On the tenth anniversary of Double 11, a comprehensive summary of strategies and gameplay on major platforms!

Unknowingly, it is already 3 days to the countdown of Double 11 "Shopping Festival" this year. I believe that friends who often go shopping should have discovered that this year's Double 11 e-commerce war actually started as early as mid-to-late October, and mainstream e-commerce platforms have begun their own long-planned "battle plans."

Although there are many large and small promotional activities throughout the year, November of each year is still the biggest annual shopping carnival month of the year. This year happens to be the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Double 11. After all, can Double 11, which has been 10 years old, still motivate consumers to surpass, or maintain, the purchasing enthusiasm of previous years through innovative gameplay and large-scale promotions?

This article will review this year's 618 mid-year promotion and organize the Double 11 promotion methods, combined with the freshly released pre-sale "report card", to deeply analyze the "playing style characteristics" of different types of e-commerce platforms (comprehensive/social/content e-commerce).

1. 618 Review and Double 11 Overview

1. Review of the 618 Mid-Year Promotion

(1) Promotion calendar and gameplay summary

Looking back at this year's 618 mid-year sale, from the promotion calendar shown below, all e-commerce platforms started pre-sales and warm-up activities about half a month in advance of the 618 sale date . Comprehensive e-commerce giants such as Taobao/Tmall and JD.com had already started "laying the groundwork" at the end of May, while social e-commerce platforms such as Yunji and Beidian started in early June, a little later than the comprehensive giants.

In terms of promotional methods, the three essential promotion tools are indispensable - discounts for purchases over a certain amount, doubling of pre-sale deposits, and red envelopes/coupons. The differentiated methods of promotion lie in how different platforms combine the above methods with their own platform features . For example, Taobao mainly promotes its combination with live streaming, while JD.com deeply integrates with fan circles to leverage fan circle demand and make promotional methods more diverse.

In addition, group buying and profit sharing have become the main social gameplay on various platforms, but there is a serious problem of homogeneity, which may cause "sharing fatigue" among users.

Source: Compiled based on official public information

(2) GMV distribution

Comprehensive e-commerce is still the main force of the 618 promotion . The top two GMVs are won by giants Taobao + Tmall and JD.com, while the third place is won by the dark horse of social e-commerce - Pinduoduo. This shows that the breakthrough effect of social e-commerce targeting the sinking market cannot be underestimated . From the perspective of the entire market, Tmall accounts for nearly 2/3 of the total market share, of which Juhuasuan drove 1/3 of the transactions (about 33.3). Juhuasuan alone has surpassed JD.com, which ranks second, which proves from another aspect that the sinking market has great potential .

Source: Analysys 618 Market Index

(3) App share and daily activity

In terms of the distribution of App shares, comprehensive e-commerce apps have the largest daily active share, but their share has dropped significantly year-on-year. Social e-commerce apps, on the other hand, have rapidly expanded their daily active user share with the fastest daily active user growth rate, becoming the only e-commerce segment whose daily active user share has increased year-on-year. It can be seen that social e-commerce, led by Pinduoduo, has a strong momentum and the purchasing power of the sinking market is increasing.

Source: 360 Big Data

(4) Summary

From the review of the 618 mid-year promotion, it can be predicted that in the upcoming Double 11 battle, the competition between comprehensive e-commerce and social e-commerce will be more intense. Comprehensive e-commerce will still be the "main harvester" of the market, and will focus on tapping the potential of the sinking market. Promotional methods will focus more on social methods, thereby further increasing its total GMV. Social e-commerce will further expand its market share and approach comprehensive e-commerce. The purchasing power of the sinking market will become the decisive factor in this battle.

2. Double 11 Overview

The promotional calendar for this year's Double 11 was compiled based on public data on the Internet. As can be seen from the table below, the "standing line" for Double 11 is getting longer and longer (especially JD.com, which starts the earliest and ends the latest). From the one-day carnival on Singles' Day on November 11 in 2009, it has been extended to nearly one month today, 10 years later. The continuous increase in duration shows the ambition of the platforms to compete for market share and traffic .

However, I personally think that lengthening the "station line" has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include not only increasing GMV and activity through preheating, but also catering to the current health trend. For example, for many pre-sale products, users have already paid the deposit, so there is no need to wait until midnight on Double 11 to pay. This is actually a good thing for today's "health-conscious people". However, the "front line" should not be extended too long, otherwise the sense of tension and scarcity needed to be created for promotion will be lost. Users may become numb to promotions and feel that it is just a regular discount event, which may lead to a lack of enthusiasm for consumption.

Comparing the gameplay launched by various platforms on Double 11, it is roughly the same as that on 618. In addition to the three essential promotional items, there are also continuous sign-in rewards or sign-in games to increase or maintain the daily activity of the App.

According to the statistical analysis of iMedia Consulting, basic promotional methods such as red envelopes with no threshold and promotional discounts are most effective in increasing users' desire to place orders. Therefore, the effectiveness of the three-piece promotion strategy is guaranteed. After all, the most direct price reduction discount is the most likely to encourage consumers to buy their non-essential items, which is commonly known as stockpiling. (I don’t know if I can use it now, but I’ll buy it anyway since it’s so cheap! I’ll definitely/probably/maybe/perhaps I’ll need it in the future!)

