Once a year, e-commerce platforms face the industry's most important test: how to win the battle of Double 11?

Under the "longest-ever" double-cycle, on the evening of the 31st, Tmall's Double 11 officially began sales. On the 1st, Tmall's latest data showed that brand products saw an explosive start, with 100 brands achieving over 100 million in transactions, more than 1,000 brands experiencing transaction growth exceeding 100%, and nearly 2,000 brands with growth surpassing 500%.

Behind the impressive performance of the Double 11 opening sales, Tmall has increased its investment this year, offering additional billion-yuan consumption vouchers and red envelopes on top of full reductions. As the most critical consumption event in the second half of the year, Double 11 has once again demonstrated its powerful role in driving sales growth for brand merchants and has gained even more popularity among consumers.

In the eyes of industry insiders, another significant change this year is that e-commerce platforms no longer emphasize "low prices" exclusively, but are placing greater emphasis on quality and service. The industry is looking for new growth points and hopes for a new transformation after a prolonged period of "price wars."

Branded products are starting to explode

Apple transaction value exceeds 100 million

In the second half of this year, the national stimulus policies have been intensified, and the consumer market has shown numerous positive signs, making Double 11 an important milestone to verify the vitality of the consumer market.

"We are indeed making the biggest investment ever in a double event." This was previously stated by Wu Jia, President of the Taobao User Platform Business Unit, in an interview with the media.

This year's Tmall Double 11 pre-sale has already started on the 20th, with official sales beginning at 8 PM on the 31st. In terms of discounts, on top of the official straight reductions or cross-store full reductions, Tmall is expected to invest an additional 5 billion yuan in consumer vouchers and red envelopes.

From the data perspective, the beauty and skincare category on Tmall has witnessed the collective return of international大牌. Within the first hour of the sale, the number of Tmall beauty brands that surpassed 100 million in sales reached. Within the first minute of the sale, brands like L'Oréal, Lancôme, SkinCeuticals, Estée Lauder, Helena Rubinstein, and La Mer broke 100 million in sales. This is inseparable from Tmall's concentration of a large population with high purchasing power and its increased efforts in offering discounts.

Well-known domestic cosmetics brands also performed exceptionally, with Proya breaking the 100 million yuan mark within minutes of going on sale, and MEEGO and Lin Qingxuan making their debut in the "100 million yuan club."

Another trend is that this year, the number of super products and their explosive power in the beauty category have both exceeded expectations. Data shows that on the first day of the sale, super products such as the Replenix Collagen Stick, Helena Rubinstein Black Diamond Cream, and SkinCeuticals Cream all broke the 100 million mark. Among the top 1,000 beauty products ranked by transaction volume, there were new products, a growth of % compared to last year.

The apparel industry has also witnessed the same trend. This year's Tmall Double 11 saw a surge in many top apparel brands, with some brands doubling their transaction volume within the first hour compared to the previous year. Among them, several brands achieved a doubling in transaction volume, and a few brands, such as Gao Fan, with higher price points, surpassed the billion-yuan mark in transaction value, showing a significant increase.

Sports and outdoor apparel have caught the new consumption trend this year. Within hours of going on sale, one brand surpassed 100 million, several brands exceeded 10 million, and multiple brands saw their transactions double.

Among them, emerging outdoor brands have shown strong explosive power. Pelliot has achieved a year-on-year growth of %, Mammut has achieved a year-on-year growth of %, and brands such as KOLON, Salomon, and On have all experienced significant increases.

Under the stimulus of policies such as trade-in, government subsidies for the trade-in of home appliances and electronic products can now be stacked with various discounts from Tmall Double 11 for the first time. Brands, in coordination with national subsidies, continue to increase their investment in the Tmall platform, sustaining the continuous growth of their products.

Data shows that within minutes of the digital industry's launch, Apple's transaction volume exceeded 100 million yuan. Within an hour of the sale, Huawei, Xiaomi, Samsung, Sony, and other 10 digital brands surpassed 100 million yuan in transactions, with 10 brands doubling their transaction volume year-on-year. Simultaneously, 10 home appliance and furniture brands surpassed 100 million yuan in transactions, with 10 brands doubling their transaction volume on the first day of on-the-spot sales compared to the previous year.

Taobao Live has been promoting the "Quality Live Streaming" model featuring professional hosts and high-quality product offerings, which has also been validated during the Double Opening Sale period. According to Taobao Live, live broadcasts by Li Jiaqi, Bee Surprise Club, Mushroom Coming, Lie'er Baby, Chen Jie, and others achieved over 100 million RMB in transactions per minute. Additionally, broadcasts by Jiao Ge Pengyou, All Girls' Wardrobe, Hu Ke, and Wine Sister also reached over 100 million RMB in transactions per minute. These live broadcasts either grew from within the Taobao platform or joined Taobao since last year and have been continuously expanding their presence.

Middle-class consumption is picking up

"Quality at a great price" becomes the key phrase

"Quality" and "Brand" are the two key words for this year's Tmall Double 11.

On the date, Liu Bo (alias: Jialuo), President of the Tmall Business Unit, stated at the Double 11 launch event, "Throughout the Double 11 event, Tmall is committed to providing even better service. There will be no concerns for consumers regarding product quality, service processes, or direct brand supply. This is what we are further strengthening this year's Double 11 and will continue to uphold."

