MoonFox Data: Insights on the Double 11 Shopping Festival

Chapter 1: E-commerce platforms’ paces and main strategies during Double 11

As the 2023 Double 11 shopping festival draws to a close, major e-commerce platforms are reveling in their successes. This year’s promotions followed the established trend of previous years by extending the duration to provide consumers with ample shopping time. Unlike the previous two-round pre-sale approach, this year’s focus shifted to instant sales, with platforms like JD.com and Douyin introducing immediate delivery, eliminating waiting time. Furthermore, platforms simplified promotional rules to provide a more convenient shopping experience, cater to diverse user needs, and enhance overall comfort.

The 2023 Double 11 also witnessed a return to its roots by emphasizing low prices to capture consumers’ attention and stimulate their purchasing desires, highlighting the price competitiveness of high-quality products. This shift reflects e-commerce platforms’ commitment to prioritizing user satisfaction and continuously enhancing services and products. The dual focus on user experience and price competitiveness injected vitality into this year’s Double 11 shopping spree.

Figure 1-2 2023 Main strategies employed by e-commerce platforms

Emphasis on low price: Low-price mechanisms, low-price fields, and service guarantees help platforms create a mindset of affordability.

During this year’s Double 11, major e-commerce platforms have employed a low-price strategy, using methods such as “low prices” and “price reductions” as primary methods to attract traffic and manage products. This strategy includes a range of low-priced fields, such as the 10-billion-yuan subsidy, competitive pricing on Taobao, and cost-effective products with free delivery. It also encompasses price protection throughout the promotional period and compensation in the event of lower prices among other service guarantees. These measures are aimed at ensuring that consumers consistently perceive the platforms’ commitment to affordability, thereby establishing a benchmark for low prices and effectively igniting consumers’ enthusiasm for shopping.

The low-priced mechanisms employed this year can be broadly categorized into three types. First, platforms focused on increasing the visibility of low-priced products by allocating more traffic to them, which emerged as a main trend. Quantified indicators were established to measure products’ price competitiveness, such as Taobao’s five-star price power index and JD.com’s price star ranking. Products with competitive prices received more traffic through specific award rules. Second, price control emerged as a key measure during this year’s Double 11 festival. Platforms implemented stricter inspections and control over promotional prices. For example, Taobao required promotional prices to be at most 90% of the product’s recent price to qualify for promotional activities, while JD.com utilized dual-verification methods, namely red-color pricing and actual paid prices, to guarantee low prices. Third, platforms imposed stricter controls over the practice of “increasing price at first and then lowering it”. Taobao not only tightened regulations on pricing practices but also alerted sellers to any discrepancies between the promotional price and the final paid price. Additionally, sellers could be disqualified from participating in platform promotional activities.

When it comes to the low-price field, there are five primary aspects to consider. First, there are distinct low-price benchmarks for various types of offers, such as the lowest price across the entire Internet, flash sales, the lowest price in the same category, the lowest price in 90 days, and daily low prices throughout Double 11. Second, there were specially designed best-price channels, such as Taobao Good Price Channel and Taobao Juhuasuan. Third, both JD.com and Taobao introduced the 10 billion yuan subsidy program. Fourth, delivery fee coverage for low-priced items was provided. For example, JD.com’s coverage for low-priced products and Taobao’s coverage for products priced as low as 1 yuan. Finally, brands issued official discounts on their products, including direct discounts for individual items. All these measures contributed to the diverse and comprehensive nature of the low-price scenario, ensuring it meets the varied needs of consumers during their shopping experience.

Figure 1-3 Measures for low price guarantee

Livestreaming merchants: Platforms have implemented targeted supportive measures to boost the momentum of livestreaming rooms during the festival.

During the Double 11 shopping festival, the realm of livestreaming merchants remains a core area for competition among major platforms. To better support livestreaming merchants, platforms have formulated multi-level supportive policies, offered comprehensive operational tools, and introduced targeted subsidies. These initiatives are designed to facilitate both merchants and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) in swiftly establishing a Double 11 streaming scenario, stimulating heightened livestreaming activity, and harnessing the influence of KOLs to promote competitive products and ultimately achieve impressive sales records.

Significantly, Taobao Livestreaming has devised targeted supportive plans tailored for various types of livestreaming hosts within the Taobao ecosystem. The objective is to accelerate order fulfillment during the festival period. Furthermore, the platform has initiated the Double 11 joint livestreaming program, accompanied by 100 million yuan in red packets and 10 million in traffic support. This program is strategically crafted to bolster the momentum of KOLs and accelerate sales growth.

