This week, Tencent launched an independent mobile app for Xiao’E Pinpin, which currently has a similar design as the mini program.

The home page adopts a similar design as Pinduoduo, with a popular products row set on top, including beauty products, food supermarket, etc.

The middle part is the welfare for new users, which speeds up the acquisition of new users through low price concessions. The bottom showcases recommended products.

The core of Xiao’E Pinpin is social e-commerce, so a function called “friends like” is designed in the app.

This function is similar to Pinduoduo’s “Pinxiaoquan”, which can publish the product news on this page, and other friends can comment, like, and share in WeChat Group, so as to promote the success rate of transaction while maintaining shopping interaction.

Social e-commerce Pinduoduo’s road to brand upgrade

Nowadays, the social e-commerce segment in China is still becoming more and more competitive.

Taobao integrates the daily special sale and Juhuasuan, competing with Pinduoduo through 10 billion yuan subsidies. Jingxi, the Jingdong shopping platform targeting lower-tier cities, has also been officially connected to the first level entrance on WeChat.

Xiao’E Pinpin app has built-in game shopping functions. Through Xiao’E Treasure Hunt and Xiao’E Manor, users can play games while winning products, integrating shopping and entertainment. In addition to Xiao’E Pinpin, Tencent’s latest attempts also include WeChat Shopping Accounts for its Huiju social e-commerce platform.

China social e-commerce market insights 2021

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.

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