According to WeChat, search ads will support six promotion goals, including WeChat Official Account promotion, sales lead collection, products promotion, branding events promotion, app promotion, and WeChat Mini Games promotion.

It supports three landing page types, namely, native promotion page, WeChat Mini Program, and custom link. And, based on the search ability of WeChat, WeChat search advertising can support the sale of brand keywords, keywords words, generic keywords, and generic keywords.

At present, Tencent’s mobile search advertising scenarios mainly include WeChat Search and QQ Browser search. In these scenarios, advertisers can do brand and performance marketing.

Since the launch of search feature on WeChat in 2017, it has been at the top of the main interface.

However, after five years of iteration, it has now become a “global search” that includes WeChat Moments, Official Account, and Mini Programs from the early days when it could only search local chat records and contacts.

At the same time, the search scope has also expanded to all content and services related to search queries in WeChat.

WeChat Mini Programs Insights

There are some new “situations” in this year’s 618 festival.

On the one hand, 618 has become an important opportunity for online shopping of high value and large commodities; on the other hand, it’s also a good time for families to stock up, including the sales of home appliances, 3C, food, beauty products, and etc, which will reach the peak in the first half of the year during 618.

At the same time, many big brands lead the promotion activities, and the promotion discounts also attract many new consumers.

Smart and high-quality differentiated products have become the hot spots trends in the field of home appliances, driven by promotions from both home appliance brands and major e-commerce platforms.

Get an introduction of 618 Shopping Festival here.

80% of the enterprises, surveyed by Chinese media Yibang, participated in Tmall 618, more than half of them invested more than 30% of the 618 budget in Tmall, and 40% of the enterprises surveyed expected that more than half of the 618 sales would come from Tmall.

50% of the enterprises interviewed said that in the past year, Tmall had the highest conversion among all platforms.

CIW Dossier: 618 Shopping Festival provides a perspective of the merchants regarding the performance, advertising budget, and sales expectations on the top e-commerce platforms for 618 shopping festival.

Update (21 June 2021): During this year’s “618” (June 1-20), the State Post Bureau observed more than 6.59 billion pieces of parcels, a year-on-year increase of 24.24%, and an increase of 84.16% compared with the same period in 2019.

China’s total 618 sales in 2021 reached 578.48 billion yuan, an increase of 26.5% YoY, according to data from Syntun. Top 3 channels by total sales are Tmall, JD, and Pinduoduo. Download CIW Dossier: 618 Shopping Festival to get more sales insights.

Alibaba Tmall 618

Over 67% consider Tmall as the top platform for 618.

Among the enterprises surveyed, 51% invested more than 30% of their budgets in tmall. Among them, 10.6% of enterprises allocate more than 80% of the ad budget on the Tmall platform; most allocate 30% to 50% of their total 618 budget on Tmall.

Tmall is giving away RMB10 billion (US$1.57 billion) in consumer coupons and subsidies to help further stimulate post-Covid consumption during Tmall 618 Festival 2021.

According to the official introduction of Tmall, huge discounts will be launched from June 1 to June 20. The specific activities are as follows:

• 20 yuan off every 300 yuan purchase with a total subsidy of 10 billion yuan
• 88vip members will receive additional 520 yuan
• Beauty products at flagship stores are cheaper than duty-free stores

A total of 250,000 brands participate in this year’s Tmall 618, which is 2.5 times that of last year. A total of 13 million products participate in offering discounts, of which 1.4 million are new products.

Tmall merchants almost all started the official live streaming for this year’s 618 shopping festival. About 100 celebrities have locked in Taobao Live to interact with fans. More than 500 CEOs have already made time for Tmall 618 in the agenda to face consumers and offer more brand discounts.

For more established brands, this year’s 618 festival is all about membership engagement. Shoppers who have signed up their favorite brands’ membership on Tmall can expect more additional benefits.

Tmall 618 sales

Millions of loyalty-program members on Tmall helped drive sales for 25 brands, which had each exceeded RMB100 million in transactions on June 1.

As of June 16, brand merchants have acquired nearly 60 million new members during Tmall 618, and some saw more than 50% of the transactions come from members. On June 1 alone, the first day of Tmall 618, there were 25 brands with a turnover of over 100 million yuan from members.

Since the beginning of this year, Tmall has strengthened its membership operation. The exclusive rights and benefits of brand members will be revealed many times in the search results and commodity display pagse, and various tools such as exclusive rights and benefits of members and member interaction are also provided for merchants.

