“618 Mid-year Shopping Festival” from Taobao and Tmall Empowers Brands to Go Deeper in China
Event targets less-developed areas of China with 1.5 million new
products and special promotions
HANGZHOU, China–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) has kicked off this year’s “618 Mid-year
Shopping Festival” from Taobao and Tmall, empowering brands and
merchants to tap into China’s less-developed regions with 1.5 million
new products and multiple promotional initiatives.
This year’s festival aims to engage customers in emerging cities,
counties and villages across China. To do so, Taobao and Tmall are
boosting promotional resources to elevate excitement and help brands
reach this rapidly growing market. Altogether, over 200,000 brands and
retailers will participate in the shopping event.
“618 Mid-year Shopping Festival” from Taobao and Tmall officially
started on June 1 and will last until June 18. Within the first hour,
from midnight to 1:00 a.m., gross merchandise volume (GMV) exceeded that
of the first 10 hours last year. And at 11:23 a.m., less than 12 hours
after the start, total GMV surpassed last year’s full-day figure.
Branded products are so far proving extremely popular. Top brands like
Apple, Xiaomi, Haier, Aux, Midea, L ‘Oreal, Lancome, Nike and Adidas
each notched over RMB100 million in sales in the first hour. Among them,
Apple sold over RMB100 million worth of products in two minutes and 45
seconds, while Midea and Nike both hit that mark in four minutes.
Capturing the Potential in Less-developed Regions in China
“In addition to rising discretionary spending, consumers in China’s
less-developed regions are becoming more-sophisticated shoppers who are
looking for lifestyle upgrades. This increased consumption potential
could mean bright prospects for our merchants. People in these areas
might have less access to physical shopping facilities than those in big
cities, and this year we are working closely with our partners to
address their needs and offer them the same good quality products on our
platforms with innovative and fun programs,” said President of Taobao
and Tmall Jiang Fan.
The number of people living in smaller cities and rural areas accounts
for nearly 70% of China’s total population, according to Chinese
market-research firm Analysys. These consumers are catching up with
first- and second-tier markets in valuing quality over price. Tmall’s
figures also show that over half of the sales generated on its Luxury
Pavilion comes from customers outside China’s first- and second-tier
cities.
In view of this trend, Taobao and Tmall are leveraging Alibaba Group’s
ecosystem and technology and an array of innovative marketing channels
and tools to build momentum from early June, leading up to the 618
Mid-year Shopping Festival. Key initiatives to offer opportunities in
fast-growing markets and enhance customer engagement include:
Tmall product debuts. About 1.5 million products will debut on
Tmall during the festival with customers enjoying heavyweight
promotional offers on these items. Many were developed by brands on an
accelerated cycle, thanks to consumer insights provided by Tmall. In
addition to deals on the 1.5 million new products, brands are offering
millions of other products at a discount. All products are available to
consumers nationwide, but brands are paying special attention to the
needs and desires of customers in lower-tier Chinese cities.
Flash Sales. Alibaba’s flash sales channel, Juhuasuan, allows
brands to offer deep discounts to reach new customers in fast-growing
markets. Juhuasuan will organize dozens of 618-themed group-selling
campaigns featuring must-buy items recommended by brands. Statistics
show that Juhuasuan is a tried-and-true channel for brands to attract
first-time buyers. Since 2018, 80% of the transactions for branded goods
through Juhuasuan were from new customers, and nearly half were from
lower-tier cities.
Taobao Livestreaming. Few marketing tools have proved more
effective than livestreaming for brands to introduce and recommend 618
products to potential consumers in less-developed regions. In 2018,
sales generated by Taobao Livestreaming exceeded RMB100 billion. This
year, U.S. brands, including Stadium Goods, the streetwear and sneaker
resale store backed by LVMH Luxury Ventures, Korean beauty brands, like
Laneige and Innisfree and Japanese cosmetics brands Shiseido will host
livestreams for 618.
Daily Deals. This channel on the Taobao app provides special
offerings directly from manufacturers and is highly popular among
consumers from less-developed areas in China. Equipped with insights
from consumer preferences and behaviors, manufacturers are able to
adjust their production processes on a real time basis to meet the
consumers demands. These manufacturers will introduce 100,000
promotional items for the 618 celebration.
With an extensive reach of 654 million annual active consumers in China,
strong technical support and in-depth market knowledge, Alibaba’s
ecosystem offers strong growth potential for brands. Its platforms also
allow easy access to high-quality products for consumers in
less-developed cities around China.
Alibaba Group’s 2019 annual results reflect that growth potential, with
more than 70% of the over 100 million new active users added during the
year ended March 31, 2019 coming from less-developed cities.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business anywhere and
the company aims to achieve sustainable growth for 102 years. For the
fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, the company reported revenue of US$56
billion.
Contacts
Claire Zhao
Alibaba Group
+852 97278923
yanan.z@alibaba-inc.com
Xiaoyi Shao
Alibaba Group
+86 18658170996
shaoxiaoyi.sxy@alibaba-inc.com