And in the industry's view, unlike last year, a noticeable change this year's Double 11 is that e-commerce platforms are no longer encouraging mere "price wars."

"Taobao will compete in different price ranges within each category, rather than focusing on creating a mineral water priced at one cent per bottle within the one-yuan price range today," emphasized Shen Weiye (alias: Chuduan), President of the Taobao Platform Business Unit, in an interview with reporters. He believes that blindly pursuing low prices will lead to internal competition, causing a regression in China's business environment, consumption, and manufacturing.

During the previous earnings call, Daniel Wu, CEO of Alibaba Group, proposed that for Taobao and Tmall businesses, the company focuses on "enhancing user experience through good products, competitive prices, and excellent service, thereby stabilizing the market share of the Taobao and Tmall Group and returning the business to a growth trajectory." He also mentioned that starting from the last quarter, Alibaba has accelerated the progress of some projects aimed at improving platform traffic utilization and product conversion efficiency while enhancing and optimizing merchant monetization efficiency.

It is evident that this year, Tmall has significantly increased its investment towards consumers, offering additional benefits such as official discounts, cross-store full reductions, and an extra billion yuan in consumer vouchers and red envelopes. Additionally, "Internet interoperability" has become a major focus for Taobao in enhancing product experience during this year's Double 11, with Taobao now supporting multiple payment methods including Alipay and WeChat Pay. Reports indicate that in this month alone, Taobao's monthly active user count increased by 10 million, possibly due to the convenience brought about by internet interoperability.

In addition, this year's Double 11 will see the scope of coupons expanded for the first time from Tmall stores to some Taobao stores. Meanwhile, Taobao has introduced consumption vouchers for best-selling items across various niche categories, making it convenient for members to "combine orders" when using the coupons.

Behind this initiative lies Taobao's strategy to deepen its paid membership operations, further stimulating and leveraging the potential for user growth.

Tmall Double 11 sales data shows that this year, mid-range consumer brands across various industries have all gained significant popularity. In the beauty and skincare sector, both international luxury brands and domestic high-end brands have performed well. In the apparel industry, high-priced brands and this year's hot outdoor sports "mid-range essentials" have seen strong sales. With government subsidies, the transaction volume for "big-ticket" items such as mobile phones and home appliances has also surged.

This change suggests that middle-class consumption is recovering. Simply "bidding low" across the entire internet cannot fully meet consumer needs. The public's expectation for major sales events remains a combination of quality and affordability, with "good products" still holding the highest priority.

The number of members on Taobao and Tmall has reached millions by the end of the month, making it the largest e-commerce platform with paid members in the country. At the Tmall Double 11 press conference, relevant officials revealed that over the past year, more than half of the business for Tmall's top brands has been contributed by members.

This group of consumers with strong purchasing power undoubtedly places more emphasis on "good products." This year, the platform has increased the benefits for members during the Double event, with each member now able to receive four large discount coupons, up from two in previous years, totaling in discounts.

At the merchant level, industry insiders point out that after years of competition, the e-commerce industry has eliminated many merchants with low operational efficiency and high operational costs through "low prices." How to rebuild a healthy competitive mechanism for merchants within the platform is now drawing attention from e-commerce platforms.

For merchants, this year's Tmall Double 11 has seen a series of changes. In response to the three major challenges faced by merchants—malicious refund requests by "sheep wool party," high return costs, and low-price competition—Chen Weiyie stated that since the beginning of this year, Taobao has been actively optimizing the business environment by loosening restrictions on refunds, upgrading shipping insurance, and reshaping price competitiveness, effectively addressing the industry's "three major ailments" and helping merchants break free from internal competition.

Taobao and Tmall will soon roll out more strategies to improve the business environment, including expanding the coverage of return proof, upgrading multiple after-sales tools, and closing the full refund evaluation entry, to help merchants reduce costs and increase efficiency during the Double 11 event, and to build a fair and vibrant e-commerce ecosystem.

It is noteworthy that to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of merchants, Taobao has long provided merchants with an appeal and review entry, as well as compensation schemes. Taobao revealed that the platform has accumulated compensation exceeding 100 million yuan, with a completion rate of over % for merchant appeals within days.

Cao Lei, Director of the E-commerce Research Center at Wangjing.com, stated that e-commerce platforms implementing various support policies before the Double 11 shopping festival can help reduce merchants' operating costs, attract small and medium-sized merchants to join, and thus optimize the platform's ecosystem. For merchants, this alleviates their operational burdens, enhances service efficiency, and increases exposure opportunities. For the platforms, it optimizes the merchant ecosystem, diversifies the types of merchants, offers consumers more choices, and indirectly improves consumer experiences.

A better business environment provides merchants with more operational certainty, and merchants' enthusiasm for operation continues to increase. Data shows that the number of new brands joining Tmall each month has surged by % compared to the previous month; various types of ecological merchants are continuously joining Taobao, with new brand stores increasing by % and farm stores growing by % in the first half of the year.

Under a series of proactive measures, Wu Jia also told reporters recently that Taobao has seen a rapid increase in the usage frequency and user scale among young users and users from lower-tier markets. "We expect this to be the Double 11 with the highest participation in history," he said.