About 20 brand merchants exceeded 10 million member milestone on Tmall. Alibaba didn’t disclose detailed sales value this year.

Tmall Hey Box: Alibaba’s best seller incubator for top brands

JD.com 618

Jingdong announced it will focus on live streaming, short videos, graphics, and quiz to enrich its content marketing for the ongoing 618 Grand Promotion at a kick-off event on May 20 in Beijing.

JD.com will invite more than 300 celebrities, and executives from nearly 600 brand partners to participate in various promotions through live streaming during the promotion.

The company will also invite KOLs and celebrities to create short videos to assist promotion. More than 1,000 professional buyers or KOLs from different categories will be invited to share their favorite products to drive more traffic to JD.com.

JD will hold two galas through live streaming inviting celebrities to bring consumers the festive atmosphere of 618. Leveraging JD and WeChat’s strength, JD will offer live streaming through 10 WeChat accounts.

Over 30,000 new brands and stores were launched during 618 on JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, with over 2.4 million new products.

Shoppers in Nanjing, Jiangsu province are the most active, taking the crown for the largest order volume.

Group buying is most used in Harbin. The average amount per group buy order in the chilly capital of Heilongjiang province in Northeast China this year exceeds RMB 1,000 yuan.

Other top competitors for 618 include Kuaishou, Douyin (TikTok), Pinduoduo, and Meituan.

JD & Douyin (TikTok)

JD signed a 20 billion yuan collaboration agreement with Douyin (TikTok). And, JD’s products are integrated on Douyin in this year’s 618 festival and users can buy JD products on Douyin directly without being redirected to an external page.

JD 618 Sales

In the first three minutes on Jun. 18, JD Super, JD’s online supermarket, saw sales increase 10 times, and in the first two minutes, packaged foods exceeded RMB 300 million yuan while the maternal and baby category exceeded RMB 200 million yuan.

In the first hour on Jun. 18, JD Fresh saw sales increase 70% YOY. Looking at sub-categories, seafood, meat, eggs and poultry, and fruit and vegetables increased 160%, 105% and 80% respectively. Sales of food which require little effort to prepare increased 160%.

JD.com reported a total transaction of over RMB 343.8 billion yuan for its 18-day 618 shopping festival 2021, representing a growth of 27.7% YoY from the same period in 2020 (RMB 269.2 billion yuan).

The pet category has boomed. Post-90s consumers spent an average of RMB 507 yuan per month on pet products in 2021. During 618, smart pet products increased 47% YOY.

Luxury products. Sales of Ferragamo, TOD’s, and BALLY increased 150%, 232% and 600% respectively. In addition, over 20 designer brands saw sales increase over 15 times YoY on JD platform. Consumers continue to embrace the convenience of buying luxury products online.

Sales of imported gaming phones on JD Worldwide increased by nearly three times. Imported dry cat food increased by 108%.

During the 18-day promotion, sales of JD’s online real estate business increased 230% YOY. Sales of housekeeping and cleaning services increased 6.3 times while the order number of car maintenance increased 285%.

Genetic testing service sales increased 23 times, making it the fastest-growing category of healthcare services on Jingdong. Oral health product sales increased 447%.

The top five international brands are Aptamil from Germany, Estee Lauder from the U.S., A2 from Australia, Nintendo from Japan, and Sulwhasoo from Korea. In the fresh food category, 5 million Zespri kiwis and 260,000 durians from Thailand were sold during the 18-day sale.

Social e-commerce Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade

618 Sales performance of other brands and platforms

Xiaomi 618

From June 1 to 18, the total GMV across all Xiaomi’s platforms exceeded 19 billion yuan (US$29.37 bn), with a year-on-year growth of 90%.

Its sales volume of smartphones ranked first among all Android phones, the TV category won first place in the sales volume / sales values. Xiaomi 11 Pro is the best selling model on both JD and Tmall.

Xiaomi’s offline sales channels saw 123% YoY increase in total transaction values. Live streaming delivered 1.34 billion yuan in total sales, an 92% growth YoY.

Douyin (TikTok) 618

Douyin 618 started on June 1st and ended at 8 a.m. on June 19th. The top 5 best-selling brands are:

1. Chuchu (new brand)
2. WHOO
3. China Gold
4. Shepinhui
5. Huawei

Apple ranks sixth overall or second after Huawei under “3C electronics” category.

The top five are expected to have sales of more than 100 million yuan. Unfortunately, Apple, Adidas, Nike, and other international brands are not expected to exceed 100 million yuan in sales on Douyin, according to Chinese media Yibang Dongli.

