This year’s 618 is not only the longest in history, but also full of chaos and helplessness. Merchants are exhausted from complex promotion rules and long activity cycles, consumers are complaining about opaque prices and false offers, and e-commerce platforms are trying to find new growth points. This article will take you to an in-depth analysis of the chaos and changes behind this year’s 618, as well as its enlightenment for the future development of the e-commerce industry.
The 618 Mid-Year Shopping Festival, which is unique to China’s Internet, ended in silence.
In addition to the different calibers released by various platforms, but all of them are a positive battle report, the only thing that more ordinary users can feel may be that they can finally get rid of the annoying on-screen jump ads. For more e-commerce practitioners involved, if this year’s longest 618 in history has brought any enlightenment in the end, it may be that it has strengthened their determination to escape.
During the annual e-commerce promotion, there are always voices in the market discussing whether the promotion is still necessary, and there is not even a voice of discussion this year. A clothing e-commerce merchant who has been in the industry for ten years said that he has experienced many crises, but this time he really feels that the profit cannot be expected, there is no hope and he feels extremely desperate. “Daily sales throughout the event period were lower than flat sales…… The most terrible thing is that it lasts a month. ”
“I invested more promotion, manpower, energy, material resources and expenses than in previous years, but in fact there was almost no improvement in our overall sales. If you can’t pull it up, at most it will be a draw with last year. A beauty merchant said.
On social platforms, small and medium-sized businesses have maintained a consistent style of complaining about water, and there is almost no positive evaluation of the big promotion. The same is true on the consumer side, and many media have released false routines during the 618 period that e-commerce merchants rise first and then fall during the promotion. Merchants’ price increases did not stop until the climax of 618 – because some merchants chose to withdraw from the event in the middle of the promotion.
Benefiting from the national subsidy policy and the re-extension of the promotion cycle, the overall GMV of this year’s 618 according to third-party statistics is still rising. Star map data said that the total sales of 618 comprehensive e-commerce (Tmall, JD.com, Pinduoduo, Douyin and Kuaishou) this year were 855.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%. They also emphasized that this year’s 618 promotion cycle is quite different from last year, and the year-on-year growth data is for reference only. The data given by Analysys is that the GMV of comprehensive e-commerce platforms (Taotian, JD.com, Pinduoduo) increased by 9.4% year-on-year.
To achieve these three challenges, product managers will only continue to appreciate
Good product managers are very scarce, and product managers who understand users, business, and data are still in demand when they go out of the Internet. On the contrary, if you only do simple communication, inefficient execution, and shallow thinking, I am afraid that you will not be able to go through the torrent of the next 3-5 years.
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Liu Bo, vice president of Alibaba Group and president of Tmall, revealed to Late that this year’s GMV after the 618 full-cycle Tmall excluded refunds increased by 10% year-on-year, which is the largest increase in Alibaba in three years. This is a new statistical caliber, and Alibaba thinks such data is more real, but I don’t know why they have never used it in the past. Liu Bo emphasized in the interview that the number of users purchased by the platform has also achieved double-digit growth, and their year-on-year data is strictly compared with the same period last year.
The data released by JD.com is also growing. 618 The day before, Liu Qiangdong, the founder of the company, faced the media again after many years of absence, showing the signal of a complete return. Liu Qiangdong talked a lot that day, but the only thing he didn’t mention was 618. The next day, JD.com held a grand 618 final press conference at its headquarters, announcing that the number of users placing orders doubled, and the overall order volume of JD.com’s retail online and offline and JD.com’s takeaway exceeded 2.2 billion.
The battle reports issued by other platforms such as Pinduoduo, Douyin, and Kuaishou are also a hot scene. However, the data dimensions pulled out by each platform are different, and there is basically no room for horizontal comparison, which can be regarded as 618’s “unforgettable tonight”, which only serves as a finishing touch.
Another change that deserves more market attention this year of 618 is that instant retail has begun to really participate in the promotion, and Meituan Flash Sale released their 618 record for the first time, saying that more than 100 million users placed orders in Meituan Flash Sale, and the overall turnover hit a new high. JD.com and Alibaba are also emphasizing the driving role of instant retail in e-commerce.
The long and chaotic 618 is finally over, and consumers, merchants, and e-commerce platforms that have been working for more than a month may be able to breathe a sigh of relief. But they won’t rest for long, and preparations for a larger-scale Double 11 promotion will begin soon.
