A Challenging Year for the 618 Shopping Festival
This year’s 618 shopping festival has been one for the books. It kicked off with Vipshop starting their promotions early on May 17, followed by Pinduoduo and Tmall on May 20. Soon, JD.com, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu (RED) joined the party. This year’s event was the longest in history and marked by a big shift: e-commerce platforms ditched the decade-old pre-sale mechanism in favor of “spot goods sales.”
For brands aiming to shine during this year’s 618 festival, it’s crucial to align with these new strategies and meet the evolving tastes of consumers. Simply put, users want to see fresh faces, score more deals during livestreams, and enjoy the latest trend of microdramas featuring products. Platforms are heavily using AI to improve the user experience, though how effective it will be is still up in the air.
Star Anchor: The Real Star
Livestreaming e-commerce has hit its second phase, with both users and streams becoming more rational. Previously top anchors like Viya have stopped livestreaming, and Luo Yonghao is semi-retired, leaving Li Jiaqi and Simba as the main players. Even before this year’s 618, the topic #Li Jiaqi said that this year’s 618 promotion is difficult# was trending on Weibo, amassing 270 million views. Feeling the pressure, Li Jiaqi even appeared on “Call Me by Fire” (a Mango TV reality show featuring middle-aged male celebrities), saying, “I need to make money to give red envelopes to the fans!”
Although the livestreaming scene has stabilized, change is a constant theme. Data from May shows that Jia Nailiang topped Douyin’s sales chart with 707 million RMB (about 97.4 million USD) in sales. Dong Yuhui’s “Walk with Hui” ranked second with 533 million RMB (about 73.43 million USD) in sales, and ‘Crazy Little Brother Yang’ made a comeback, ranking ninth with 235 million RMB (about 32.38 million USD) in sales. Jia Nailiang, a celebrity, surprisingly outperformed many seasoned anchors to claim the top spot.
On May 21, Jia Nailiang hosted an “International Big Brand Beauty Carnival” livestream, using the spot goods sale method to kick off the 618 promotion. In just three hours, his livestream achieved a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of over 100 million RMB (about 13.78 million USD). He led the Douyin sales chart with total sales of 353 million RMB (about 48.63 million USD) during the 618 period, 1.53 million orders, 59.77 million views, and a peak of 480k concurrent viewers.
Jia Nailiang’s rise as Douyin’s leading livestreamer is a key trend this year, highlighting that the once-dominant livestream rooms are slowing down. There’s speculation that Douyin may have provided significant subsidies to Jia Nailiang’s livestream. How long he can stay on top remains uncertain, but for now, the star anchor is truly a star.
Microdramas Engage Consumers
A major shift this year was the prominence of microdramas, with livestream anchors starting to produce these mini-series. ‘Crazy Little Brother Yang’ launched the ‘Three Sheep Microdrama’, and Simba’s Xinxuan brand teamed up with Oushiman for ‘She Looks Like a Bright Pearl’. Taobao also released L’Oréal’s ‘League of Milk Dads’ and other branded microdramas. Douyin’s Jiang Seventeen collaborated with Kans for a new microdrama called ‘Let Love Bind’. All these microdramas included links to 618 sale items.
Microdramas act as advanced ads within the short video ecosystem, combining multiple marketing strategies. For the 618 promotion, microdramas from various creators can easily gather traffic on short video platforms. Embedding “618 product information” in the plots or placing “618 product links” on the play page is currently one of the most effective ways for brands to participate in the 618 promotion.
However, brand-customized short dramas do have some drawbacks. Since their main goal is brand promotion, plots are often simplified, and too much product placement can turn users off, deterring those who dislike ads. Therefore, while microdramas are a valuable promotional tool during major events like 618, brands need to respect content creation.
AI Application
This year’s 618 event marks the first mid-year promotion since the advent of AI technology in e-commerce. Platforms like JD.com, Taobao, Baidu, and Douyin each have their own AI products, focusing primarily on AI anchors, AI customer service, and AI telemarketing.
On April 16, JD.com’s AI digital human made its live debut. During the 618 period, JD.com offered AI digital livestreaming technology to merchants for free, helping them broadcast at low cost. By May 16, Taobao also launched the Taobao Merchant Tool ‘Quick’ Product Website, freely available to Taobao and Tmall merchants. This tool, developed for e-commerce sellers, aids in extracting selling points, copywriting, merchandise map generation, and data analysis across various applications.
The essence of using AI to attract consumers is to provide a better shopping experience. However, AI digital humans in livestreaming have not been very impressive, with mechanical responses, delayed replies, and hard-to-understand consultations. AI telemarketing, where AI calls consumers before promotional activities, has also upset many due to the sheer volume of calls.
At this stage, AI customer service seems to be the only application in e-commerce that brings positive changes for consumers. AI customer service offers advantages like more patient and detailed responses, and 24/7 availability. Another novelty is Taobao’s “Tmall AI Bargaining Assistant,” which claims to help users buy more affordable goods during the 618 period. However, user feedback has been mixed, with some describing awkward experiences: “The AI haggled like a boss, then left abruptly, leaving me feeling socially embarrassed in front of the shop.”