Douyin saw the largest new user growth of over 392% YoY among post-00s, followed by post-90s (+225.9% YoY).

This is Apple’s second year of participation in 618 and saw a sales increase of 16% YoY, according to data from Counterpoint Research.

You can bookmark this page or sign up for our weekly newsletter for future updates.

Social e-commerce Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade

The launch of Mini-Game “Jump” (Tiaoyitiao)  made WeChat Mini-Programs (or WeChat Apps) an instant hit in early 2018. On average, 230 million users used WeChat Mini-Programs daily, 60 million more than 2017. It is estimated to exceed 350 million by the end of 2019.

Read the latest insights on WeChat apps and mini programs here.

WeChat’s Mini-Programs has covered over more than 200 industries and provided over 100 billion times of requests. The sector of public services has been available among 362 prefecture-level cities and created over 500 billion commercial value. The total transactions were 600% more than a year ago.

At the end of 2018, over 2.3 million WeChat Mini-Programs has gone online since its launch in January 2017, which increased by nearly 300% from early 580 thousand.

In terms of the total number of applications, WeChat took less than two years to surpass Apple’s App Store, which held 2.1 million apps with ten years. Aldwx.com’s Mini-Programs data statistics platform forecasts the total mini-apps on WeChat will surpass 5 million by the end of 2019.

It is becoming more and more difficult for a mini-programs to get enlisted in the top 100 ranking on WeChat.

Tongcheng-eLong and Pinduoduo took the first two spots in December 2018. 34% of the top 100 mini-programs turned out to be newcomers. On average, 30% of the top 100 would be replaced by new ones every month in 2018.

All WeChat mini-programs attracted more than 8 billion yuan (US$1.19 billion) from 110 funding rounds led by 120 investment agencies. The figure was eight times higher than it was in 2017.

Offline retail and online shopping mini-programs were the two most popular areas, which together accounted for nearly 70% of total funding.

9 Brands see great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

The advertising market of WeChat Mini-Programs is projected to grow from 5 billion yuan in 2018 to 20 billion yuan by 2019. The retail transactions made with WeChat ecosystem is to exceed 3 trillion yuan by 2019.

Following the launch of Nearby Mini-Programs feature, some leading retailers have successfully connected online marketing scenarios with offline. For example, IKEA WeChat Mini-Program saw 2.26 million visits in 24 hours on the day it went online.

On average, each user accesses WeChat Mini-Programs 4.25 times a day and spends 8.7 minutes on it. WeChat Mini-Programs has seen 600 million users as of the end of 2018. 72% of WeChat users have used WeChat Mini-Programs; 34% of whom used it frequently.

Business guide to WeChat Mini Program live streaming

WeChat Apps Usage Scenarios

53% of users use WeChat Mini-Programs mainly for temporary usage, 40% didn’t want to download mobile apps, 33% are automatically redirected to it after scanning QR code or clicking, and 31% just want to give a try.

User profile & usage preference

Among WeChat Mini-Programs users, 58% were men, 70% under 40 years old, 76% college educated or above, and 52% lived in tier-3 or lower tier cities.

42% of users played Mini-Games on WeChat, 39% used lifestyle services mini-programs, and 28% viewed news.

Specifically, those aged 17 years or younger mainly used WeChat Mini-Games. Users between 18 and 49 years old like to use Mini-Games and lifestyle service mini-programs. And, older users over 50 years old prefer news mini-programs, such as People’s Daily, and lifestyle service mini-programs.

Out of the 69 entry paths to access WeChat Mini-Programs, chatting, sharing, search, QR code, and shortcuts are most frequently used.

44% of users chose shortcuts from My Mini-Program in the main chat interface, 40% accessed from friends’ sharing (especially preferred by older users), and 35% entered through Official Account redirection.

Usage scenarios

53% of users use WeChat Mini-Programs mainly for temporary usage, 40% didn’t want to download mobile apps, 33% are automatically redirected to it after scanning QR code or clicking, and 31% just want to give a try.

Mini Program platforms in China: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu

In the eyes of users, what makes WeChat Mini-Programs attractive is its ease to use (60%), no need to download apps (57%), no RAM usage (31%), and convenience to share with friends (28%).

71% of users have shared Mini-Programs to others because they deem it valuable (57%), they were asked by friends (22%), or attracted by rewards (15%).

56% shared practical tools for office collaboration, 48% shared interesting contents to create topics and enhance interactions, and 32% shared Mini-Games to show gaming advancement, earn red envelops, or invite someone to compete against themselves, etc.

