10 keywords to summarize the 618 e-commerce promotion in 2024

Why has this year's 618 e-commerce promotion changed so much compared to the past? This article uses 10 keywords to summarize this year's e-commerce promotion situation. At the same time, this article is also recommended to individuals or companies engaged in the e-commerce industry to understand this year's e-commerce situation.

June 18 has passed, but the 618 promotion on e-commerce platforms has not yet ended. Some platforms have released battle reports including growth percentages and sub-category performance:

• JD.com: As of 23:59 on June 18, 83 brands had a cumulative transaction volume of more than 1 billion, more than 150,000 small and medium-sized businesses had sales growth of more than 50%, more than 500 million users had placed orders, JD.com’s live broadcast order volume increased by more than 200% year-on-year, and the number of users and orders for the 10 billion subsidy increased by more than 150% year-on-year;
• Taobao: As of 24:00 on June 18, 365 brands had sales exceeding 100 million yuan, more than 36,000 brands doubled their sales, the number of new 88VIP members increased by 65% ​​year-on-year, and the sales of 1.9 million Taobao small and medium-sized businesses increased by more than 100% year-on-year; as of 24:00 on June 17, the sales of 10 billion subsidies increased by 550% year-on-year;
• As of June 18, the number of live broadcast orders on Xiaohongshu e-commerce reached 5.4 times that of the same period last year, the number of users purchasing in the live broadcast room reached 5.2 times that of the same period last year, the number of orders achieved through store broadcasts was 9.4 times that of the same period last year, and the number of buyers exceeding one million in a single game reached 3 times that of the same period last year;
• Kuaishou e-commerce, from May 20 to June 18, the GMV of brand merchants in the consumer electronics and home furnishing industry increased by more than 83% year-on-year, the GMV of brand distribution increased by more than 53% year-on-year, and the GMV of brand merchants on shelves increased by more than 177% year-on-year, mainly some industry segmentation data;
• On Bilibili, from May 15 to June 18, the GMV of goods sold increased by 146% year-on-year, the total order volume increased by 154% year-on-year, and the order volume of goods worth more than 1,000 yuan increased by 136% year-on-year; the number of UP hosts participating in the live streaming increased by 143% year-on-year, and the number of UP hosts receiving business orders on the Huohua platform increased by 419% year-on-year; the advertising revenue brought by the live streaming increased by 93% year-on-year, and the number of advertisers increased by 313% year-on-year.

The platform's data is one dimension, while the perception of merchants and users provides another perspective. In addition to the numerous "growths", this 618 is regarded by some merchants as the "most difficult 618", because it is difficult to boost sales, increase the return rate, and stabilize profits. The series of measures launched by the platform around low prices, while satisfying user needs, also make merchants feel that their own interests have been affected.

Changes are still happening, but how these changes affect e-commerce platforms, merchants and users is a question that cannot be answered at the moment. The power plant tried to summarize 618 in 2024 with 10 keywords, including anxiety, confusion, uncertainty, and a hint of expectation.

1. Cancellation of pre-sale

For some users, the biggest difference of 618 in 2024 is that “pre-sales are gone.”

In the e-commerce industry, pre-sale is a means of locking in goods in advance by paying a deposit, and the production and sales of goods will not start until the order appears. In the past, users paid a deposit first and then the balance, and had to go through a long wait in between, and in the end they might completely forget what they bought. Of course, pre-sale can reduce inventory risks for merchants and is conducive to the accumulation of final transactions; the platform can use the early data to stimulate the growth of overall sales and expand the scale of transactions.

But this year, Taobao and JD.com have cancelled the pre-sale process, emphasizing spot sales and simplifying the consumer process. This is a change based on user experience, although the effect may not be obvious. A user who is used to the pre-sale model was very surprised by this, which means she lost the time to make a strategy, "and can only copy other people's homework."

2. Price comparison

Low prices are like a growing whirlpool that has drawn e-commerce platforms, merchants, and consumers all in. Users want to buy cheaper goods, and e-commerce platforms want to attract users with cheaper goods. In this context, low-price competition has become particularly fierce.

