Alibaba and JD.com kick off this year’s June 18 festival amid company reshuffles and stronger consumer spending

China’s major e-commerce platforms have all kicked off campaigns for the June 18 online shopping festival, the second-biggest such event in the country after Singles’ Day in November, with some firms in the middle of corporate reshuffles amid fierce competition in the sector as China’s economy recovers.

Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao & Tmall Group started its first checkout window at 8pm on Wednesday, with hefty discounts in line with previous years. Some merchants participating in Tmall’s sales campaign are offering consumers 50 yuan (US$7) discounts on each 300 yuan spent in deals that qualify. Alibaba owns the Post.

Within an hour of the commencement of sales, beauty brands such as L’Oreal, Proya, Lancome and Estee Lauder broke through the 100 million yuan barrier, according to Taobao & Tmall Group. Within 4 hours of launch, Chanel saw its sales increase by more than 70 per cent, and Dior sales rose more than 50 per cent, compared with the same period last year.

Among luxury brands, Burberry, Chole and Miumiu saw their sales exceed last year’s full first day amount in the first 30 minutes, according to Taobao & Tmall Group.

Meanwhile, over at rival player JD.com, which also kicked off its event at 8pm on Wednesday, brands such as Midea, Haier, Xiaomi, Gree and Apple, all broke the 100 million yuan sales barrier, according to the Beijing-based firm. The number of brands breaking this milestone in the first 10 minutes increased by 23 per cent year-on-year, according to a post published by JD.com on its official WeChat account.

The 10-minute turnover for some new merchants on JD exceeded their daily averages in May, and the turnover of nearly 50 per cent of small and medium-sized merchants increased by more than 200 per cent, according to the e-commerce company.