30% of WeChat users have used Mini-Programs to shop. 43% of them are willing to download apps, 40% found the product offer was cheaper, and 34% were redirected from posts on WeChat Moments.

However, some program designs affect users’ experience while shopping, such as profit-provoking shares and useless vouchers.

Users’ impressions on WeChat Mini-Programs

For those not using WeChat Mini-Programs, 30% found it not easy to find the one they want as many users mainly get access from friends’ sharing. 25% found the interface choppy especially when they played Mini-Games. And, 23% are worried about a specific function because it seems only useful for temporary usage.

Overall, users hold positive impressions toward WeChat Mini-Programs. 44% of users thought Mini-Programs could replace apps for occasional usage, 36% believed it could help save the smartphone storage, and 32% only viewed it as a tool.

40% of users expect WeChat Mini-Programs to improve the interface switching fluency between chat and mini-programs. 37% expect more useful mini-programs. And, 37% wish it more active in interactions.

One-third of users are willing to download the app after they have a try with a mini-programs. However, most of the users are primarily provoked by profits to download the app.

WeChat’s new social e-commerce platform integrates Shopping Accounts

Consumers can buy iPhones, Huawei mobile phones, Nike sports shoes, and Lancome skincare products on Pinduoduo. However, all these brands did not accept its proposal to open brand flagship stores.

Most brands still sell in the name of dealers, or refuse to participate in the “10 billion yuan subsidy”, or only provide low-end products. They keep a distance from Pinduoduo and regard it as an online factory outlet store.

An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public.

Winning more brands has become one of the most important tasks of Pinduoduo this year. Pinduoduo has listed the proportion of brand GMV as the focus of this year’s work, according to LatePost.

Before the government agency issued the fine to Alibaba, Pinduoduo’s related brand investment promotion activities have been accelerated.

Pinduoduo provides traffic support to cooperative brands, including promotion activities such as “super brand day” and “ten thousand people group”. In addition, it also newly designed the “official” or “flagship store” gold logo to distinguish it from the “brand” black logo of the dealer store.

Relying on WeChat traffic bonus, low price goods, and good user experience, Pinduoduo enables users in low tier cities and those who did not use e-commerce before to buy things online. In this process, the 9.9 yuan box of fruit and the counterfeit products news placed the label “cheap” on Pinduoduo brand.

Taobao and JD have become the backbone of consumption in China today. In the past year, the number of Pinduoduo buyers has exceeded Taobao/Tmall and JD, but the people who grew up with Taobao and JD have not trusted it as much.

The “10 billion yuan subsidy” that went online in the second quarter of 2019 tried to alleviate the problem.

It also really drove the growth of platform sales and users very quickly. In 2020, the per capita consumption of its buyers has increased from 1551 yuan to 2115 yuan at the end of 2020, but this figure is less than 1/3 of JD and 1/4 of Alibaba.

The participation of 10 billion subsidies mainly included the second and third level distributors of the brand, which could not improve the trust of users on Pinduoduo. Pinduoduo marketing activities also focused on highlighting products rather than stores.

The available brand products categories are relatively limited, which restricts the frequency of consumers’ shopping and the average purchase order value.

This is why Pinduoduo has now accelerated the persuasion of the brand side to open official stores: not only to eliminate the doubts about the quality of goods, but also to have enough profit space to promote, and to sell advertisements to the brand merchants with abundant financial resources.

Internal Competition

By the middle of 2020, Pinduoduo’s total investment in merchant recruitment team had exceeded 400 people.

Based on product categories, they are divided into a brand merchant recruitment team and an industrial belt merchant recruitment team. At the beginning of 2020, Pinduoduo set up an industry-wide brand recruitment team with 30 people to attract large brands.

The 30 people team was divided into two groups to compete against each other. They do not share any data or resources with each, and team members are required to compete for brands everywhere.

The competition is extremely fierce. The performance of the two groups was assessed monthly, including the number of brand stores, GMV, and GMV growth rate.

“Two groups of people will not look up to say hello when they meet.”, according to LatePost. Sometimes the two groups approached the same brand to talk about store launch, and they didn’t know each other.

In addition to the internal competition, Pinduoduo also conducts a variety of A/B testing on the product end to observe which merchant presentation form is more attractive to consumers.

In Pinduoduo’s brand store suffix, there are “brand” black label, “official” and “flagship store” gold label, and “flagship store” label. Among them, the gold label is the official flagship store, while “brand” black label and “flagship store” label are usually dealer stores.