Source: Based on official public data

2. Comprehensive e-commerce

1. Taobao/Tmall: How to innovate as an e-commerce giant?

Taobao and Tmall are definitely the focus of Double 11. After all, they are the "founders" of this annual shopping carnival. Moreover, this year marks the tenth anniversary of Double 11. Both e-commerce industry insiders and ordinary consumers are very curious about what kind of innovations will be brought about by the tenth anniversary of Double 11.

(1) Marketing strategy

Looking at the Double 11 gameplay of Taobao and Tmall, it is not much different from this year's 618. There are no eye-catching innovations in the gameplay. They are all basic such as doubling of pre-sale deposits, distribution of coupons and red envelopes, shopping allowances, mini-games to stimulate daily activities, etc.

Taking mini-games as an example, this year’s 618 is stacking cats, and Double 11 is building buildings. They all involve sharing with friends, inviting help, forming teams to challenge, and getting red envelopes. The overall process and format are not much different.

When I started playing Stacking Cats, I felt that the rules and graphics of the game were rather complicated (probably due to the visual presentation), making it difficult to understand at first glance how users can profit from the game. In fact, only a very small number of users can really share a relatively large amount of money. Many users spend relatively more time sharing and recruiting people to form teams to come, but in the end they get "very little", so the time cost is very high.

From the perspective of the platform, the platform only considers increasing the daily active users, and generally seldom allows users to really make a big profit. So I personally think that users should consider the cost of their time while taking advantage of the platform. Don't just add time every day and end up making a few dollars, as it's really not worth it.

Source: Screenshot from the Internet

(2) Pre-sale results

From the start of pre-sale to 10.31, the Double 11 pre-sale will be coming to an end. Let’s first review the pre-sale performance of the past 10 days. According to official public data, the total transaction amount on the first day of pre-sale doubled year-on-year. The total transaction amount in less than an hour after the start of pre-sale exceeded the full day of the same period last year. It only took half a day to reach the total pre-sale amount of last year's three days . In addition, 23 brands had pre-sale transactions of over 100 million yuan, while only 5 brands had transactions of over 100 million yuan on the first day of pre-sale last year. This report card is quite good.

The author personally feels that the pre-sale discounts for Double 11 are not very big and not very attractive (not to the point of wanting to buy them, and not even as good as the discounts for 618), so I was quite surprised when the official pre-sale results were announced. In addition to the essential difference in the number of brands, further analysis will be conducted after the data is collected. In addition to the reason for the sharp increase in the number of brands participating in the promotion, the reason for the surge in pre-sale purchasing power is also discussed.

(3) Key channel: live streaming

This year's Double 11, whether during the pre-sale period or the official period, the focus will be on the live broadcast channel. From the statistical summary of 618, it can be concluded that Taobao live broadcast rooms have become standard for merchants. Through Taobao live broadcast, the shopping ability of celebrities and Internet celebrities is utilized to open up traffic entrances from the content, leveraging the fan circle economy, with amazing results. During the 618 period, Taobao live broadcast guided transactions of up to 13 billion.

Driven by Li Jiaqi's magical catchphrases - "all girls", "OMG", "buy it", every live broadcast is like a large-scale "poisoning" scene. When the girls who have experienced "being poisoned" come out of the live broadcast room, 80% of them probably don't know what they have bought. They just say "Buy! Flash sale! Grab it!" It was not until they received the express delivery that they realized that they had unknowingly bought so many products that they didn't need.

Ben C also went to watch Li Jiaqi's live broadcast. Indeed, the anchor himself is very good at mobilizing the emotions of the audience and making jokes at the right time. When the "flash sale opportunity" comes, he is very good at creating a tense atmosphere, prompting the audience to place an order without too much thinking.

But after the Li Jiaqi live broadcast incident a few days ago, we should think about how, as consumers, we should correctly view the issue of online celebrities promoting products, and whether we should change our mentality of "pulling the products without thinking."

Ben C went to see the scene of this major failure. In fact, Li Jiaqi was trying to recommend a non-stick pan, but when his assistant started frying the eggs, the eggs stuck to the pan wherever they went. Later, Li Jiaqi tried his best to save the situation, but the eggs were not obedient. This incident should serve as a warning to consumers. Are the so-called good products and must-buy products that Internet celebrities "plant" the seeds for? Have they tried them themselves before recommending them to their fans, or are they simply advertising them for commercial reasons without a clear conscience?

In general, although live streaming is a new consumption scenario, from the perspective of e-commerce platforms, it is also a very powerful way to grab traffic. However, as it is currently difficult for platforms to regulate the quality of products promoted by influencers, we as consumers still need to remain rational and not blindly listen to the influencers’ “grass-planting” rhetoric. We should be skeptical about the quality of the products and consider whether they meet our own needs and the brand quality of the merchant before deciding whether to buy.

As for this "crash" incident of Taobao's top live broadcaster, the author believes that Taobao, as a leading live streaming platform, should take it seriously. Otherwise, consumers will lose confidence in the quality of the platform's products, and it will also affect the positive image that the platform has established for a long time.

Source: Screenshot from the Internet

The above is all the content of "Comprehensive Interpretation: The Tenth Anniversary of Double 11, a Summary of Strategies and Plays of Major Platforms (Part 1)". Next, we will continue to sort out relevant data and analyze what tricks the second-largest comprehensive giant "JD.com", the dark horse of social e-commerce "Pinduoduo" and the content e-commerce "Xiaohongshu" have used in this Double 11 e-commerce war, and what kind of eye-catching performance they have brought~

Author: The way you smile

Source: The way you smile