We teamed up with JD.com to share some Chinese e-commerce trends that arose during 2021’s 618 shopping festival. JD.com recently celebrated its 18th anniversary with its 618 sale, the anniversary marks the continuous growth of the ecommerce platform, with 2021 already indicating a 28% rise in sales from the previous year. Previously being known for it’s tech category, JD.com is steadily diversifying its product categories to attract more consumers as well as increasing the range of services on offer, contributing to an approximate 51% increase in net revenue year-on-year.
Download the full 2021 JD 618 Data Report
81% of new-ecommerce shoppers in China are from lower-tier cities. Purchase frequency of new users at JD 618 in 2021 was up by 25%. Moreover, JD consumers used the platform for more categories than ever, expanding far beyond consumer electronics, which JD is most famous for.
From JD’s 618 data, we identified these rising consumer groups
- Health nuts: Chinese consumers are increasingly concerned with their health.
- China-chic: Gen-Z are increasingly going for Chinese brands (66% of female Gen-Z said they have purchased more domestic brands in last 5 years, much higher than 14% of males).
- Pet lovers: Average monthly spending on pets in China was 507 yuan in 2021.
- Fitness fanatics: Gym memberships in China have increased to 70.3 million in 2020, up 3.19% from 2019.
- New parents: Post-80s working moms were the core consumers of Jing Dong Dao Jia during 618 sales in 2021.
Important strategies employed by JD.com to boost growth
- Helping foreign brands enter China’s market by offering customised training courses to foreign producers (including store operation course, intelligent operations tool and logistics solutions)
- Over 200,000 brands from over 100 different countries participated in the 618 sale
- 700 brands’ doubled this sales this year
- Supporting rural revitalization; benefiting from sinking market consumers
- 81% of new JD.com users come from lower-tier markets
- Has helped rural households reach larger markets through their social e-commerce platform; more than 1 million local rural producers benefitting
- Extensive logistics network has expanded JD.com’s customer and producer base
Trends of JD e-commerce development
- Domestic brands are growing faster than international brands, with a 7% higher turnover and 8% higher number of users year-over-year.
- Sinking market is a key focus with 1.9 trillion RMB 2019 total e-commerce sales were in sinking market.
- JD created two apps specifically for the sinking market (Jingxi and JD Lite).
- The post-80s are the major consumers of imported products.
- Logistics development includes acquisition of Dada logistics firm to help reach more areas throughout China and increase delivery speed.
JD’s long-term support for rural revitalization through e-commerce:
- Joint developments of iconic agricultural products to help farmers producing higher quality branded goods avoid the trap of low-price and low-quality.
- JD’s extensive logistics network covers 300 cities in rural areas and provides channels for farmers to distribute agriculture products to consumers all over China.
- JD launched social e-commerce platform Jingxi in 2019 to help rural households reach more consumers and grow their revenue.
Takeaways of the C2M Model
- Data collected from JD’s 500+million consumers to create detailed reports that can be used by manufacturers to customise products
- AI and big data analysis used to produce consumer insights, providing producers with specific advice on details including the most profitable flavour, colour and size of packaging
- C2M follows a process of online simulations to deduce consumer behaviour, manufacturing based on real demand and then the launch of products with precision marketing; reducing market research time by 75%
- C2M products target increasingly fragmented and specific consumer demands
Important stats from JD’s 2021 618 festival
- Total sales from 1st June – 18th June 2021 reached 343.8+ billion yuan
- 81% of JD’s new users come from lower-tier markets
- JD saw 120% increase of purchase frequencies of new users in lower-tier cities in 2020
- JD has logistics cooperation in over 2,700 cities and counties
- JD’s C2M model allows manufacturers to create customized products directly based on actual consumer data insights from JD’s more than 500 million customers
Learn more about 618 e-commerce trends in our full report!
For in-depth market research in the e-commerce industry, don’t hesitate to reach our project team at dx@daxueconsulting.com
