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Launched by JD.com 11 years ago to commemorate the company’s launch, 618 shopping festival became one of the biggest shopping festivals around the world and one of the most important trendsetters in the ecommerce industry. It has become a common practice for marketers around China to look at the numbers behind the event and identify trends to be aware of.
Trends revealed by this year’s 618
1. Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP)
It is a known fact that innovative technology, customized search and AI used by ecommerce platforms have been both driving efficiency for merchants and elevating the shopping experience for consumers. This trend does not show the signs of slowing down. E-commerce platforms, such as JD are becoming key destinations for consumers to use the DCEP.
Since December last year’s DCEP red packet trial, 450,000 consumers used DCEP 1.04 million times on the JD app, generating a volume of over RMB 100 million yuan.
2. Rising popularity of virtual influencers
Driven by Gen Z, virtual icons that used to be seen as niche cultures have become popular culture and created a huge market. Their popularity is surpassing that of the real life KOLs.
Virtual KOLs like Aimee, Ling, LuoTianYi, Noonoouri and Mr. Ou and many others have been starts of campaigns launched by planetary famous brands, invited to visit events and exhibitions, being photographed next to the real life celebrities and hosted live streams.
It seems that there is not much they cannot do, which pared with the fact that they can be controlled to look and behave in a certain way and can work endless hours without being paid explains why they are becoming the next huge trend.
China’s virtual KOL industry is expected to grow to 1.5 billion RMB ($232 million) by 2023.
3. Local D2C brands
Chinese youth, more than ever proud of their home country, is embracing Made-in-China brands. These direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands greatly rely on the existing social media and ecommerce platforms like WeChat, KuaiShou, DouYin, Tmall, XiaoHongShu to advertise and sell products.
They tend to be extremely versed in local social commerce (online overlap of shopping and community), well aware of preferences of their target markets and ready to embrace niche social media platforms. They understand the differences between regions in China, nurture agility and they are technically savvy.
It has been forecasted that social commerce selling will generate RMB 2.427 trillion ($351.65 billion) in China this year.
4. Emerging purchase power of lower-tier cities
Consumption in China’s lower-tier regions, including third, fourth, and fifth-tier cities, is quickly catching up with that in Beijing and Shanghai. Taobao (the biggest C2C e-commerce platform in China) gross merchandise volume from third- to fifth-tier cities grew by 100% year-on-year during the period.
JD Lite, the simplified app for lower-tier markets, saw sales increase 25 times and number of users increase 15 times.
According to Chenkai Ling, vice president of JD.com and head of strategy of JD Retail: “The rising middle class of China are becoming more and more sophisticated users. They are looking for high-quality, as well as diversified products.”
These consumers are also showing greater interest in luxury brands and shopping experiences. According to Tmall (the biggest B2C e-commerce platform in China), half of the newly launched products on the platform during the event were purchased by customers outside first- and second-tier cities.
5. Rising interest in ancient Chinese culture, GuoChao (国潮) The rise of GuoChao (国潮) is one of the major influences shaping Chinese consumer culture today, and it’s a phenomenon that shows no signs of slowing down in the near future. It refers to the rise of hip, homegrown Chinese brands that are challenging international brands, especially in fashion industry, while at the same time changing the negative connotations associated with “Made in China”. The most obvious GuoChao trends is the explicit use of Chinese cultural symbols and reinvented interest in Chinese history and traditional crafts. It is particularly popular with the China’s Z generation.
Sources: 南华早报, 虎嗅，JDcorporateblog, eMarketer, China Global Television Network, PRnewswire, TechNode, 道Dao, DaXue, imgmodels
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