This 618 is finally over, but in terms of data, the sales are not good. Only the refund function was launched, and the cancellation of the pre-sale system failed to recover the decline, and there was no winner in this marketing.
The longest 618 in history is finally over, and unfortunately there is no winner in this fierce battle.
Since its birth in 2008, sales have fallen for the first time in 16 years. According to Xingtu data, the total sales of the whole network during the 618 period in 2024 will be 742.8 billion yuan, which can be calculated to be a year-on-year decline of nearly 7%. This means that the competition between the major platforms is no longer just a zero-sum game, but a brutal fight close to the game of shrinking the circle and eating chicken.
1. Whose fault is the "first fall".
Blaming the e-commerce platform "Buddhism" for the first drop is obviously outrageously wrong. This year's 618 is the first time in recent years that there is no pre-sale model, and the scale of various subsidies is also unprecedented.
Taking JD.com as an example, during the 618 period, the group's slogan changed from "good and cheap" to "cheap and good", highlighting the label of low price. In addition to regular discounts such as tens of billions of subsidies and cheap free shipping, Jingdong also launched a "2 yuan free shipping day", and consumers can receive an additional subsidy of 20 yuan per day.
On the Jingdong product promotion page, some merchants are even "hand-to-hand combat", directly typing the words "cheaper than Tmall". According to relevant data, this year, the number of online products subsidized by 618 Jingdong 10 billion yuan increased by more than 100% year-on-year.
In the low-price campaign, Taotian Group was not to be outdone, and played the slogan of "historic huge investment". On June 14, Tmall announced that it would give the largest discount in history to the red envelope, adding 10 billion red envelope subsidies. In the past, the pre-sale that was criticized by users was cancelled with annoying problems such as deposits and final payments, and some categories such as women's clothing with a long pre-sale period were required to be stuck within 15 days. In terms of category discounts, Taobao has launched a lot of fancy ways to play, using big-name products as drainage hooks. For example, buy an Apple and get an Apple phone, buy a coconut tree brand coconut water and get Yeezy shoes, buy Xiaomi and get a Xiaomi phone, etc.
In the face of the offensive of friends in the low-price mental war, Pinduoduo launched the tool of "automatic price following". This function can enable automatic price matching of resource slots to ensure the absolute low price of platform products.
Pinduoduo also released the top 10 single products sold in various categories of subsidies of 10 billion yuan on the same day, involving 50 categories such as fresh food, mobile phones, digital, and home appliances.
In addition to the old e-commerce platform, the price of the rising star is not ambiguous. The content community Xiaohongshu 618 discount mechanism is also full of hard work, such as the pop-up window gameplay of sharing friends for 0.1 yuan shopping.
What's even more weird is that although the pre-sale has been canceled this year, major platforms have advanced the event time. Among them, Tmall's starting time is 20:00 on May 20; JD.com starts from May 31. This also means that this year there are ten more days of the sales cycle than last year. Sales declined "this pot", and the cancellation of pre-sales could not be carried back.
is such a 618 that has no routines and is even a little sincere, but it still can't escape the fate of malaise.
Second, the head anchor fell
The head anchor who has been in unlimited scenery for several years is also sinking with 618.
Since the rise of live streaming, the leading role of head anchors in platform promotions cannot be ignored. However, this year's 618 has become their Waterloo.
Cicada mother data shows that as of 17 pm on the 18th, the top three on the list of 618 big promotion Douyin talents (May 24-June 18) are Guangdong couple, Jia Nailiang and Youhui, Li Jiaqi is not on the list for the time being. Make a Friend and Oriental Selection ranked 10th and 11th, and Crazy Brother Yang ranked 17th.
On the first day of 618 pre-sale this year, Li Jiaqi's beauty live broadcast achieved a GMV of about 2.7 billion yuan, but it fell 46% from nearly 5 billion yuan in the same period last year.
Feigua data shows that the turnover of "Guangdong couples" in the same period last year was 450 million yuan, and this year it was only 61.14 million - a year-on-year decrease of 86.4%.
Unfortunately, it's hard for new streamers to help the platform make increments. The law of one whale falling and all life does not apply to the world of e-commerce. Even Douyin e-commerce's sales growth has slowed down for the first time this year.
"Pan Yurun" was 29.529 million yuan in the same period last year and 6.748 million yuan this year, down 77%. "Qi'er" was 111 million yuan in the same period last year and 12.923 million yuan this year, down 88.46%.
After experiencing all kinds of gods and gods on the Internet, Dong Yuhui, Xiao Yang and other original super heads have begun to turn to other tracks, cunning rabbits and three holes to find a sense of security.
Coincidentally, in the face of Kuaishou's "five consecutive seals", Simba announced that he would reduce the live broadcast after returning to the live broadcast room. He said, "I probably plan to use 10 live broadcasts to make Xin Xuan accustomed to not having Simba, so that fans can get used to Simba's departure, and let the industry slowly dilute Simba's public opinion." ”
Regardless of whether fans are used to it or not, it may be difficult for the platform to get used to the days of leaving the super anchors. The streamer's anchor may be right, but today's platform is by no means ironclad. Changes in the consumer environment and rapid shifts in consumer preferences have made it possible for all platforms to fall out of favor in the next 618.
3. Consumers "lie flat"
It is only consumers who make platforms and anchors "confused".
At present, the low prices competing on major platforms have the internal logic that consumers have purchase needs, and the transaction is only subject to price. And the reality is that consumers don't want to spend money anymore, they don't want to save money.
According to the April 2024 Financial Statistics Report released by the central bank, the balance of RMB deposits at the end of April was 291.59 trillion yuan. From the comparison of data, it is found that the monthly deposits in April decreased by nearly 4 trillion yuan; Among them, residents' deposits decreased by 1.85 trillion yuan. At the same time, the scale of housing loans is also shrinking. Perhaps for today's consumers, paying off a mortgage is more appealing than buying.
There is nothing wrong with the platform, and it is even very good and rolling, but the consumers have been lying flat.
Just recently, Douyin and Pinduoduo have begun testing the "automatic price change" and "automatic price adjustment" features, allowing merchants to entrust the platform to automatically adjust the pricing of goods based on market conditions. 618 has ended, and the platform has reached this point, I really don't know where the end of the low-price war is.
Major platforms may need to understand a little love philosophy: the reason for the failure of "licking dogs" is not that they have not done enough and their attitude is not good enough, but that consumers do not love it at all.
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