E-commerce Double 11 competition: an overview of the four core changes in 2023

The annual Double 11 Shopping Festival is coming, and major platforms are gearing up for the event. In this context, what are the eye-catching changes in the strategies of major e-commerce platforms during Double 11 this year? This article summarizes the four core changes, and you can take a look if you are interested!

With the arrival of the annual Double 11 Shopping Festival, promotional activities on major platforms have been launched one after another. In this most important promotional event of the year, major e-commerce platforms are also gearing up to join the battle.

Data related to the Q2 fast-moving consumer goods market released by CCTV Market Research showed that e-commerce as a whole developed steadily in the first half of 2023. Among the mainstream e-commerce platforms, the penetration rate of Taobao Group and JD.com declined compared with the same period last year, while interest-based e-commerce maintained rapid development.

@CCTV Market Research Kantar Worldpanel

As for this year's other major promotional event, the 618 Shopping Festival, "the significance of a low-price festival is gradually being diluted as live streaming becomes a daily routine". In 2023, when consumers are more rational, ordinary discounts are no longer enough to expand their purchasing demand. Against this background, what are the eye-catching changes in the strategies of major e-commerce platforms during Double 11 this year? TOP has summarized four core changes, hoping to find the answer to e-commerce's breakthrough.

1. “Price power” becomes the killer weapon

This year's Double 11, e-commerce platforms only do three things: low prices, low prices, and low prices .

In 2023, the phenomenon of "consumption downgrade" is no longer unfamiliar to brands, consumers and platforms. In this context, e-commerce companies no longer conceal their low-price strategy.

It is understood that Tmall and Taobao, as the main venue of Double 11, launched two major types of goods this year to achieve purchasing power through price power.

1. Products that are the most affordable on the Internet

The price of such products must be the lowest in the entire network compared to other e-commerce platforms within a specific period of time;

2. It is an "official discount" product

The official discount this time is as high as 15%, and there is no need to cross-store order. In addition, the platform also launched the "Everyday Low Price" gameplay throughout the entire Double 11 cycle, which is also one of the major actions of Double 11 in recent years.

In terms of pricing rules, Tmall stipulates that for price verification, "Double 11 product promotion price ≤ the lowest marked price during the verification period, Double 11 product promotion price after coupon ≤ 10% of the lowest price after coupon during the verification period." It also provides users with sufficient protection in price violation control and price guarantee services, solving pain points such as no discounts for "price increase followed by price decrease" and difficulty in calculating "cross-store discounts" .

Tmall Double 11 Merchants Recruitment Rules & Price Rules

JD.com also used a straightforward low-price strategy. On the evening of the 23rd, JD.com launched the "Real Cheap Live Broadcast Night", providing users with a "blind-eyes-buy" shopping experience with real low prices. Users can enter the live broadcast room by searching "cabbage price" on the JD.com app.

JD.com’s “Real Cheap Live Night”

This year, JD.com has launched the 10 billion subsidy and 9.9 free shipping channels, and the "Super Flash Sale Day" has also started with the opening of JD.com's 11.11 event. According to data released by JD.com, during JD.com's 11.11 this year, the number of 10 billion subsidy products reached twice that of 618, and the transaction volume exceeded 100 million within five minutes of the start of sales. In terms of price guarantee, JD.com upgraded during the 11.11 period, that is, consumers who purchased products covered by the price guarantee service from 8 pm on October 23 to 24:00 on November 13 can enjoy a price guarantee of 30 days or more.

In addition to these two e-commerce giants, platforms such as Kuaishou, which opened pre-sales on October 18, and Douyin and Pinduoduo, which opened the Double 11 event on October 20, have joined the battle under the slogan of "low prices". For example, Pinduoduo's official subsidy of "instant discount for single items" also ensures convenient shopping for users. Although the promotion details of major platforms are different, "price power" has become the keyword of this year's Double 11. Low prices are not only the consumption needs of consumers, but also the killer of platform traffic and the embodiment of a sound supply chain .

2. Role swap between e-commerce and content

The "role swap" between e-commerce platforms and content platforms is actually just a metaphor made by TOP, but on this year's Double 11, the contentization of e-commerce platforms and the e-commerceization of content platforms are real.

The Double 11 event has been going on for 15 years, and the promotional strategies of e-commerce have been constantly adjusted with the development of other fields. For example, live streaming, which has been extremely popular in recent years, is a good example. In addition to official subsidies to support merchants and large discounts to seize consumers' minds,

This year, e-commerce platforms also use content as a starting point to achieve a balance between e-commerce and content through entertaining and popular expressions on the consumer side.

Taobao anchor Li Jiaqi has launched "All Girls' Offers" for three consecutive years. This year, Taobao Live has learned the essence of it and invited celebrities and brand owners to bargain and battle to increase users' consumption desire. This is just one step of Taobao Live's one-month "AB double-sided carnival": the A side is the shopping carnival dominated by preferential activities and live broadcast rooms, and the B side is the content experience dominated by micro variety shows, celebrity concerts, and Deyun Club specials.

Taobao Live "National Offer Battle"

JD.com’s “8 p.m. concert” during every big sale is also a good example. The “Really Cheap Live Broadcast Room” mentioned in the previous article also uses the method of celebrity live broadcast + user interaction to give users a more intuitive understanding of the platform’s discounts.

