6.18 of JD.com is coming. After the broken of COVID-19 in 2020, the global economy began to decline. In China, most of the real economies are not performing well, and the residents’ income is not high, and their consumption desire decreased, which leads to the decline of “Double 11″ in 2021. Of course, there are various reasons. For example, there are many e-commerce shopping festivals, which, to a certain extent, disperse the passenger flow of the double 11. The attitude of consumers have also become more and more rational, paying more attention to the quality of the goods themselves.

So what will happen to the upcoming 6.18 of JD.com, one of the huge e-commerce Shopping Festival in China? Let’s have a look at it now.

What’s 6.18?

6.18 is the second largest and most important Shopping Festival in China.

Every year from June 1st till 6.18 , China’s e-commerce landscape is filled with large-scale promotional activities and discounts on the hottest products of the moment.

6.18 is the anniversary of JD.com one of the Top 3 biggest e-commerce company in China.

Over the past years, Jing Dong (JD.com) has put a lot of effort into creating and promoting commercial campaigns with unmissable discounts on its best-selling products, in order to create an “emotional attachment ”in the hearts of consumers. So every year during the month of June (until the 18th ), people in China get excited and start planning their purchases.

Soon enough, other Chinese e-commerce giants (Alibaba, Tmall,and so on) also started their own campaigns during this period, so that the 18th of June became one the biggest Shopping Festivals of the year.  

The Features of 6.18 in 2022

1. A Low-key Start

In 2022, COVID-19 epidemic spread in many places in China, so it weak consumption power. Online and offline enterprises are facing greater operating pressure, and there are also some difficulties in logistics distribution. In this context, on June 18 2022, e-commerce giants no longer put the key performance indicators (KPIs) of sales in the first place as in previous years, and they also seem particularly low-key in publicity.

Compared with previous years, “6.18 ” in 2022 seems to be much quiet. All major e-commerce platforms have not announced their sales directly. Instead, they have announced their consumption trends and growth rates. Some netizens even joked that nowadays, 6.18 has no sense of existence.

However, the support level of platforms is still powerful than previous years. For example, in order to further meet consumers’ needs for diversified shopping scenarios, JD.com will cooperate with millions of offline stores to realize online and offline simultaneous sales.

Besides, the major platforms launched more promotional incentives than in Tprevious years. In terms of preferential policies, the major activities are also more simplified than in previous years. For example, JD.com adopts the strategy that consumers can get discount cross stores, so they can directly place an order and enjoy the discount for each full discount without having to receive vouchers separately.

In a conference call with analysts on the release of the first quarter financial report in this year, Xulei, the CEO of JD.com, said that due to the epidemic and other reasons, the sales pressure of brands and businesses is very high. Therefore, brands and businesses will participate in the “6.18″ activity more actively than before.

On the whole, although the e-commerce giants are making efforts to prepare for “6.18” this year, they are very low-key in publicity. On the social level, it is almost difficult to see the overwhelming advertising in the past. The whole “6.18” is almost opened in a quiet state.

2.The Platforms No Longer Focus On The Key Performance Indicators

The epidemic has a great short-term impact on the consumer market, and the market sales have decreased significantly. Therefore, the e-commerce giants are not keen to pursue the the key performance indicators as they used to be.

“We found that there are more cities and consumers were affected by the epidemic this year.” Xu Lei said, compared with 2021, the supply chain is also significantly affected by the epidemic this year.

Xu Lei said that the warehousing risk control in the core area of the epidemic has led to difficulties in the logistics performance. The warehousing and outbound of commodities have been affected to a certain extent, and the performance cycle has become longer. Therefore, the order cancellation rate of JD.com is higher than last year. Vipshop and Tmall are also facing a similar situation.

In this situation, the performance of “6.18” promotion is also facing huge challenges. “In the current situation of uncertain epidemic situation and consumption, we have no specific requirements for the key performance indicators.” Xu Lei said that the most important thing is to ensure the user experience and performance ability during this promotion!

3.Pay More Attention to Supply Chain

In late May, the epidemic situation in all parts of China has improved significantly, which is a great news for this shopping activity.  For most e-commerce companies, supply chain and logistics protection is the top priority of this event.

This year, JD.com put a special emphasis on “responsible supply chain” and put it in the theme of the event. Vipshop said that in order to minimize the impact of the epidemic, Vipshop and SF Express have cooperated in depth to ensure the safety and smooth flow of parcels in areas where the epidemic occurred. At the same time, other major e-commerce companies also launched corresponding support policies during this event.

By comparing the activities and measures in previous years, we can see the changes and attention of various platforms payed to this shopping festival. User experience has been moved to a more important position,  more and more brands have been involved, and the time span is also growing. These measures, together with the arrival of the Dragon Boat Festival, as well as many consumers, a stable supply chain and a diversified service model, we can hope “June 18”in 2022 can bring us a good news, and also bring more confidence and vitality to e-commerce consumption during the epidemic in China.