01 Confusion and helplessness
Beauty brand merchant Wu Nai (pseudonym) has the biggest feeling of “chaos” for this year’s 618. It’s not because the big promotion didn’t bring any growth to their sales, but because he didn’t understand the platform’s gameplay more and more – the chaotic promotion rhythm, the frequently changing discount design and the confusing platform rules, “It’s ridiculous.” ”
Objectively speaking, after experiencing the fierce and bottomless low-price war during last year’s 618, this year all platforms are committed to simplifying promotion rules, emphasizing support and burden reduction for merchants, and truly benefiting consumers. For example, platforms such as Tmall, JD.com and Douyin have shouted the slogan of official instant reductions, no need to make up orders, no need to cross-store full discounts, and reduce consumer decision-making costs.
Merchants have different attitudes towards instant reductions. The above-mentioned clothing e-commerce merchants said that in the past, under the full reduction rule, although there were certain refund orders, the overall transaction volume was still more than the current instant reduction rule, and the profit of the full reduction was also higher. He is also worried that the store’s sales will be affected after the promotion ends and normal prices return to normal.
Wu Nai initially thought that big promotions like 618 would eventually return to full reduction, and he was surprised that the platform insisted on the instant discount rule, because instant discounts are not as good as full reductions. But soon he had no time to take care of the impact of the instant reduction, because he was exhausted after two or three rounds of promotional activities on the platform.
“The platform’s strategy has been changing.” Wu Nai said. The earliest Tmall first wave of 618 promotion On the basis of 15% off, 88VIP coupons still need to be fully reduced, but the second wave of rules has become instant discounts, and you can use discounts without making up orders. “The platform will only tell me what the first wave of activities are, and I don’t know what the rules of the second wave of activities are and when they start.”
Another burden brought about by the change in rules is that they need to explain to consumers frequently, “Yesterday, the platform also issued us a new customer service specification, which requires us to explain to customers what refunds and which ones will be refunded, and how these discounts come from.” Wu Nai said that these frequently changing preferential rules make merchants very tired, and sometimes even he can’t figure out the calculation rules of the discounts.
Wu Nai is also running Xiaohongshu e-commerce, and this year’s Xiaohongshu’s 618 activity has made him even more confused. Xiaohongshu did not carry out regular promotions during 618 this year, but instead used a “friendly market”. According to Xiaohongshu, the friendly market is not an event, but a product form and operating standard. The friendly market was officially launched on June 1, and Xiaohongshu plans to operate for a long time.
Wu Nai couldn’t understand the meaning of this name at all, he thought it was an offline activity when he heard this name, and then he couldn’t understand Xiaohongshu’s metaphysical expressions of “friendship”, and saw that the friendly market also had 15% instant discount and full discount coupons, so he decided that this was Xiaohongshu’s 618 promotion and changed its name.
Xiaohongshu friendly market
Wu Nai did a live broadcast under the rules of the friendly market, but found that many customers did not have coupons full of 300-50 halfway through. ran to ask the platform operation, and the operation said that they have their own set of logic and standards for issuing coupons, “some people give and some people don’t give.” As for what the standard is, the operation did not give him an explanation. Wu Nai felt incomprehensible, which made them unable to unify when designing preferential prices, and they could not publicize it. As for the external link cooperation reached by Xiaohongshu with Taotian and JD.com this year, he has not yet enjoyed it.
“The activity cycle is too long.” A home furnishing category merchant told “The Mountain” that too long an activity cycle has dissipated consumers’ desire to buy. “The first few days of the 618 event were a little better, and after that, it was basically no different from the usual daily sales.” Wu Nai also expressed similar feelings, they went from the confidence of the first stage to the fatigue of the second stage, and by the third stage of the event, it was already a completely flat sales period, “There is almost no difference from when there was no activity.” ”
This year’s 618 lasted from May 13 to June 20, extending the time to 39 days, which is one week longer than last year’s longest Double 11 in history, which is enough for Trump and his close comrade-in-arms Musk to stage two complete reconciliation-breakup-reconciliation and reconciliation bloody plots. The lengthening of the event cycle has boosted the cumulative GMV of 618 this year to a new high, but at the same time, the average daily consumption amount is declining (based on the 618 data released by Star Map data in 2024 and 2025), and consumers’ perception of the big promotion continues to decline, and few people stay up all night to place orders.
Star Map Data Report
The entire chain of e-commerce seems to be in a state of exhaustion, more and more like a collective performance art on the Internet. Consumers complained that price concessions were not transparent, merchants complained about declining sales and meager profits, and even e-commerce platform staff continued to post on social platforms to express their dissatisfaction with 618 because they had to endure longer overtime.
Jiemian News said in the report that this year, 618 small and medium-sized businesses began to “lie flat collectively” because the platform tilted more and more resources to the head brands, and they could not enjoy policy dividends such as national subsidies, and the importance of big promotions was getting lower and lower.
Wu Nai is a representative of small and medium-sized businesses that have established brands, and his attitude towards the big promotion is a little helpless. This year, they have spent 40% of their GMV on platform traffic, but the effect has been minimal. The investment of the platform is also greater, “this year’s platform investment is definitely more than before, and real money has been spent a lot of money”, but he did not perceive any improvement from the sales data.