JD.com has consistently heightened its efforts to offer subsidies. It initiated a merchant ranking contest and promoted alternative livestreaming, granting merchants the opportunity to tap into 100 billion traffic and a 10-million-yuan cash subsidy. By introducing three themed livestreaming days – President Livestreaming Day, Super Livestreaming Day, and Industry Livestreaming Day – JD.com successfully collaborated with merchants to create trending items across all categories. During the promotional period, JD.com capitalized on trending topics by launching the “JD Procurement Livestreaming Room”. The company’s procurement team appeared in the livestreaming room, showcasing selected products with the lowest prices on the Internet, capturing increasingly higher-grade attention.

Douyin livestreaming employed various methods to direct traffic to merchants, leading to explosive sales results. Notably, Douyin launched the 1 Million Product Program, offering platform traffic and exposure resources and aligning users with products to cultivate trending items. KOL livestreaming rooms concentrated on channeling resources to first-tier KOLs, facilitating rapid sales growth by harnessing the platform’s momentum. Furthermore, the Selected Products Livestreaming Room spotlighted high-quality products and generous subsidies, empowering merchants to achieve their sales targets.

RED has implemented a three-tier supportive policy structure designed to assist merchants at different stages of development, facilitating their growth through comprehensive support. Emerging merchants can participate in the “Livestreaming Starter Plan”, which offers 28 days of support inclusive of over 30,000 instances of homepage recommendation exposure. For more established merchants, the “Livestreaming Upgrading Plan” provides access to exclusive million-level traffic and substantial boosts in exposure once they achieve their initial sales targets. Moreover, in support of promotional merchants, Douyin introduced the “Livestreaming Promotion Boost” plan, which promises a 50% refund of promotional fees for merchants participating in the “Livestreaming Marketing” promotion from October 10 to November 12. These measures collectively furnished merchants with comprehensive support, guiding them through different stages of development to achieve improved performance.

User operation: elevating membership benefits to broaden the core user base and implementing full-cycle membership management to facilitate the growth of brand users

Throughout this year’s Double 11 event, all platforms intensified efforts to enhance member loyalty and expand the core user base by elevating membership benefits. Furthermore, they extended full-cycle user management support to brands to reinforce brand user growth. This encompassed strategies for accumulating potential users, acquiring new ones, re-engaging and transitioning users, and incentivizing repeat purchases.

Figure 1-4 Solutions for brands’ user base expansion

During this year’s Double 11, platforms elevated membership benefits, aiming to enhance member loyalty through a more comprehensive array of service guarantees and an elevated shopping experience. Notably, the Tmall 88VIP membership underwent an upgrade to introduce three distinct packages: the Lifestyle Card, Shopping Card, and King Card. Specifically, the Shopping Card comes with three new benefits for online shopping to improve the consumer experience and provide guarantees: ① a 5% discount on top of other offers; ② daily red packets; ③ delivery fee coverage for returned purchases; and ④ after-sales guarantees. Additionally, Tmall issued a substantial number of large-value coupons totaling 20 billion yuan for 88VIP accounts, which could be cumulatively stacked with other offers. These coupons were released in two phases: ① Grand Opening: 580 yuan off for every purchase of 7,000 yuan; 280 yuan off for every purchase of 3,500 yuan; ② Highlight Period: 400 yuan off for every purchase of 5,000 yuan and 120 yuan off for every purchase of 1,500 yuan.

JD Plus membership benefits received a significant upgrade ahead of the Double 11: ① The previous 5 free delivery coupons per month were upgraded to unlimited free delivery; ② The previous 10 times points accretion was upgraded to a maximum of 3% shopping amount rebate; ③ JD International/JD Pets and millions of products from big brands enjoy a 5% discount on top of other offers; ④ Members can get a free medical checkup once a year. During the Double 11, JD Plus members can enjoy a 5% discount on top of other offers, along with exclusive large-value coupons. Specifically, these coupons included a discount of 600 yuan for every purchase of 6,000 yuan; 400 yuan off for every purchase of 5,000 yuan; 300 yuan off for every purchase of 3,000 yuan; and 120 yuan off for every purchase of 1,500 yuan. On November 8, Plusday, there is an additional discount of 80 yuan for every purchase of 1,000 yuan and 40 yuan off for every purchase of 500 yuan.

Simplified promotions: simplifying promotional rules and enhancing the shopping experience with direct discounts on individual products

During this year’s Double 11, platforms placed a high priority on enhancing the users’ shopping experience. They revamped user categorization strategies by implementing measures such as discounts after reaching specific thresholds. Additionally, they utilized straightforward methods like brand official discounts and direct discounts on individual items. These actions were aimed at fulfilling the diverse shopping needs of consumers while minimizing the burden and investment required for shopping. Consequently, users were freed from complex calculations and the time-consuming effort of selecting additional items to qualify for specific discounts. This led to a more relaxed and enjoyable shopping atmosphere.

