In recent years, as November 11th approaches, major e-commerce platforms have been preheating through various marketing methods, from pre-sales, promotions to flash sales. Various promotional activities and innovative gameplay not only bring shopping fun to consumers, but also huge sales opportunities for merchants.
According to a reporter from Securities Daily, JD "11.11" officially opened at 8pm on October 23, bringing over 500 million new products to consumers. It is reported that the number of merchants participating in JD's "11.11" event broke a record again this year, an increase of over 1.5 times compared to the same period last year. Among them, the number of products participating in JD's "10 billion subsidy" has doubled compared to this year's 618, and the number of low-priced products on the "9.9 free shipping" and "flash killing" channels has also significantly expanded.
In addition, this year's "Double 11" is the first "Double 11" since the establishment of Taotian Group, which will officially open at 8pm on October 24th. It is expected that 1 billion consumers will participate, and over 80 million best-selling products will achieve the lowest prices for the year. The highly anticipated "Cat Night" will also return.
Hong Yong, an associate researcher at the E-commerce Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, told Securities Daily: "E-commerce platforms are becoming more open and inclusive, providing broader development opportunities for more businesses and brands. It can be seen that consumers will increasingly focus on quality, service, experience, and other aspects, which requires e-commerce platforms to constantly adapt and innovate. Consumption upgrading is a long-term trend
Technology driven 'change generates new'
This year, Taotian Group made its first public appearance and established three major "transformation and innovation" strategies: user first, ecological prosperity, and technology driven. It can be foreseen that this year's "Double 11" will be a concentrated reflection of the group's three major strategies.
According to a reporter from Securities Daily, this year's Tmall "Double 11" will be the first large-scale application of e-commerce AI. The native AI application "Taobao Ask" for the big model has had over 5 million user experiences since the internal testing was launched in September this year. Among them, the highly active population has asked more than 8 questions per day, and a single user can ask up to 4000 questions per day. Based on a fully capable base of a large model, AI capabilities will be fully integrated into the product functions, service design, architecture deployment, and business operation of the mobile app, better meeting the long tail needs of consumers, "said the head of search business at Taotian Group.
In the future, the scale of online consumption will further expand, and there is still great room for growth in the domestic large market. There is still huge room for upgrading domestic production and manufacturing capabilities, and consumer demand is always large enough. This determines that the Chinese market remains strong and has stronger certainty of growth potential. "Dai Shan, CEO of Taotian Group, said that Taobao Tmall will firmly deepen and penetrate the Chinese market, working together with brand merchants, Provide consumers with better product value and consumption experience.
On the evening of October 23rd at 8pm, JD officially launched its "11.11" program. Compared to the pre-sale activity rules introduced in the past, the biggest change of JD's "11.11" this year is the direct spot sale at 8pm on the same day. JD stated that this event will undergo a comprehensive upgrade in terms of goods, prices, and services.
As the technological cornerstone of JD Group, JD Cloud not only guarantees the user shopping experience throughout the entire chain during this year's "11.11", but also supports merchants to reduce costs and improve efficiency, promoting comprehensive improvement of industrial efficiency. At present, the JD Cloud Yanxi big model has fully integrated into AI products such as Jingxiaozhi, virtual anchors, and intelligent outbound calls, to support brand merchants' operations and improve efficiency with technology.
In addition, content platforms such as Xiaohongshu and Bilibili are actively preparing in their respective ways. Station B has changed the "Member Purchase" entrance to the "Double 11" entrance and supports direct transfer to Tmall. Xiaohongshu has held an e-commerce partner mobilization meeting and will invest billions of traffic support and billion level traffic subsidies during the "2023 Xiaohongshu Double Eleven E-commerce Partner Mobilization Meeting", launch matchmaking plans and support policies to support the growth of buyers and merchants. Taobao Alliance has set foot in the WeChat advertising channel for the first time and deepened cooperation with platforms such as Bilibili and Zhihu.
See also the "big competition" of low prices
At the JD "11.11" press conference, JD Retail CEO Xin Lijun repeatedly mentioned the word "low price". He said, "Low price is a gene engraved in JD's bones." According to reporters, since the beginning of this year, JD has focused on the continuous efforts of low price strategy, and has launched channels such as "billions of subsidies" and "9.9 free shipping", and launched multiple measures such as double compensation for buying expensive goods and lowering the threshold for self operated free shipping.
At the same time, Tmall's "Double 11" has also set "the lowest price on the entire network" as its core strategy.
According to Tmall staff, this year's Tmall "Double 11" will be the event with the most participation from new brands, new merchants, and small and medium-sized businesses. For this reason, Tmall has not only relaxed the restrictions on the number of registered products for new brands and small and medium-sized businesses for the first time, but also increased the subsidy incentives for real gold and silver. New brands can enjoy measures such as category expansion, hosting services, freight insurance subsidies, and financial equity support, reducing financial and stocking pressure.
On October 23rd, Taobao once again increased its "10 billion yuan subsidy" and launched the "Double 11" crazy subsidy special session. For the first time, it launched an official discount on a large scale, with one item being discounted. It is expected that more than 80 million best-selling products will fall to the lowest price of the year. At the same time, all products participating in Taobao's "10 billion yuan subsidy" support consumers to compare prices online, and they will pay for their expensive purchases.
The relevant person in charge of Taotian Group stated that this year's "Double 11" on Tmall, the group will issue 88VIP vouchers worth a total of 20 billion yuan to provide subsidies to consumers. At the same time, policy support will also be given to brands and businesses that can provide good prices and goods, and priority will be given to displaying bottom priced products across the entire network.
Xin Lijun stated at the press conference that JD's low prices are squeezing water from the supply chain and are achieved through economies of scale and technology driven continuous innovation in the supply chain. JD's low prices not only help consumers lower product prices, but also enable manufacturers to make money
Li Chengdong, an e-commerce strategy analyst and founder of Dolphin Think Tank, told Securities Daily: "This year may be the most challenging year for e-commerce platforms. Merchants are no longer pursuing sales, but are starting to operate their businesses more rationally
In Hong Yong's view, the current consumer market is showing characteristics such as fragmentation and personalization, and the country is also increasing its support for small and medium-sized enterprises. The release of favorable e-commerce platforms and the creation of a diverse and prosperous entrepreneurial environment will be conducive to promoting a new round of innovation and entrepreneurship among small and medium-sized merchants.