In the 16th year when it was created by e-commerce platform, the front of double 11 was further lengthened. At 8: 00 pm on October 14th, Taobao, Tmall, JD.COM and other e-commerce platforms started this year’s double 11 activities, about 10 days earlier than last year and one month earlier than the first double 11.
Year after year, major e-commerce platforms in JD.COM, Taobao, Pinduoduo and Tik Tok, as well as e-commerce anchors and merchants, have entered a new cycle in double 11, and various subsidies, promotions and promotional activities have emerged one after another, but it still cannot change the trend that double 11 is getting colder.
E-commerce promotion is becoming more and more "cold"
Once upon a time, when people mentioned double 11, they thought of "Buy in buy buy", which not only created many sales miracles, but also promoted the rapid development and reform of the e-commerce industry.
Looking back at the historical data, the transaction volume in double 11 has been increasing year by year. It started from 50 million yuan in 2009, broke through the 50 billion yuan mark in 2014, reached 120.748 billion yuan in 2016, and reached a record high of 498.2 billion yuan in 2020, and the transaction volume in 2021 was close to 540 billion yuan.
Later, Tmall no longer announced the total transaction amount, but it was clear to everyone that the sales growth rate in double 11 slowed down year by year. Undoubtedly, double 11’s involution phenomenon, which has lasted for many years, has trapped not only the merchants but also the platform, and even the consumers are tired of it.
At the merchant level, the price of double 11 volume has caused many troubles, such as compressed profit space, rising cost and great after-sales pressure. In order to compete for market share, merchants need to continuously reduce prices, which leads to a serious reduction in profit margins. While pursuing sales, they are also facing huge cost pressures.
At the platform level, double 11’s volume traffic, how to attract and retain users has become a huge challenge for the platform. When short video platforms such as Tik Tok and Aauto Quicker enter the market, users’ attention is distracted, which leads to the relatively limited traffic available for each platform, and the traffic competition becomes more and more fierce.
At the consumer level, double 11’s brain power, more and more complicated preferential activities and rules make consumers feel confused and tired, which reduces the shopping experience. Consumers’ attitude towards double 11 is becoming more and more rational. They are no longer willing to spend a lot of time and energy to study various complicated preferential rules, but prefer to choose simple and direct shopping methods.
We have to face up to the fact that it is difficult for double 11 to reproduce the commercial miracle of the past. However, traditional e-commerce platforms, such as Taobao and JD.COM, still have significant advantages in the order of magnitude during the Double Eleven period. Even under great pressure, these platforms need to persist, so changes are necessary.
The rhythm of double 11 has changed this year.
In the past few years, during the period of double 11, the whole network platform generally focused on the lowest price of the whole network, and the market was seriously involved. In 2024, the rhythm of double 11 has changed, and the platform still provides a series of preferential subsidies, but instead of blindly "involvings", it emphasizes giving businesses and consumers new experiences.
Considering the current market situation, the platform seems to have reached a consensus. There are three key words in this year’s double 11: lengthening the time line, not rolling low prices, and improving the living conditions of businesses.
First, the pre-sale time in double 11 is getting longer and longer, and the ultimate goal is undoubtedly to push up the total turnover. By extending the activity cycle, the e-commerce platform can reduce the stocking pressure of express delivery companies and merchants, better plan logistics and inventory, and give consumers ample shopping time, thus effectively promoting sales growth.
Secondly, double 11’s low-price strategy has been weakened, and attention has been paid to service details. This change is to enhance consumers’ shopping experience and satisfaction.
Last year, in double 11, the major platforms such as Taobao, JD.COM and Tik Tok competed for the "lowest price of the whole network" as the biggest highlight. And this year’s double 11, its highlight has turned to quality service. Taobao has launched a number of measures for this purpose, including providing postal services for Xinjiang, introducing the shopping mode of using first and paying later, and providing free shipping services for 88VIP members.
Third, double 11 merchants’ services have been upgraded, creating a better business environment for merchants and actively supporting the development of small and medium-sized businesses. Merchants’ attitude towards the Double Eleven changed from expectation to coping, which made it difficult for double 11 to bring significant revenue growth. In order to cope with this situation, Taobao and Tmall actively adjusted and upgraded their business tools, mechanisms and strategies.