Figure 1-5 Main platforms have simplified promotional rules during this year’s Double 11

Simplified promotional rules carry positive implications and value for platforms, brands, and consumers. For the platforms, the foremost advantage of simplified promotional rules lies in the improved user experience, mitigating confusion and bewilderment that users may encounter during their shopping journey. The second benefit entails a decrease in platform maintenance costs. Simplified rules diminish the requirement for extensive technical support and customer service, thereby lowering operational expenses. The third benefit is the cultivation of long-term user loyalty and trust, as users are more likely to trust and engage with platforms with straightforward promotional methods.

For merchants, the simplification of promotional rules has lowered the participation threshold, making it easier for them to get involved in the festival. Moreover, merchants can leverage the whole-domain traffic subsidies provided by platforms for simplified promotions, leading to heightened brand exposure. Third, simplified promotional rules are more accessible and easier to understand, encouraging users to place orders and effectively boosting the conversion rates for brands.

For consumers, simplified promotional rules not only cater to their diverse shopping styles but also save time and enable them to purchase discounted products by stacking offers.

Chapter 2: User Analysis of Double 11 E-commerce Platforms

During the promotion period, the daily number of new users of e-commerce platforms decreased year on year, indicating that the e-commerce industry has entered a state of intense stock competition.

During this year’s promotion period, the daily number of new users of e-commerce platforms saw a significant decline compared to 2022. However, it is evident from the low-price strategies adopted by various platforms this year that, in an era of gradually peaking traffic, the competition for existing users has become particularly crucial. When examining the average daily active users of each app during the promotion period, Taobao, Douyin, JD.com, and RED all demonstrated varying degrees of growth compared to the previous year. Notably, RED exhibited the most robust growth, registering a 9.2% increase.

Figure 2-1: Comparison of daily new users (10k) of mainstream e-commerce platforms in 2022 and 2023

Figure 2-2: Comparison of average daily active users (100m) of mainstream e-commerce platforms in 2022 and 2023

The pre-sale start, grand opening, and highlight period witnessed three waves of user peaks. The commencement at 8 p.m. facilitated a one-day advance in traffic surges.

Examining the daily trend during the promotional period, including the pre-sale start, grand opening, and highlight period, e-commerce apps experienced a surge in both traffic and users. Specifically, Taobao, JD.com, and PDD exhibited particularly significant increases. In addition, looking at the proportion of active users in each period, the strategy of starting at 8 p.m. has led to a noticeable forward shift in traffic during the peak date.

Figure 2-3: Daily active user trend (100m) of mobile shopping apps during Double 11

Figure 2-4: Average active user breakdown by period for two days of grand opening during Double 11 (October 31 to November 1)

Throughout the promotion period, there was a significant increase in user loyalty, and the overlap rate among major e-commerce platforms exceeded 50%.

Looking at the number of daily starts per person on each platform during the promotion period, it reveals a notable increase in starts on the first two days of the grand opening and the highlight day. This indicates a clear upward trend in user loyalty during the promotion. Concerning the overlap rate among the three major e-commerce platforms, it is evident that their user overlap rates all surpass 50%. In the future, enhancing the user loyalty of this segment poses an urgent consideration for e-commerce enterprises.

Figure 2-5: Daily average number of starts per capita（DASPC） during Double 11 period

The proportion of users participating in the promotion has increased in new first-tier and second-tier cities, while the proportion of new users still shows a clear downward trend.

From the perspective of city tiers of active users during the promotional period, new first-tier cities and second-tier and third-tier cities emerge as the primary shopping force. Additionally, the proportion of users on each platform has witnessed an increase in new first-tier and second-tier cities. However, the proportion of new users in third-tier and below cities is significantly higher than that of active users, indicating that e-commerce platforms still show a clear trend of expanding new user acquisition in lower-tier markets.

Chapter 3: Development Trends of Double 11 Shopping Festival

Trend 1: Low prices trigger competition for users; a virtuous cycle of ecology may be the key to maintaining low price competitiveness.

With the fading of traffic dividends and a shift towards more rational user behavior, low prices have emerged as a crucial competitive strategy for various platforms to attract users. During promotional periods, they place increasing emphasis on enhancing price competitiveness. Currently, however, low prices on e-commerce platforms are manifest in many problematic forms. In the future, platforms need to optimize in terms of cost reduction and efficiency improvement, consumer segmentation, and strengthened supervision, in order to establish a win-win positive ecology and maintain long-term price competitiveness.

