China’s Online Shopping Festivals
25 Aug 2020
China’s e-commerce occupies its own universe. Having lived in China on and off for over seven years, I’ve experienced first hand the explosion of online shopping in the country. The marketplace is competitive, complex, colorful, chaotic, and light years ahead of anywhere else. It is exciting, innovative, if a bit daunting. I am regularly struck by how shoppers not only buy familiar items online such as clothes or books, but also things I don’t associate with online shopping – specialty seasonal crabs, highly prized mushrooms, rare musical instruments, handcrafted furniture and even motorcycles or cars!
Local and imported fresh products are both available in online and offline markets. Credit: DFAT
E-commerce sales in China has reached astronomical heights and the COVID-19 pandemic has turbocharged this trajectory. For example, one of China’s biggest e-commerce players, Alibaba, clocked up sales of $1.4 trillion in merchandise value sales. If Alibaba were a country, it would have a GDP of a G20 country, just a tad smaller than Australia's!
Making e-commerce in China even more thrilling are the myriad of online shopping festivals that create an exciting atmosphere conducive to shopping. For Australian businesses interested in selling their products in the Chinese market, it is essential to have a digital strategy that can widen your reach as well as target your desired market. Understanding these festivals also gives you the time frames and opportunities to target specific markets.
Australian companies are encouraged to explore business opportunities in China’s booming e-commerce. Credit: DFAT
China’s e-commerce shopping festivals can be divided into two categories: existing real-life festivals that sellers have used to promote sales both online and offline, and festivals invented solely for online promotions.
Real-life festivals include traditional Chinese and modern festivals:
- Spring Festival - the 1st day of the 1st month of the lunar calendar
Spring Festival or Chinese New Year is China’s most important holiday. People usually begin preparing for the festival by purchasing items weeks or even months in advance. Gifts have long been exchanged among families and friends during this holiday. Food and beverage are the most common gifts, along with electronics and clothing.
Brands often launch special-edition products featuring the animal in the Chinese zodiac.
- Valentine’s Day - 14 February
Although Valentine’s Day is a holiday in the west, China has adopted it as one of the many days to celebrate love, romance and consumption. China’s online retailers push the sale of jewelry, flowers, chocolates and perfume. Restaurants, hotels and spas also capitalise on this holiday, offering couples special packages.
Interestingly, China also has its traditional Valentine’s Day – Qixi Festival on the 7th day of the 7th month on the Chinese lunar calendar, which is also an important occasion for lovers to express love. However, the traditional one is less popular amongst young people, hence it sees fewer online promotions.
- International Women’s Day - 8 March
The International Women’s Day shopping festival targets female consumers. In China, merchants promote products such as women’s fashion, cosmetics and accessories during the event.
Chinese women are a huge market for online sales: according to the Chinese Research Centre for E-commerce, 70 percent of Chinese women shop online more than offline. iiMedia’s research shows that China’s Womenomics market value will reach RMB 4.8 trillion ($960 million) by the end of this year.
- Children’s Day - 1 June
Children’s Day is a big deal in China. Decades of the one child policy and now declining birth rate have boosted the Chinese society’s high regard for children. Promotions for Children’s Day are mostly geared towards parents, who are often under tremendous pressure buy gifts for their children, especially toys, high quality food items and nutritional supplements, electronics and clothing.
Chinese parents are willing to spend a lot of money on their children. Credit: DFAT
- Mid-Autumn Festival - the 15th day of the 8th month on the Chinese lunar calendar
It’s the second most important Chinese festival of the year. The Mid-Autumn Festival is a 1000-year-old tradition when families gather for dinner and view the moon. Aside from the obligatory sale of mooncakes, most Chinese buy gifts for parents during this time.
- National Day - 1 October
China’s National Day kicks off the one-week nationwide holiday called Golden Week, one of the longest public holidays in China. It is one of the busiest times of year to travel as tens of millions of Chinese people go on holidays. Hence, it provides a good opportunity for the tourism sector to promote destinations, hotels and transport services.
- Christmas season - 14-25 December
Christmas has become increasingly popular in China, and most large cities are rife with festive decorations starting in December. Younger Chinese consumers seek good deals at this time of year. It is certainly perceived more as a shopping festival in China than as a time for family gatherings, although restaurants and hotels invariably have Christmas dinner promotions.
Christmas is an opportunity for shopping centres and online platforms to promote festive products. Credit: DFAT
Commercially created online shopping festivals:
- 520 - 20 May
The 520 Shopping Festival was originally conceived as a modern Valentine’s Day in China because “Five Two Zero” in Chinese sounds like “I love you”. Promotional campaigns revolve around the tradition of young couples sending gifts to show their love. The best target group for merchants and brands is still young couples searching for the perfect gift for their partner that is meaningful and has intrinsic value. More and more jewelers have launched campaigns during this time.
Over the last two years, e-commerce platforms in China have taken the expression of love further, emphasising that love not only existing between lovers but also between family members. Hence, the festival promotes gifts not only for lovers, but also for infants and elders.
LED screen projecting messages of love on 20 May in a crowded shopping area in Chengdu. Credit: DFAT
- 618 - 18 June
The 618 Shopping Festival, China’s second largest e-commerce festival, was originally created by JD.com to celebrate its founding anniversary. 618 has developed into a hugely popular shopping event, attracting retailers from across the e-commerce industry.
As the first large-scale e-commerce shopping festival after the prevention and control of COVID-19 has entered normalization, this year's 618 sales data is particularly eye-catching with sales data from various e-commerce platforms skyrocketing past previous years. Orders at JD.com hit record high during the annual 1-18 June online shopping event, amounting to RMB 269 billion, while Alibaba’s Tmall reported the sales volume of the shops operating on its platform at almost RMB 700 billion.
In June this year, Austrade partnered with JD.com to launch the 618 online promotion campaign for Australian fresh and premium products. A total of 600 Australian product lines became available on the JD.com platform during the campaign, which resulted in strong sales.
- Double 11 - 11 November
The Double 11 Shopping Festival, also known as the Singles Day in China, was originally created by a group of Chinese college students to celebrate their singledom. The four ones in the date (11.11) symbolise single life.
Alibaba started holding sales during the festival in 2009, it gained popularity over time with promotions and deep discounts and has now grown to eclipse Black Friday in sales volume. In 2019, the GMV (Gross Merchandise Volume) of Alibaba’s Tmall surpassed RMB 268.4 billion in the one-day event. To maximise sales, brands promote on social media and livestreaming platforms with the help of influencers. Customers viewing the live-streamed shows had a chance to win prizes and discount coupons.
- Double 12 - 12 December
The Double 12 Shopping Festival represents an opportunity to clear inventory left after Double 11, and is an end-of-season promotional sale hosted primarily by JD.com, Alibaba and some other marketplaces.
The festival is reasonably new and has not reached the stellar heights of Singles Day. In 2018, total transactions on Taobao on Double 12 hit RMB 200 billion, indicating potential for further growth.
These two categories of online shopping activitations focus on different aspects of human consumption at different times of the year. Beyond the festivals listed above, numerous other shopping festivals occur throughout the year. Events such as 818 and 9.9 offer similar experiences as 618 and Double 11, but on a smaller scale. Additionally, Western shopping festivals like Black Friday are establishing a growing presence in China.
China’s e-commerce market provides abundant opportunities, but can be exhausting with many pitfalls. For Australian exporters, it is important to work with your local partners on how best to tap into this rich vein of consumption. Austrade and State government offices located in China stand ready to assist.
An Australian company is playing an important role in China’s logistics sector, and supporting e-commerce growth. Credit: DFAT
I look forward to seeing your products online.
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