 million small and medium-sized Taobao merchants increased by over 100% year-on-year, and the number of merchants more than doubled compared with last year; nearly 30,000 small and medium-sized merchants had a turnover of over one million yuan. In response to industrial belts, Taobao's Tmall Factory also launched a so-called semi-trustee service, which helps upstream manufacturers solve six problems: digitized product selection, intelligent pricing, managed marketing, optimized supply chain and localized services in six sectors.

In addition, JD.com is also attracting more third-party merchants to settle in by simplifying entry procedures, reducing fees and deductions, encouraging traffic, and improving business tools to better support small and medium-sized merchants. During this year's 618 period, sales growth of more than 150,000 small and medium-sized merchants on JD.com exceeded 50%.

In addition, Kuaishou also launched a full-service marketing management mode this year. The platform assists merchants in selecting investment streams, matching goods-driving experts, and operating stores to reduce the difficulty of e-commerce operations. The platform's daily sales management GMV during 618 exceeded 10 million yuan.

On the Little Red Book platform, as the overall e-commerce and live broadcast business is still in the early stages, there are many growth cases for new brands and products.

According to reports, Little Red Book mainly guides buyers and brands to display product functions and characteristics more during the live broadcast process, matching and attracting suitable target consumers to achieve growth in private domains. Under this guidance, many start-up brands and buyer anchors have rapidly achieved breakthroughs in sales performance.

"There are many e-commerce models, and I hope everyone can have a better shopping experience." Yinshi, the head of Little Red Book's e-commerce operations, said in a recent media interview that live broadcast e-commerce itself is not a business model. He would rather regard it as a display form and there is no concept of "one company dominating the market." Little Red Book's live broadcasts attempt to move offline quality and personalized product promotion services online. When the form of live broadcasts is different, the matching effect of "people and goods and scene" it brings is also different.

Since the start of this year's 618 promotion, whether it is shelf e-commerce or live broadcast e-commerce, industry competition has been entering a stalemate where it is difficult to move forward. However, returning to the essence of the retail industry's "people, goods, and scene," how to innovate forms to attract consumers is a topic worth exploring repeatedly for everyone.