Currently, low-price traps on e-commerce platforms have resulted in multiple issues. Firstly, some platforms overly prioritize low prices, leading to insufficient supervision over the qualifications and product quality standards of merchants, resulting in a phenomenon where low quality is coupled with low prices. This prevalence of shoddy goods and “three-no” products (no brand, no quality certificate, no sales record) seriously affects the overall quality level of the market. To solve this problem, optimal solutions may include guided consumer stratification to improve product value and offer precise product supply tailored to different consumer needs. Simultaneously, reinforced product quality control is necessary to curb the proliferation of low-quality products.

Secondly, some platforms and merchants reduce costs by compromising on after-sales service, performance efficiency, and other links to gain greater pricing space, forming a low-price trap characterized by diminished performance. Such practice adversely affects consumers’ shopping experiences, diminishing user loyalty toward both platforms and brands. To address this issue, platforms and merchants need to decrease the end-to-end cost of shopping through technological and model innovation and focus on a differentiated supply chain and goods supply strategy to minimize unnecessary price competition.

Finally, there is the problem of exclusive low prices, wherein leading platforms, KOLs and influencers, secure exclusive low prices through traffic advantages while simultaneously charging high intermediary fees. This disturbs the normal competition among channels and deprives consumers of genuinely low prices. To solve this problem, authorities need to strengthen regulatory mechanisms, intensify supervision of vicious competition, optimize cooperation mechanisms among platforms, institutions, and merchants, establish healthy and standardized charging modes, and strengthen supervision of data fraud and non-standard content.

In the future, it is essential to cultivate a healthy ecosystem platform that fosters mutual benefits for platforms, merchants, institutions, and consumers. This approach will aid in sustaining price competitiveness, allowing merchants and institutions to develop in an orderly and healthy manner. It ensures that consumers can consistently enjoy a “high-quality and low-cost” experience.

Trend 2: Evolving user needs propel the upgrading of platforms and brands, with quality becoming the development trend of online shopping

The rationalization of consumer demand and growing sophisticated user needs have intensified the need for shopping convenience, security, personalization, among others, prompting comprehensive upgrading of platforms and brands across various dimensions. The platforms’ high-quality and cost-effective offerings and convenient service guarantees coupled with brand-side emphasis on brand value and product innovation, collectively propel the development of e-commerce shopping towards a quality-oriented direction.

The user’s needs have undergone profound changes, evident in multiple aspects. Firstly, consumers tend to be more rational when shopping and pay more attention to whether the product meets their needs and whether the price is reasonable. In addition, the smoothness and convenience of the shopping process have become a focal point, as consumers seek to minimize decision-making costs. As a result, there is a heightened emphasis on personal information protection, and users are concerned about the privacy and security of their data. In addition, user demand has shifted towards a focus on product quality, uniqueness, and sustainability. Users are also more attentive to the brand stories and values, which are significant considerations in their purchasing decisions.

These changes in user demand have significant implications for e-commerce platforms and brands. They are compelled to make reforms and upgrades to align with the evolving preferences of users. First and foremost, pricing becomes a critical factor. Low prices remain the core element that attracts users to a platform, necessitating an enhancement of the platform’s competitiveness in terms of pricing. Simultaneously, based on user needs, competition, and behavior, platforms should establish a layered approach to product categorization. This approach provides cost-effective products for different groups, forming a sustainable low-priced ecosystem. In addition, platforms must optimize supply structures and product quality, expand categories and brands, and provide high-quality and differentiated products. In terms of service, platforms should prioritize addressing users’ core shopping pain points. This includes ensuring authenticity, price protection, privacy protection, stock delivery, and prompt refunds to provide users with peace of mind when shopping. When it comes to logistics, platforms must provide fast and traceable delivery while guaranteeing privacy to enhance user experience.

Brand upgrading is also essential. Brand power is the core principle of attracting users. Brands should concentrate on brand image, vision, and value construction to enable consumers to better understand and establish emotional connections with the brand. Meanwhile, brands need to innovate in product development, continuously rolling out differentiated products with competitive edges. Regarding product quality, as more expert users emerge, brands must uphold higher standards for quality requirements and quality supervision to ensure that their products are safe to buy and use. Additionally, the ability of private domain operation has become critical. Brands need to establish long-term and close two-way communication with users to better understand and meet their needs. These upgrading directions will help platforms and brands better adapt to and meet the constantly changing needs of users, promoting a healthier and more sustainable development of the entire e-commerce ecosystem.

MoonFox Data

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