Showing or hiding different labels are part of Pinduoduo team’s A/B testing.

Brands’ concern on pricing control

Not all brands accept the sales strategy of trading more for lower price, especially those international brands which have built multi-level distribution system and stable profit sharing.

Pinduoduo’s discount may destroy their original pricing system and affect dealers who need to pay store rent and staff salary. Pinduoduo hoped that the brand side would also participate in the 10 billion subsidy, but some refused.

In this regard, Pinduoduo has made limited compromises and agreed not to label their listings with “10 billion subsidy” and to issue consumption vouchers instead to achieve a discount.
For those brands willing to participate, Pinduoduo also relaxed some restrictions.

Previously, it had asked businesses to make special packaging materials for “10 billion subsidy”, printing Pinduoduo’s logo and QR code on the package with brochures inside explaining “10 billion subsidy” to highlight Pinduoduo’s own brand.

Nowadays, the restriction of this kind of special packaging is no longer compulsory.

Adidas is the biggest brand in the recent round of official brands launch on Pinduoduo, and it is also the company that Pinduoduo gives the most resources; the banner of “Adidas official launch” is placed on not only the top of the “my order – to be received” page.

Adidas received a lot of support from Pinduoduo but it launched its presence as an outlet store on Pinduoduo. Its daily GMV is by far below expectation.

If Pinduoduo wants to attract brands to open stores and sell to consumers directly through its platform, so as to change consumers’ impression of this platform, for a period of time, it can only accept the positioning of the online version of outlet store – a special, low-cost, but limited variety of authentic shopping mall.

The number of brands and merchants on Tmall Global grew 60%

Total transactions during China’s 618 shopping festival in 2020 reached 16.91 trillion yuan (about US$2.38 trillion), up 42% from last year, according to Chinese online payment clearing house NetsUnion Clearing Corporation (NUCC).

During the “618” online shopping festival from June 1 to June 18, a total of 26.18 billion transactions were made, an increase of 52% year on year, said the NUCC.

Alibaba Taobao/Tmall 618 2020

More than 100,000 brands have signed up for this year’s Tmall 618, double that of last year’s 618. More than 10 million items have been discounted to participate, which is in line with last year’s Double 11.

Tmall 618 generated a total sales of 698.2 billion yuan (US$98.49 bn). SME merchants saw one more billion orders during this year’s Tmall 618.

The import consumption of Tmall Global increased by 43% year on year. The direct purchase transactions of overseas warehouses increased by 199% year-on-year. As of June 18, more than 4,000 overseas brands doubled year-on-year growth.

Over 2 million merchants opened stores on Alibaba’s Taobao e-commerce platform since the pandemic, creating over 40 million jobs. C2M orders have grown by 500% YoY.

Tmall 618 Warming Up

On May 19, Tmall announced that during the period of 618, Tmall will, together with many local governments and brands, issue the largest scale of cash consumption coupons and subsidies this year, with an estimated amount of more than 10 billion yuan.

Chinese cities have been issuing billions worth of e-coupons to stimulate consumption.

Mini Program platform compared: WeChat vs. Alibaba vs. Baidu

According to Tmall, more than 100,000 brands have signed up for this year’s Tmall 618, double the number last year.

In addition, more than 10 million products will offer discounts in this year’s Tmall 618, which is in line with last year’s Tmall Double 11. All these figures have broken the historical record of Tmall 618.

In this year’s Tmall 618, Alibaba took “consumption voucher” as a new way of “festival making”, leading the national consumption recovery, promoting the release of China’s domestic demand potential, and bringing the biggest growth opportunity for the brand in the first half of this year.

Tmall said that the cash consumption coupons and subsidies issued by Tmall 618 will cover the broadest population ever. Besides, the conditions for using cash vouchers and subsidies will also be the most relaxed this year.

Tmall 618 presales started from 0:00 on May 25, with official sales starting on June 1 until June 20, 2020.

The epidemic has affected all aspects of society, and businesses have also suffered from different degrees of damage. They are looking forward to “a key battle”, either to turn the tide or to ensure growth.

Tmall 618 is such an opportunity. According to the analysis of the insiders, the biggest wave of consumption subsidy will come in Tmall 618 after the epidemic enters the stage of normalization prevention and control.

Tmall and over 100 furniture sellers, such as IKEA, Kohler, KUKA, QuanU, and Linshimuye, will launch a 3D shopping feature, allowing customers to “see” how the furniture fits into their homes.