Taobao, JD.com, and Pinduoduo are competing overtly and covertly to see whose products have more advantageous prices, and even directly "closely" compare prices. What users see are slogans on the page such as "cheaper than xx" and "lowest price on the entire network"; what merchants receive is background notifications that a certain product's price has lost its advantage, and frequent pop-up automatic price tracking function windows - Pinduoduo and Douyin e-commerce are both trying to automate price tracking systems. Compare or not? Reduce or not reduce? If you don't compare or reduce, there will be no traffic.

The relationship between e-commerce platforms and merchants has become tense amid the main theme of low prices - low prices can be subsidized by e-commerce platforms, but more often come from concessions made by merchants. When merchants achieve growth on e-commerce platforms at the expense of profits, it is difficult for a real winner to emerge from this war.

3. Refund only

In addition to low prices, e-commerce platforms are also continuously improving service experience. A prominent example is "refund only". This is not new. JD.com has launched a refund only service since 2014, and Pinduoduo has carried it forward as transaction amounts and order volumes grow. The difference is that when refund only becomes the standard for e-commerce platforms, it no longer involves only low-priced orders, and any merchant may be affected.

Some merchants have found that the number of refund-only applications received by the store is increasing, and the price of goods can be as high as thousands of yuan. Even orders from a month ago have encountered such situations. However, when these merchants file complaints with the platform, it is difficult to get them approved, and they can only accept the situation of "losing both money and goods". Some merchants believe that the platform is trying to guide users to choose a refund-only service - the merchant and the user are communicating about the refund, and a pop-up window appears "considerately". If the user clicks on it, the refund-only operation will be completed directly. In addition, in the view of a brand person, freight insurance is also a key factor in promoting users' impulse consumption and then returns.

To a certain extent, this has become a "major benefit" for the "freeloaders", but has also exacerbated the conflict between merchants and users.

4. Advertising

Every year’s e-commerce promotions are always accompanied by overwhelming advertising. In subway cars, next to bus stops, and on LED screens in buildings, the logos, slogans, and product introductions of various e-commerce platforms often flash, attracting a lot of attention.

Whether you watch it or not, these ads are there and will not have much impact on your life. However, when e-commerce platforms distribute ads to apps on users' phones, the moment you click the icon is the moment the splash screen ads appear. Note that you must hold your phone firmly, as shaking, twisting, turning, and swiping may change your destination - from this app to Taobao, JD.com, Douyin and other platforms participating in 618, and there will be no turning back.

After testing, the power plant found that "this app now" includes but is not limited to Bilibili, Weibo, Douban, Maimai, Zhihu, and Graphite Docs.

5. Big anchors begin to fade out

It seems that the top anchors are no longer "all in" in the live broadcast room as before. During the 618 battle, Li Jiaqi recorded "Breaking the Thorns 4" and transformed himself into a "brother" in the variety show; Simba revealed in a special live broadcast that he would reduce the frequency of live broadcasts this year and think about the direction of entrepreneurial transformation; Xiao Yangge not only devoted himself to the short drama business, but also participated in the hosting of the electronic music festival, laying out the entertainment track in addition to live broadcasting; Dong Yuhui continued to focus on cultural and tourism live broadcasts, but revealed in the program that he "really resisted selling things" and said that he "still doesn't enjoy this job today."

One merchant said that even the live broadcast rooms of top anchors are no longer as prosperous as they used to be, and a single product may not even make back the fees for the slot. This is partly due to traffic pressure, and partly due to the chain reaction of platforms competing for low prices - with all the platforms fighting, the once invincible live broadcast rooms are no longer so affordable.

6. Store Broadcast

Even so, some new changes have emerged in the live broadcast room, and the status of store broadcasts has been further upgraded.

Data released by Taobao Live shows that as of 24:00 on June 18, the number of live broadcast rooms with sales exceeding 100 million yuan increased by 53% year-on-year, with 34 live broadcast rooms of celebrities with sales exceeding 100 million yuan and 47 live broadcast rooms of stores with sales exceeding 100 million yuan. In the first four hours of 618 this year, 67 store live broadcast rooms had sales exceeding 10 million yuan, and the growth rate of store live broadcasts in many industries was impressive; this year, the number of new merchants who started live broadcasting on Taobao increased by more than 3 times compared with the first day of sales last year, driving a 7-fold increase in the number of buyers and an over 8-fold increase in the number of orders.

