This year’s “618” promotion has kicked off in advance, and unlike the past, this year’s event is longer and the promotion rules have changed significantly. Major e-commerce platforms have adjusted their strategies from complex full reduction activities to a more direct “one-piece instant reduction” model, while paying more attention to user experience and merchant quality. This article will delve into the changes in the “618” e-commerce platform this year, as well as the strategic significance and impact on consumers behind these changes.
This year’s “618” promotion has opened in advance, nearly a week earlier than last year, spanning more than a month, following last year’s “longest double 11 in history”, the “longest 618 in history” will also be born this year.
In addition, there have been many adjustments to the promotional gameplay of major e-commerce platforms this year. Taotian has canceled the gameplay of “20 minus over 200” and “minus 50 over 300”, and you can also get an instant discount if you buy one, and the discount can reach up to 50%.
Douyin emphasizes “instant discounts” and “one-piece direct drops”; JD.com further increased subsidies, integrating state subsidies and JD.com’s takeaway tens of billions of subsidies on the original promotional discounts, which can be said to be “making up for it”.
At first glance, e-commerce platforms still put “subsidy discounts” in the most conspicuous position, but in fact, the promotion mechanism of the platforms has gradually transitioned from “absolute low price” to “quality-price balance”.
From the longer and longer promotion time to the constantly adjusted promotion rules, there is also a signal behind it: traffic is becoming more and more scarce, and e-commerce platforms can only change their ways to grab traffic, market, and users.
01 618 rushed in advance
In recent years, in the repeated changes in the e-commerce industry, almost all of them have fired the first shot. Last year’s “618”, Taotian took the lead in announcing the cancellation of the pre-sale mechanism.
This year, in addition to continuing the gameplay of “canceling pre-sale”, Taotian has also canceled the “full discount activity” that is quite common in the big promotion, and consumers do not need to make up the order, and can get a discount by buying one piece directly.
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A Tmall insider revealed that the core of this year’s “618” is the two “most”: “the cheapest and the simplest”. In addition, Taotian has also prepared a “rule patch”: the “lowest price verification mechanism” can prevent merchants from rising first and then falling, and the “sold out and additional purchase” can remind merchants to replenish goods in time, and help merchants undertake overflow consumer demand after the platform cancels the pre-sale.
In the past year, Taotian has targeted the long-standing “pain points” of the e-commerce industry more than once. In addition to taking the lead in announcing the cancellation of “refund only” some time ago, it also rectified the phenomenon of ultra-long shipments in the clothing industry in May this year, adding 4-15 days of delivery quota management measures, which means that the pre-sale period of 15 days in the previous clothing category is expected to be significantly shortened to 3 days.
Platforms such as JD.com, Douyin, and Vipshop are not to be outdone. Douyin officially announced at the “618 Good Things Festival” investment promotion conference held on May 8 that it will continue the core gameplay such as “instant discount” and “one-piece direct drop” this year, and invest in 100 million cash subsidies and 100 billion traffic resources.
Vipshop opened the “618” pre-sale on the evening of May 12 a day in advance, and also launched the promotion rule of “one piece discount”, and the product was reduced by another 15% on the basis of the daily low price.
JD.com has opened the “double promotion linkage” model, first warming up with the “heartbeat shopping season”, and then launching a number of theme activities of “618”. In addition, JD.com has also superimposed 618 promotional discounts with state subsidies and takeaway subsidies, allowing consumers to enjoy more discounts.
On the whole, major e-commerce platforms have pursued the promotion rules of “Avenue to Simplicity” in this year’s “618”, and price concessions are still the core competitiveness, but the platforms are no longer fighting for subsidy amounts, but returning to the original intention of “Double 11” ten years ago, adopting the most direct “one discount” method. This simple and clear promotion strategy can effectively leverage consumers’ desire to shop.
In addition, the e-commerce platform has also made more detailed optimizations in terms of promotion rules and user experience. For example, Taotian’s “lowest price verification mechanism”; JD.com upgraded the “only replace and not repair” service; Vipshop will provide “free shipping, return and exchange”, etc., to improve consumers’ shopping experience from different angles.
02 The “price war” is gradually fading
Some consumers believe that compared with the “bells and whistles” promotion rules in previous years, this year’s “618” seems to be more interesting.
After all, the big promotion has become more and more common, and “618” alone covers the two promotion nodes of the May Day holiday and the 520 festival. Many consumers believe that there is no need to stock up on a large amount of goods for full discounts, and instead of “dizzying” themselves in complex rules, it is better to bypass the promotion node, after all, the price is not too far apart.