Affected by the epidemic, since February of this year, a large number of offline stores have launched stores on Tmall, including IKEA, Tesla, and etc.

Close to 180 luxury brands are participating this year, nearly double the amount from Double 11 2019 Global Shopping Festival. Burberry, Montblanc, Cartier and Michael Kors are offering customized special edition items co-created with Tmall just for 6.18.

Coach, MCM, and Theory are participating in the campaign for the first time, and all recently launched outlets on Tmall Luxury Soho.

To many merchants in China, previously participating in the 618 promotion was a growth engine; but, now it’s more “life saving”.

Tmall 618 First Day Sales

In the first hour of Tmall 618 pre-sale, the total transactions increased by 515% year on year. Within the first two hours of the pre-sale, the transactions of several brands including Lancome and L’Oreal exceeded 100 million yuan. Subscribe to get more timely insights.

At the opening, an hour and 29 minutes of Tmall 618, the total transactions referred by Taobao Live reached 2 billion yuan (US$280 million), far more than that of the same period last year.

Since the launch of Tmall 618’s pre-sale on May 25, the number of live shows on Taobao has exceeded 1.4 million.

On June 1, Taobao Live delivered total sales of 5.1 billion yuan with over 20 brands and merchants exceeding 10 billion yuan in live streaming.

Jingdong (JD) 618 2020

JD 618 total transactions (1-18 Jun) reached 269.2 billion yuan (US$37.98 bn), up 33.6% YoY.

• Top categories by growth rate: fresh food, medical & health care, kitchenware
• Top categories by sales: mobile phones, home appliances, PC & digital products
• Top categories by the total number of customers: food & beverages, baby & maternal, beauty products

JD’s 7Fresh GMV increased by 100% year on year, and the turnover of more than 1000 fresh brands doubled during JD 618 sales (1-18 Jun).

More than 25,000 live broadcasts of Jingdong home appliances during 618 delivered the more GMV than the first five months’ total.

In addition, during the whole 618 periods, the cumulative turnover of air conditioners doubled over the previous year; the cumulative turnover of refrigerators and washing machines increased by 130% over the previous year; there are 10 third-party stores with a turnover of more than 100 million yuan on JD home appliance platform, and more than 1000 third-party stores with a turnover of more than one million yuan.

This is the 17th year for JD.com to hold its 618 Grand Promotion. JD will provide RMB 10 billion yuan in subsidies, hundreds of billions of discounts, and 10 billion yuan consumption coupons during the JD 618 event this year, announced on 25 May.

JD 618 Planning

This year’s 618 is the sales promotion with the largest amount of discounts ever with most new product launches. Among the many discounts and promotions offered, JD.com provided over 200 million units at a 50% discount and sell over 200 million units of new products.

JD.com would also help more than 150 brands to sell over RMB 100 million in products through innovative empowerment initiatives, subsidy support and other measures, and help more than 100,000 small and medium-sized brands and merchants to double their transactions.

JD would host over 300,000 key live streaming sessions during this year’s 618. It will also work with partners including Kuaishou, Douyin (TikTok), Wesee, Bilibili, Huya, Douyu, and others.

JD would invite top executives from brands such as Huawei, Honor, and Haier to interact with consumers directly, offering big discounts. JD’s executives and sales managers will also join JD Live.

JD Live would invite more than 100 civil servants, such as mayors, county heads, and directors of commerce to act as live streaming anchors to promote local agricultural products to help farmers and industries affected by COVID-19.

Home Appliance

Over 40 brands have created over 200 special production lines to produce over 1,000 exclusive products.

For example, Dyson would offer 70% of its Dyson Airwrap inventory to JD during 618. Some other promotions include a 60-inch 4K TV for less than RMB 2,000 yuan, a 55-inch 4K smart TV for RMB 1399 yuan, a Panasonic dishwasher for RMB 1899 yuan, and a new Midea air circulator for RMB 459 yuan – prices are significantly lower than usual.

JD has upgraded its service during 618 so that customers can enjoy a 30-day price protection policy for home appliances bought on JD’s first-party platform, and the option to replace a new home appliance with a quality problem within 180 days.

JD would also provide integrated delivery and installation service for TVs, and fast installation service for air conditioners.

JD would also offer RMB 300-600 yuan subsidies for people who trade in old air conditioners for new ones. It would provide a pre-sale video service to help guide consumers in the purchase of home appliances.

