Double 12 "online shopping carnival" fades away

This year's Double 12 ended in a lukewarm manner. It can be seen that the volume of this big promotion festival has become smaller and smaller. Many sellers also said that this year's Double 12 big promotion volume did not meet expectations. Let's take a look at the specific situation of this year's Double 12.

This year's Double 12 promotion ended in an uneven atmosphere. On the one hand, the e-commerce platforms released still "hot" data, and the express delivery volume was higher than usual. On the other hand, merchants and consumers felt increasingly "cold".

Since Taobao launched the Double 12 event in 2012, this e-commerce shopping festival has been around for 12 years. It used to be at the top of the list and achieved astonishing sales, but now its popularity is getting smaller and smaller. After the end of Double 11 this year, Alibaba announced that it would change the 2023 Double 12 to the "Year-End Good Price Festival" and gave up the name of Double 12.

Consumers and merchants are also paying less attention to Double 12. "I didn't pay attention to Double 12 this year until the day of the 12th," said consumer Wang Yao (pseudonym). Seller Xiaohui said that this year's Double 12 sales did not meet expectations.

1. “Hidden” transaction volume

This year’s Double 12, Taobao set the year-end Good Price Festival as the theme of the big promotion for the first time, upgrading it from a branch venue to the main venue.

On December 13, Taobao's year-end Good Price Festival officially came to an end. Taobao announced that the number of orders for "Good Price Festival Official Instant Discount" products exceeded 65 million, and the number of orders in third-tier and lower-tier markets increased significantly. In addition, compared with 618 and Double 11, the number of products participating in this Taobao Good Price Festival increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, setting a record high.

From December 1 to 12, Douyin Mall launched the "Double 12 Good Products Festival", and the platform launched a cross-store discount of 20 yuan for every 150 yuan spent, and provided consumers with coupons of various denominations for superposition. According to the data on hot-selling winter products released by Douyin e-commerce, during the 12-day "Double 12 Good Products Festival", the sales of warm winter products such as constant temperature kettles, simulated flame heaters and tea bar machines increased by 257%, 160% and 116% respectively.

Although relevant data were disclosed, the two platforms did not announce the key data of transaction volume.

In addition, e-commerce platforms such as JD.com and Pinduoduo have also launched Double 12 promotional activities, but none of them disclosed relevant activity data.

2. Sellers say sales did not meet expectations

Although the popularity and sales brought by Double 12 have never been as good as Double 11, it was also an important e-commerce shopping festival. But now, in the eyes of some merchants and sellers, the stimulating effect of Double 12 is far less than before.

Xinxin (pseudonym), a blogger who sells clothing and luggage on Taobao and Douyin, told the IT Times that although sales during the promotion period will be higher than the daily level, the situation is not optimistic compared with last year. "This year's consumption weakness is more obvious, there is no big bonus, and the discount is limited." Xinxin said.

Xiaohui (pseudonym), a seller who runs a beauty and skincare store on JD.com, feels the same way about the limitations of discounts. This year, JD.com's promotional measures for Double 12 are mainly cross-store discounts, that is, 30 yuan off for every 200 yuan spent. In addition to cross-store discounts, the platform also launched special discounts for large home appliances such as TVs, refrigerators, and washing machines, such as 24 interest-free installments for large-screen TVs and 10% off for old-for-new exchanges.

According to Xiaohui, her store started a big promotion on December 7, and after the promotion ended, she lamented that "consumers' purchasing power is not strong." In her opinion, in addition to the diversion of e-commerce platforms and the impact of the overall economic environment, it is more about the strength of the big promotion. "Double 12's promotion is not as strong as Double 11."

In terms of sales volume and sales volume, Xiaohui said that it did not meet expectations.

3. “Express delivery is one quarter more than usual”

At 8:30 p.m. on December 13, citizens waiting to pick up their parcels lined up in front of the express delivery station on Huajiang Branch Road. Inside the station, staff member Ling Hong (pseudonym) and his father and uncle were busy. Some parcels had no place to stay in the station and were neatly placed outside the door.

This is the fourth month that Ling Hong has been in the express delivery business, so he is considered a newcomer in this industry. "I can clearly feel that the number of parcels has increased in the past two days." He showed the business system in his hand to the reporter of IT Times. The page showed that 1,640 parcels were received today and 1,364 parcels were shipped out. "Usually, our parcel volume is about 1,300 parcels, and there are more than 300 parcels in the past two days." Ling Hong told reporters.

Comparing the promotion time of e-commerce platforms, Taobao launched the Taobao Year-end Good Price Festival at 8 pm on December 9, JD.com's Double 12 promotion lasted from December 8 to December 12, Douyin Mall's Double 12 Good Goods Festival lasted from December 1 to 12, and Kuaishou's e-commerce promotion lasted from December 7 to 12. Overall, the official activity cycle lasts for one week.

"We have seen an increase in parcel volume since the 12th," said Ling Hong, adding that the parcels delivered to the post station mainly come from ZTO, Jitu, Yunda and Yuantong. During the Double 11 period, the post station received more than 2,000 parcels per day. Regarding the current Double 12 situation, he said, "It's far from being a one-night stand. We're just busy these few days."

For Zhang Hao (pseudonym), who specializes in delivering STO Express, the discounts during the shopping festival are not what he cares about. At present, he can directly feel that the number of parcels delivered is more than 60 parcels more than usual. "At 1.3 yuan per parcel, I earn about 80 yuan more than usual," Zhang Hao told the IT Times reporter.

The increase in express delivery volume during this period is one of the few evidences that Double 12 is still hot, but it cannot conceal the overall embarrassing situation, nor can it change the trend that Double 12 is getting worse year by year.

Author: Sun Yonghui; Editors: Qian Lifu, Sun Yan

WeChat public account: IT Times (ID: vittimes), which publishes newspapers and also understands the Internet.