The contentization of e-commerce platforms is to promote the Double 11 event on a large scale through multiple programs. The two-pronged strategy can be said to be the "icing on the cake", and e-commerce is a brave attempt for content platforms. Under their commercialization strategies, content platforms are gradually transforming into e-commerce platforms, and based on the platform's own content ecology and user ecology, they have derived a marketing system different from conventional e-commerce.

In August this year, Xiaohongshu COO Conan said at the link e-commerce partner week "The Buyer Era Has Arrived" theme talk that "Individuals are the most dynamic e-commerce force of Xiaohongshu". The introduction of the concept of "buyer e-commerce" means the uniqueness of its commercial transformation. From Dong Jie to Zhang Xiaohui, the buyer's live broadcast has become a new trend in the live broadcast track.

Xiaohongshu is also determined to make a big splash during Double 11. It launched the "Double 11 Learning Season" in early September to help major brands in the industry achieve efficient growth by planting seeds in the minds of consumers over the long term. During Double 11, it also promoted business conversion through the live broadcast rooms of celebrity buyers such as Dong Jie, Yi Nengjing, and Zhang Xiaohui, and selected live broadcast rooms of celebrity buyers and brands.

Xiaohongshu Double 11 Learning Season

From the perspective of platform ecology, Xiaohongshu's content ecology and user ecology are more suitable for mind planting before shopping festivals. This year's Double 11 is also working hard to achieve a closed loop of platform store opening, planting, and live broadcasting. However, in terms of platform service mechanisms such as price guarantee, logistics, and return and exchange, there is still a large gap between Xiaohongshu and mainstream e-commerce platforms . At the same time, there are also views that Xiaohongshu's live broadcasting has certain limitations, and for content platforms, commercialization still has a long way to go.

3. Product expansion and service upgrade

The low-prices mentioned in the previous article that compete for consumers are actually testing the platform's supply capabilities. Therefore, this year's Double 11 platform improvements are also reflected in product category expansion and service optimization.

The expansion of product categories not only provides consumers with more choices, but also optimizes the platform's supply structure and supports merchants.

Taotian Group paid more attention to consumers' quality of life in expanding its product pool during Double 11, selling more than 500 rare and top-notch products at original prices, and launching 2 million new trend products for new lifestyles. JD.com also launched more than 500 million new products to expand the product richness, and met new demands with 1,500 new trend categories. In addition, Xiaohongshu's "Double 11 Grass Planting Learning Season" also went deep into 9 major industries + new brand key product tracks, created 36 sub-venues, and provided merchants with a comprehensive grass planting strategy.

When it comes to service optimization, e-commerce companies compete mainly on availability of stock and logistics speed.

In terms of instant retail, Tmall Supermarket’s half-day delivery service has been online for about half a year, and JD.com’s hourly delivery service has also reaped great rewards during JD.com’s anniversary celebration. This year on Double 11, Douyin also changed the hourly delivery service to the mall homepage.

Tik Tok reaches independent position within 1 hour

The logistics and spot goods of Double 11 also competed in speed. This year's Double 11, JD.com launched a high-profile call to become a "spot goods person", directly hitting the "pre-sale" pain point of users and creating differentiation during the event period; JD.com also accelerated the speed in logistics, launching e-commerce warehouse services during the shopping festival to ensure consumer experience and improve the logistics fulfillment efficiency of merchants. After the event started at 8 pm, consumers in many places received the goods, realizing immediate delivery after purchase.

JD.com “spot person”

The appeal price is the stepping stone that the platform hands over to consumers, and the platform's supply chain ecology is the real test of large-scale shopping festivals. From this level, mainstream e-commerce still has advantages that are difficult to surpass.

4. Deepening cross-platform cooperation

Under the global concept, e-commerce platforms refuse to fight alone, and the cross-platform cooperation content of this year's Double 11 has also increased significantly.

Information released by Tmall shows that on the eve of Tmall Double 11, Alimama has deepened cooperation with platforms such as WeChat, Bilibili, Zhihu, and Weibo. Brand merchants can directly jump to the Taobao App when placing advertisements in WeChat Moments, mini programs, video accounts, and other venues;

At the same time, Alimama launched a joint incentive for Double 11 with platforms such as Bilibili, Zhihu, and Weibo. When merchants do marketing promotions on these platforms, they will receive an official traffic bonus ranging from 10% to 20%.

This in-depth cross-platform cooperation will not only help increase the traffic and user scale of Tmall merchants, but also provide a larger product selection pool for the commercialization of Bilibili, and help Bilibili expand its e-commerce territory.

V. Conclusion

On the surface, Double 11 is a centralized battlefield for price wars among major e-commerce platforms, but in fact it is a competition of the integrity of the platform ecosystem. Whether it is price, service or marketing, they are all means for e-commerce platforms to compete for consumers.

For the platform, Double 11 serves merchants and consumers. When consumers' consumption needs and concepts change, the platform also changes accordingly. Only by adopting appropriate strategies in different environments can we maximize the improvement of merchants' product performance and demonstrate the systematic strength of the platform. The effectiveness of the strategies adopted by the platforms this time will be revealed after the end of Double 11.

Author: Top Jun WeChat public account: TopMarketing