For example, last year’s “618”, the e-commerce platform is still in the white-hot stage of low-price competition, even if the platforms announced the cancellation of pre-sales, the promotion time has been extended by about 10 days compared with 2023, but the overall results are still not as good.
According to Star Map data, during the “618” period last year, the cumulative sales of integrated e-commerce platforms and live broadcast platforms were 742.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of nearly 7%, which was the first negative growth since the birth of “618”.
During last year’s “Double 11”, the cumulative sales of comprehensive e-commerce platforms and live broadcast e-commerce platforms were 1,441.8 billion yuan, an increase of 26.6% year-on-year. Although this growth rate is still quite different from the peak, it has increased a lot compared with 2022 and 2023.
In addition to being further extended because of last year’s “Double 11” promotion, but also because e-commerce platforms adjusted the “absolute low price” strategy during the “618” period, some platforms began to loosen the “refund only” and pay more attention to the simplification of user experience and shopping process.
In the past few years, it has been difficult for e-commerce platforms to replicate the “peak moment” of the early years, due to the overall economic environment downturn, but it is also an indisputable fact that consumers are tired of the big promotion.
Therefore, after “618” last year, platforms began to realize that a simple “low-price strategy” is not only difficult to meet the increasingly diverse needs of consumers, but may even bring about a negative cycle.
While transferring part of the profits to practice the “low-price strategy”, merchants inevitably need to make a certain balance in terms of product quality, logistics speed, after-sales service, etc., after all, there is no loss-making transaction under the sky, and merchants will naturally settle accounts more carefully.
But for consumers, there is no shortage of shopping options, if the goods that work hard to squat on promotional discounts and other products are far from the expected quality, consumers will easily switch to other homes, or even switch to other e-commerce platforms.
Therefore, since last year, e-commerce platforms have begun to “correct deviations”, from “low price” to “roll service”, and carry out a reshuffle and screening of merchants to achieve “supporting the good and eliminating the bad”.
When there are more dimensions of e-commerce competition and less ineffective involution, platforms can also work together to create a better e-commerce ecosystem, thereby creating greater value.
Therefore, even if it is not easy to readjust the ecosystem, it not only involves the redistribution of benefits, but may also face resistance from merchants and short-term fluctuations in the market, but no matter how difficult it is, e-commerce platforms must fight this tough battle.
03 The platform does not want to dry up and fish
After a period of “ecological governance”, this year’s “618” will be a key moment for the effectiveness of the acceptance reform of e-commerce platforms.
Major e-commerce platforms are also determined to win this promotion and have bet heavily. JD.com proposed a subsidy of 10 billion yuan early; Taobao’s live broadcast business will invest 2 billion yuan in cash to support high-quality merchants; Kuaishou has taken out 100 billion traffic and 2 billion yuan in subsidies to help merchants.
It is worth mentioning that in addition to the secret competition between platforms, “competition and cooperation” has also become the keyword during this year’s “618”, and Taotian and JD.com have chosen to introduce “foreign aid” to further tap the potential of the consumer market.
Recently, Taotian and Xiaohongshu announced further opening and integration, adding an “advertising link” function under Xiaohongshu notes, and users can directly jump from Xiaohongshu to Taobao App for shopping.
According to market sources, JD.com will also refer to this model to reach cooperation with Xiaohongshu to achieve Xiaohongshu product links to jump directly to JD.com pages. However, this news has not yet been confirmed by both parties.
However, JD.com has already reached cooperation with the well-known supermarket Fat Donglai, and the Henan supply chain industrial base jointly built by the two sides is expected to be fully put into operation in June this year. Next, whether Fat Donglai will settle in JD.com has also become the focus of attention from the outside world.
In the era of mature market and thin increments, e-commerce platforms have begun to tighten their “traffic thighs”, and their essence is to hope to win over allies, expand more traffic sources, and further stimulate the commercial scale of the e-commerce ecosystem.
It is true that major e-commerce platforms can also continue to “fight the trapped beast”, but this kind of internal friction competition will only “dry up and fish” in the end, and make the cake bigger together, so that more benefits can be distributed.
Therefore, whether it is the second cooperation between Tmall and Xiaohongshu, or JD.com’s active expansion of takeaway business, it is a new attempt by major e-commerce platforms to try to pull traffic outside the station.
In this process, competition naturally cannot disappear completely, but if more nutrients can be drawn from the new business camp, it can bring new vitality to the market at a time when the industry competition is becoming more and more fierce, and the effect will naturally be far greater than going it alone.
After all, the e-commerce industry has not seen so many innovative measures for a long time, and this year’s “618” is undoubtedly worth looking forward to.