Xiaohongshu, which proposed the concept of buyer live streaming, is also working on store live streaming and has launched a series of targeted resource incentives. Data released by Xiaohongshu e-commerce shows that as of June 18, the number of orders achieved through store live streaming was 9.4 times that of the same period last year.

For merchants, store live broadcasting means greater autonomy. Although influencers are good, they are also middlemen. Doing it yourself will make you well-off. The combination of the two is also the "two-wheel drive" of Xiaohongshu's e-commerce live broadcasting.

7. AI

Even if merchants are not very good at live streaming, they don’t have to worry too much, as e-commerce platforms are very willing to lend a helping hand.

Taobao has launched a fully managed live streaming service for CEOs who want to represent their own companies, covering everything from stockings to live streaming room operations. JD Cloud's AI CEO digital people have entered the live streaming room. So far, JD Cloud's Yanxi digital people have served more than 5,000 brands, driving GMV of over 10 billion.

AI is also applied to the daily operations of merchants, such as answering some basic questions, generating product copy, and making explanation videos, to help save costs. Of course, if users accidentally trigger Tmall AI's bargaining function, a series of ridiculous conversations may occur. For example, actively proposing a "6.32% discount" with both zeros and whole numbers, or asking for "8.57 yuan, will you sell it?" or "I'm a little tight on money" but only asking for a 3-cent discount, the user wants to get into a hole, and the customer service on the other side is probably a little confused.

8. The last wave

As we all know, 618 no longer refers to June 18, and the final right of interpretation belongs to each e-commerce platform. This year, JD.com's 618 is from May 31 to June 18, Taobao's 618 is from May 20 to June 20, Pinduoduo's 618 is from May 19 to June 21, Douyin's 618 is from May 24 to June 18, Kuaishou's 618 is from May 20 to June 30, Xiaohongshu's 618 is from May 19 to June 18, and Bilibili's 618 is from May 15 to June 18...

618 has been extended from one day to a month or even longer, and has also spawned the first wave, the second wave, the third wave, and the "last wave" that is never the last. A user has placed dozens of orders intermittently in the past month. In her opinion, as the 618 cycle has become longer, her sense of the money she has spent has faded. "I buy when I think of it, and I really don't know how much I have spent if I don't add it up."

Some users even exclaimed on June 18th: "Is today only June 18th?" Don't doubt it. After all, when this article from the power plant was published, some e-commerce platforms had not yet come out of their 618.

9. Merchant withdrawal

Today, with e-commerce platforms frequently launching marketing activities to stimulate user consumption, merchants seem to be somewhat overwhelmed when faced with S-level promotions such as Double 11 and 618 - registration is tiring and discounts are painful.

As a result, some businesses chose to withdraw from the so-called e-commerce feast and get rid of all disputes related to it. Previously, 10 publishing houses in Beijing and 46 publishing units in Shanghai represented by the Shanghai Publishing Management Association issued a joint statement, stating that they would not participate in JD.com's "618 promotion activities unilaterally proposed" and "would not bear any rebate fees generated during the activities."

A Taobao merchant told the power plant that she turned to exploring private domain operations after Taobao deducted points for delayed responses to store customer service, "Luckily WeChat has become popular." Today, WeChat groups and Moments have become her main business areas. She accumulates traffic and decides discounts on her own. She finally doesn't have to work for the platform anymore.

10. Lower your expectations

No matter how fierce the competition is during the 618 shopping festival, or how lively the scene is, e-commerce platforms no longer publish the specific figures of the final transaction amount, but merchants can clearly observe their own business conditions. The aforementioned brand person said that Taobao e-commerce still created profits for them, which was stable but "the number of orders has decreased", and operating costs such as traffic continued to increase; but e-commerce platforms such as Douyin, which started with content, although they have sufficient order volume, can hardly be called stable and sustainable operations.

He believes that the ideal state is to achieve the distinction between different pallets and marketing strategies through matching different channels with the supply chain. Of course, pragmatic and detailed operations require patience and are also the way to go. In other words, holding on until the big waves wash away the sand and eat up the opponent's market is a relatively feasible path. However, there is a prerequisite here - you must persist until that day.

Reporter: He Chang; Editor: Gao Yulei

Source: WeChat public account "Power Plant" (ID: wonder-capsule)