In addition, offline stores JD’s E-Space would participate in a 24-hour promotion on June 18th, providing customers with subsidies and discounts. JD’s over 12,000 home appliance experience stores would leverage live streaming for marketing promotion, covering Hebei, Henan, Hunan, and Guangdong provinces.

JD 618 First Day Sales

JD 618 started at 0:00 on June 1. According to JD, in the first hour, the transactions of Apple products were three times of that of the same period last year; luxury goods achieved a 400% growth and completing full day sales last year.

June 1st, the first day of JD’s 618 Grand Promotion, saw total transaction growth of 74% YoY. Forty brands individually achieved sales of over RMB 100 million. Check out the 7 consumption trends based on first-day sales data.

Sales of JD Super, JD.com’s online supermarket, increased by 100% compared with the same period last year. Sales of JD.com’s 7FRESH increased by more than 140% compared with the same period last year and JD New Markets grew by more than 100% year on year.

Compare with the same period last year:

• On June 1^st, sales of food categories in JD Super was three times.
• Sales of baby and maternal categories increased by 100%
• Sales of pants-type sanitary pads in the individual care category and female care increased by 12 times.
• Dental patches under the subdivision of oral care increased 19 times
• Sales of smart pet devices increased nearly 7 times
• The two-hour sales of toys exceeded the all-day sales of last year.

JD.com’s customized products also witnessed explosive growth including C2M, exclusive brands, first sales of new products, underwriting of tail goods, exclusive specifications, etc., and in only 4 hours exceeded the all-day sales in the same period last year.

JD Super brand merchants and retailers made efforts to reach the lower tier market. JD Super got off to a good start for 12 hours on June 1st. Sales in the lower tiers market increased by 160% compared with the same period last year, and the number of users from lower-tier markets increased by 83% compared with the same period last year.

JD.com’s outbound e-commerce platform witnessed a 742% growth in transaction volume on June 1st , compare with the same day of last year.  The top five markets are the United States, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan and Canada.

The number of customers in Hong Kong grew by 370% year-on-year, while transaction volume by 266% year-on-year.

JD Worldwide (Cross-border e-commerce platform)

On June 18th, sales of JD Worldwide (JD’s cross-border import e-commerce platform) increased 110% y-o-y. Imported pet products increased nearly 400% y-o-y, imported beauty products increased 180% y-o-y, and imported electronics products, maternal and baby products, health care products, fashion products have all increased over 100% y-o-y.

From June 1^st to 18^th, over 30% of countries saw sales of their products more than doubled.

JD Worldwide has introduced over 1,000 new brands as of May 2020, and welcomed over 500 stores on third-party platform, including Abbott, Nestlé, as well as international chains such as South Korean department store AKPLAZA and Japanese drugstore Daikoku Cosmetics. During this 618, sales of the stores increased by over 100%.

This 618, JD Worldwide introduced 30,000 new international products to JD customers. On June 18^th, sales of new products were 15 times that of the average daily sales in May. From June 1^st to 18^th, sales of over half of the new products increased by over 200% compared with the same period of May.

Other Retailer & E-commerce Platforms

Gome’s one day GMV on 18 June increased by 73.8% YoY. 65 inch TV sales increased 186% year-on-year, and OLED TV showed 285% growth. Its 618 sales (1-18 Jun) exceeded May’s total sales.

Xiaomi’s total sales have reached 10 billion yuan across all platforms during the 18-day sales period.

Subscribe to CIW Weekly, our weekly e-newsletter to receive updates:

[do_widget id=enews-ext-2]

Top traffic driver compared: TikTok/Douyin vs. Kuaishou vs. Bilibili vs. RED

Kuaishou (Kwai) Technology and Jingdong (JD) Retail Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement on 27 May 2020 that enables users to buy JD products on Kuaishou platform directly.

The two companies will cooperate in the supply chain capability building, brand marketing, and data capabilities building of the Kuaishou Store, and jointly create a new ecosystem of short video live streaming.

Sales from Alibaba live streaming platform grew by 150% for 3 consecutive years.

JD Retail provides superior products to Kuaishou Stores and Kuaishou anchors will select and sell the products. Users can buy JD.com products directly on Kuaishou Shop and enjoy the delivery and post-sales services provided by JD.

This partnership is happening soon during China’s 618 Shopping Festival and will kick off during JD’s 17th Anniversary Grand Promotion (“618”) and Kuaishou’s June 16th Shopping Festival. From June 16th to 18th, products from JD’s first-party business will be available for to a portion of Kuaishou’s live streaming KOLs.

