China’s Midyear 6.18 Shopping Festival: E-Commerce Platforms Report a Strong Start

Executive Summary

The 6.18 festival, created by JD.com, has grown in recent years to become a major midyear e-commerce event in China, with other e-commerce platforms also joining in and offering discounts — this includes rival Alibaba-owned Tmall and Taobao. 

• Despite its name, the 6.18 shopping festival is not only one day (June 18): JD.com kicked off the 6.18 a pre-sales period from May 24 to May 31, and the festival will end on June 20.
• JD.com has partnered with various social media platforms, such as short video platforms TikTok and Kuaishou, to attract young consumers.
• Alibaba platforms such as Taobao and Tmall have also rolled out various initiatives to enhance customer engagement, including offering around 1.5 million new products, many of which were developed using Tmall data.