Alibaba’s Business-to-Customer (B2C) e-commerce platform Tmall has kicked off its mid-year shopping festival at midnight on June 1. The so-called “6.18 Mid-Year Sales Promotion” was originally initiated by JD.com to celebrate its June 18 company anniversary, but got turned into a mid-year sales campaign that lasts for weeks on its rival e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba’s Taobao, Pinduoduo and Suning.
It’s not even June 18 yet, but the competition to win the month-long campaign has already started. Brands participating in this month-long annual campaign on Tmall doubled from last year, reaching a total of 100,000 brands. Following the kickoff, the Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in the first 10 hours was 50% higher over the same period last year. There has been a doubling of sales in categories such as cosmetics, home appliances, computer notebooks and electric cars.
“Online consumption has seen a post-pandemic revival since March, and the sales rebound that we have observed on Taobao and Tmall has been very encouraging,” said Liu Bo, vice president of Alibaba Group and general manager of Tmall and Taobao marketing and operations.
As the global pandemic stalled the world’s economy and dampened China’s consumption, the mid-year shopping festival has taken on additional importance as an indicator of China’s economy recovery, while consumption is expected to pick up on bullishness about the country’s prospects.
On the merchant side, Tmall is committed to helping brands reboot the coronavirus-hit sales through the 6.18 shopping festival.