China’s 618 shopping festival loses its shine, as Alibaba and JD.com avoid sales figures for more flattering data

E-commerce firms avoided discussing gross merchandise value numbers, once a key indicator of success, after China’s second-largest shopping festival concluded
Alibaba said it had a record number of merchants selling on Taobao and Tmall, while JD.com said business growth was better than expected

E-commerce

Tracy Quin Shanghai

Published: 6:30pm, 19 Jun 2023

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China’s e-commerce firms experienced a relatively quiet 618 shopping festival, as the absence of total gross merchandise value (GMV) numbers signalled that weak consumer spending in the world’s second-largest economy might be taking a toll on the country’s tech giants.

Alibaba Group Holding’s Taobao & Tmall Business Group said a record number of merchants on its namesake platforms participated in the midyear shopping festival.

Just after midnight on June 18, the day for which the festival that now spans two weeks is named, 305 brands racked up sales of more than 100 million yuan (US$14 million) on Alibaba’s premier shopping sites. The combined GMV of 2.56 million small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) topped last year’s festival, according to Alibaba, owner of the South China Morning Post.

Beijing-based JD.com, which started the 618 shopping festival, said its business growth for the event this year was better than expected, with total transaction volume reaching a new high. The number of products available in a company programme doling out 10 billion yuan in subsidies increased tenfold compared with March, the company said in a statement.

New products listed on JD.com contribute more than 30 per cent of total sales, and 95 per cent of districts in China are eligible for next-day delivery, according to the company.

Conspicuously missing from the announcements were the actual GMV figures, which companies have used in the past to trumpet their success at moving product during major shopping festivals.

Alibaba shares fell 2 per cent in Hong Kong on Monday, while JD.com’s shares dropped 1.9 per cent.

The 618 event is China’s second-largest shopping festival, after Singles’ Day in November. It now runs from late May until mid-June, with this year’s festival being closely followed by market analysts for signs of rebounding consumer spending in China since Beijing started relaxing pandemic controls.

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National retail sales grew 12.7 per cent in May year on year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, slowing from the 18.4 per cent gain in April.

Younger industry players – including the budget shopping platform Pinduoduo and short video apps such as Kuaishou and ByteDance’s Douyin – also participate in the shopping event. Kuaishou said its GMV for home appliances, household items and consumer electronics jumped 59 per cent compared with last year.

“It’s clear that consumers are cautious but increasingly willing to dip into the record savings they accumulated during the pandemic, even though the recovery hasn’t been as fast as some expected,” said Jacob Cooke, co-founder and CEO of the digital marketing agency WPIC Marketing + Technologies.

“We’ve seen positive growth in several discretionary categories,” he added. “Luxury consumption has come back strong, which bodes well for premium brands. But we’re also seeing strong growth in high-volume discretionary product categories like nutraceuticals, beauty, and personal care. Beauty in particular is having a resurgence this 618.”

Shan Wenran, a Taobao user living in Zhejiang province said she bought some clothes on this year’s June 18 shopping festival. “The order I made is around 500 to 600 yuan,” she said, “I didn’t spend much time on it, just browsing and wasn’t looking for anything particular.”

Taobao & Tmall said the daily average number of people watching short videos on the third-party seller marketplace Taobao surged 113 per cent over last year’s 618 festival. The number of influencers active on the platform climbed 200 per cent year on year, and the number of Taobao merchants who posted short videos for the period jumped 55 per cent, the company said.

Consumers also doubled the amount of time they spent watching videos on the platform, according to the company, and the time spent watching live broadcasts increased two- to threefold.

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