At the same time, JD Retail and Kuaishou will collaborate to strengthen brand marketing capabilities. Kuaishou’s anchors will do live streaming and short video marketing, and JD will provide joint marketing capabilities and fulfillment services, to enhance the core competitiveness of both brands.

The two parties will also explore targeted marketing based on JD’s insights on customer shopping behavior and Kuaishou’s understanding of short video and e-commerce live streaming.

“The retail industry is facing the opportunities and challenges of more and more diversified consumer demand and consumption scenarios. JD Retail has China’s leading retail supply chain, and is trusted by hundreds of millions of customers because of its quality product offerings and services. It is committed to driving the transformation of the retail industry through opening up its own capabilities. Kuaishou is a short video social platform loved by hundreds of millions of users. The partnership between JD Retail and Kuaishou will provide Chinese consumers with a high-quality experience in richer shopping scenarios,

said Lei Xu, CEO of JD Retail.

Since the beginning of this year, short video live streaming in e-commerce has been developing rapidly. Check out Taobao Live’s Stunning Growth in 2020.

As a short video live broadcast platform with more than 300 million daily active users, Kuaishou is the earliest explorer in the e-commerce live streaming industry with leading advantages in the number of users and the creation of new scenarios.

As early as June 2019, Kuaishou announced that users can view JD products in the Kuaishou app and be redirected to the JD app to make a purchase.

The latest cooperation is an upgrade and will supplement and advance Kuaishou in terms of product offering, and is also in line with Kuaishou’s goal to expand its boundaries to brands and high-quality goods.

JD will gain in terms of being able to reach new users and push into new scenarios in the emerging e-commerce live streaming market.

Explore 9 Brands’ great results from WeChat Mini Program live streaming campaigns

Weibo’s average daily active users were 241 million in March 2020, a net addition of approximately 38 million users on year over year basis. WeChat MAU up 8% to 1.2 billion.

Weibo Financial Results in Q1 2020

For Q1 2020, Weibo’s total net revenues were $323.4 million, a decrease of 19% compared to $399.2 million for Q1 2019.

• Advertising and marketing revenues for Q1 2020 were $275.4 million, a decrease of 19% compared to $341.1 million for Q1 2019.
  • Advertising and marketing revenues from key accounts (“KAs”) and small & medium-sized enterprises (“SMEs”) were $247.9 million, a decrease of 24% compared to $324.5 million for Q1 2019.
• VAS revenues for Q1 2020 were $48.0 million, a decrease of 17% year-over-year compared to $58.0 million for Q1 2019, primarily due to the decrease of revenues from live streaming business and was partially offset by the increase of membership revenues

Costs and expenses for Q1 2020 totaled $265.4 million, compared to $276.1 million for Q1 2019. Non-GAAP costs and expenses were $249.3 million, compared to $262.4 million for Q1 2019.

Income from operations for Q1 2020 was $58.0 million, compared to $123.1 million for Q1 2019. Non-GAAP income from operations was $74.1 million, compared to $136.8 million for Q1 2019.

Non-operating income for Q1 2020 was $10.0 million, compared to $48.6 million for Q1 2019. Non-operating income for Q1 2020 mainly included

• a $12.9 million net interest and other income;
• a $2.9 million net loss on the sale of investments and fair value changes on investments, which is excluded under non-GAAP measures.

Income tax expenses were $15.9 million, compared to $21.1 million for Q1 2019. The decrease was primarily resulted from reduced earnings and was partially offset by the estimated increase of effective tax rate for China operations primarily due to the expiration of the preferential tax treatment of one of the Weibo’s PRC subsidiaries in 2020.

Net income attributable to Weibo for Q1 2020 was $52.1 million, compared to $150.4 million for Q1 2019. Diluted net income per share attributable to Weibo for Q1 2020 was $0.23, compared to $0.66 for Q1 2019.

Non-GAAP net income attributable to Weibo for Q1 2020 was $67.4 million, compared to $128.5 million for Q1 2019. Non-GAAP diluted net income per share attributable to Weibo for Q1 2020 was $0.30, compared to $0.56 for Q1 2019.

As of March 31, 2020, Weibo’s cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments totaled $2.35 billion. for Q1 2020, cash provided by operating activities was $63.6 million, capital expenditures totaled $7.3 million, and depreciation and amortization expenses amounted to $6.8 million.

For the second quarter of 2020, Weibo estimates its net revenues to decrease by 7% to 12% year-over-year on a constant currency basis. This forecast reflects Weibo’s current and preliminary view, which is subject to change.

Xiaohongshu community trends 2020