Judging from a series of measures implemented by Taobao and JD.COM this year, double 11’s promotion thinking has changed from "relying on low prices to attract users" to "paying attention to details to impress users".
Loosely bind businesses to make consumers more profitable.
JD.COM and Taobao share the same goal of improving business efficiency and consumer satisfaction, but they have taken different actions, thus forming a differentiated competitive advantage beyond price.
Taobao makes full use of huge merchant resources, rich commodity types and AI technology applications, as well as the ecological advantages of the supply chain, and constantly innovates around the supply and demand ends.
First, implement a new merchant scoring system, optimize the "refund only" function, and return the after-sales autonomy to the merchants; Second, relying on its huge commodity library and accurate data analysis ability, through AI marketing means, expand sales channels for merchants; Third, tap the potential needs of consumers and launch a series of novel and interesting shopping experiences.
Judging from the "refund only" policy, Taobao launched the "refund only" optimization strategy for all merchants on August 9, and the higher the comprehensive experience score of the store, the greater the disposal right when facing the "refund only" application. Not only that, Tmall also canceled the annual software service fee of the platform, and launched nearly 10 measures to benefit businesses, including providing all brands and businesses with AI business efficiency tools, free business consultants, and shipping logistics subsidies.
JD.COM relies on its powerful logistics and after-sales service system, optimizes the supply chain process to relieve the pressure on merchants, and at the same time launches a number of convenient services to directly hit the pain points of consumers, striving to make new articles on supply and demand.
On the one hand, JD.COM upgraded the "Chunxiao Plan" to further strengthen its support for third-party sellers from three core dimensions: traffic support, AI technology efficiency improvement and ultra-light asset operation mode. The upgrade covers a total of 15 new initiatives, including home channel traffic incentives, three-star rule upgrades, over 100 million yuan advertising subsidies, live broadcast incentives for new businesses, and 10,000 yuan tool service packages.
On the other hand, JD.COM takes the premise of "knocking down the price and improving the quality" to bring consumers more affordable prices while firmly controlling the quality of goods.
It is understood that during his stay in double 11, JD.COM can receive additional subsidies from 60 yuan every day, and multiple discounts such as reducing 50 yuan for each full 300 yuan across stores. In addition, more than 1 billion new products, many well-known brands and high-quality goods directly supplied by industrial belt factories are ready to go, making every effort to ensure that consumers enjoy both affordable and high-quality shopping experiences.
In short, this year, double 11, JD.COM and Taobao, two e-commerce giants, skillfully combined their own advantages and injected new vitality and creativity into double 11.
The era of vicious involution is gone forever.
With the growing voice against excessive competition, this year’s "double 11" is undergoing unprecedented changes.
First, break the payment barrier of the head e-commerce platform and realize the interoperability of payment methods. On September 27, Taobao officially announced its support for WeChat payment. When shopping, you can choose WeChat payment on the payment page, and the two giants are "networked" again; In addition, it is reported that JD.COM will also be officially connected to Alipay.
Then, get through the logistics interface of the head e-commerce platform to realize the interconnection of logistics systems. On October 16th, Jingdong Logistics and Taotian Group formally reached a cooperation. Jingdong Logistics will be fully connected to Taobao Tmall platform, and platform merchants can directly choose Jingdong Logistics in the delivery background. JD.COM will also be connected to rookie express and rookie post station as parcel collection sites.
Double 11 has always been the fiercest arena for e-commerce platforms, and now it is moving from competition to concurrence, which has made a good start for the next stage of e-commerce industry.
On the one hand, the e-commerce platform will seek cooperation in competition and enhance its competitiveness in cooperation, which will bring new impetus to the e-commerce market. Strengthening cooperation among e-commerce platforms can jointly promote technological innovation, optimize service experience and improve industry efficiency, thus providing consumers with better and more convenient services.
On the other hand, new trends have brought new rules, and the rhythm and gameplay of China’s e-commerce consumer market are changing. E-commerce platform optimization strategy, improving consumer experience, optimizing rules and enhancing the interaction between merchants and consumers will provide strong support for the diversification and diversified development of the industry.
To sum up, there are many new changes in double 11 this year, such as the breaking of payment barriers, the interconnection of logistics and the anti-price involution, which all point to an answer: the era of vicious involution of e-commerce has passed.