02 Disappearance and change
The only ones who became idle during 618 were probably the head anchors of various platforms. This year’s 618 Whether it is traditional e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba and JD.com, or short video e-commerce platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishou, the top anchors seem to have collectively turned on the stealth mode, and there is no live broadcast e-commerce in the official battle reports of Alibaba and JD.com.
Simba, the first brother of the Kuaishou platform, only conducted two live broadcasts this year, on May 24 and May 31, and there was no live broadcast in June, not even a news headline.
In the past, before and after the annual promotion, Simba would always put out some programs to stage a wave of the return of the king. Before 618 last year, he angrily scolded Kuaishou, claiming that he would report Kuaishou to the Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission, and before Double Eleven, he tore up Brother Xiao Yang and angrily sprayed the Guangdong couple, earning enough eyeballs back and forth, and he had never been as “safe” as this year.
Dong Yuhui, the current absolute head anchor of Douyin, basically maintained a live broadcast frequency of 2-3 times a week during the 618 period, with a live broadcast duration of no more than 6 hours per week, and more live broadcasts were completed by other anchors under the same company as Hui.
Dong Yuhui has appeared more often not in mobile phone lenses, but in participating in various official events and news. Throughout June, Dong Yuhui’s news on Douyin was the variety show “Walking to the New” in cooperation with Xinhua News Agency, and he and Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Yang experienced the customs and customs of Ningxia together. 618 A news he released on the same day was that he participated in an interview with CCTV News, “This guy is quite handsome on the TV news. ”
Taobao’s head anchor Li Jiaqi still appeared in the live broadcast conscientiously. The ONE team said that Li Jiaqi participated in a total of 13 live broadcasts from 6.1 to 6.18, but media statistics found that the duration and frequency of Li Jiaqi’s live broadcasts had decreased compared with previous years. Li Jiaqi’s bigger change this year is to launch more vertical live broadcast rooms, targeting other user groups, including middle-aged and elderly people.
In the past year or two, almost all the leading anchors have been trying to reduce their personal influence on the live broadcast room, and behind the scenes, they have begun to cultivate more anchors, build more vertical accounts, and try to move towards standardized and platform-based operations. After all, it wasn’t long before Brother Xiao Yang and Wei Ya learned from the past. During the 618 period, the “Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Live Streaming E-commerce (Draft for Comments)” issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation was officially solicited for comments, and live streaming e-commerce entered an era of more standardized governance.
Wei Ya and Qianxun Holdings still have new moves this year, and during 618, they launched a mini program called “Qianxun Super Member” to test the waters of the mini program to bring goods. Compared with live broadcasts that rely on the platform, mini programs can accumulate users in the hands of MCNs themselves, and their ability to resist risks is also stronger.
Compared with the retirement of live e-commerce in the field of public opinion, the change that 618 has attracted more attention from the market this year is the addition of instant retail. After several years of underwater growth, Meituan Flash Sale finally began to officially challenge the e-commerce platform this year, and JD.com and Alibaba have successively launched JD.com takeaway and Taobao flash sale response, in order to open up the instant retail market from the takeaway scene.
The first promotional video released by Meituan Flash Sale clearly reveals their ambitions, with the slogan “Next Generation of Shopping”, using various contrasts to emphasize the advantages of flash sales over traditional e-commerce. This year is the first 618 in which Meituan Flash Sale participated, and they released a battle report saying that more than 100 million users placed orders and the overall turnover hit a new high, but did not disclose specific transaction data. According to Star Map statistics, the overall GMV of 618 instant retail this year is 29.6 billion yuan, which is still far from the comprehensive e-commerce platform.
Alibaba and JD.com have invariably emphasized the driving role of instant retail in e-commerce. Liu Qiangdong said that 40% of JD.com’s takeaway consumers will cross-purchase JD.com’s e-commerce products, and the money they subsidize for takeaway is more cost-effective than going to Douyin and Tencent to buy traffic. The relevant person in charge of JD.com said that takeaway has driven more than 400,000 registrations of JD.com Plus members in a single month.
Liu Bo, president of Tmall, said in a late interview that Taobao flash sales have brought good growth to their user activity, and have brought great possibilities for Taobao and Tmall’s core categories to explore new business models and reach new business opportunities in the future.
Earlier, Jiang Fan, the newly appointed CEO of Alibaba’s e-commerce business group, said that their focus is on converting more Taobao users into instant retail users in the short term, and in the long run, they believe that near-field e-commerce can have many possibilities for combining with far-field e-commerce. However, since Taobao Flash Sale was only officially launched in May, 618 did not very deliberately connect Taobao Flash Sale with e-commerce business.
