618 Shopping Festival... Can It Revive the Chinese Economy Hit by COVID-19?

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Sunmi Park]"Buy 300 yuan worth and get 40 yuan discount" "618 Special Discount" "618 Commemorative 1+1 Event"

On the 18th, every Chinese e-commerce platform is actively promoting the '618 Shopping Festival'.

The '618 Shopping Festival' is the largest shopping event hosted annually by JD.com, a Chinese e-commerce company, to celebrate its founding day on June 18. However, as other e-commerce companies have joined the festival, it has long become an event involving the entire country. Especially this year, due to the economic impact caused by the spread of COVID-19, a mood encouraging consumption promotion has been created, raising high expectations for the 618 Shopping Festival among companies.

JD.com is offering at least 10 billion yuan in purchase refunds and 100 billion yuan in purchase discounts in line with the 618 Shopping Festival. They announced that this year's discount scale is the largest ever. They also expanded the scope of the 618 Shopping Festival by cooperating with the video-sharing platform Kuaishou.

China's largest e-commerce company Alibaba is providing discount coupons worth a total of 15 billion yuan for the 618 Shopping Festival on its platform Tmall. More than 300 stars and 600 company CEOs appeared live to sell products in streaming sales shows. E-commerce company Pinduoduo also started attracting consumer attention with a sensational event selling iPhone 11 for less than 10 yuan.

The Chinese state-run Global Times diagnosed that e-commerce companies, aiming to increase market share, are fiercely competing through this year's 618 Shopping Festival. Although most companies in China have been hit hard by the spread of COVID-19, the e-commerce industry is showing good performance, leading to active marketing efforts to increase market share by taking this opportunity.

Global statistics and analysis firm Nielsen recently reported, "E-commerce companies regard the 618 Shopping Festival as the largest online shopping event since the outbreak of COVID-19," and explained, "Consumption and corporate confidence are recovering in China, raising high expectations among e-commerce companies."

E-commerce companies that started the 618 shopping season events early are already seeing the effects of active marketing. For example, JDDJ, operated by Dada Group, a Chinese online fresh food delivery platform, saw sales increase by 138.8% year-on-year during the week from the 6th to the 14th, thanks to riding the wave of the 618 Shopping Festival.