Photo: CFP

Chinese e-commerce platforms on Saturday unveiled positive early sales data for the ongoing 618 shopping festival - which used to fall on June 18 - China's second-largest online shopping event only after the Double 11 shopping event.

Experts said that the shopping figures provide an important window into the role of e-commerce platforms in driving the real economy.

JD.com, a domestic e-commerce platform, officially kicked off its 618 shopping festival at 8 pm on Friday, with many brands such as Apple, Midea, Haier, Xiaomi, China Gold, Huawei, Little Swan, Gree, Hisense and TCL seeing their gross merchandise value (GMV) - the value of goods sold - quickly surpass 100 million yuan ($13.8 million), according to figures released by the platform on Saturday.

Four hours after the launch of the event, more than 10,000 brands had seen their GMV jump more than 500 percent compared with the same period in 2023.

Additionally, the number of merchants that participated in JD.com's 618 promotions for the first time and saw their GMV exceed 1 million yuan during the first four hours increased by 45-fold year-on-year.

Alibaba's Tmall platform achieved impressive results. Tmall started its second wave of sales promotions at 8 pm on Friday. As of 9 pm, 185 brands had seen their GMV exceed 100 million yuan, while more than 37,000 brands had more than doubled their GMV.

Tmall canceled pre-sales during this year's 618 promotions by offering 50 yuan off for every 300 yuan spent and an official discount of 15 percent on Tmall.

Xiaomi announced that as of Friday, the company's total GMV on all e-commerce channels had surpassed 10.3 billion yuan.

Sales during the 618 shopping festival are usually seen as an important window into new consumption trends, and they also provide a barometer of China's consumer market, Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, told the Global Times on Saturday.

"Through large-scale consumer activities, the 618 event not only promotes the growth of the e-commerce industry but also directly stimulates real economic growth by consumption. From the supply chain to logistics, from production to sales, every link matters during the shopping festival," Zhu said.

Zhu said that major e-commerce platforms have increased their investment in livestreaming, which allows consumers to learn more about the products and improve their shopping experience.

"With the further development of technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence, the application of livestreaming in the e-commerce field will become more widespread and increasingly become an important force driving the development of the e-commerce industry," Zhu noted.

Staffers sell locally produced grain and pork bacon in Xinyang, Central China’s Henan Province, with the help of livestreaming e-commerce on January 21, 2024. Livestreaming e-commerce is drawing more people to participate in the cause of rural revitalization. Photo: VCG

On JD.com's livestreaming platform, the viewership on Friday evening increased by 460 percent compared with the same period last year. JD.com's livestreaming orders surged by an astonishing 300 percent compared with the first four hours of the platform's Double 11 sales event, which started at 8 pm on October 23, 2023.

Global Times