Alibaba kicks off 6.18 Shopping Festival. Photo credit: Shutterstock

This week, many global brands on Alibaba Group platforms reported a jump in sales during the 6.18 Mid-year Shopping Festival, a major retail event in China.

At the same time, the group’s logistics arm Cainiao took extra measures to ensure quick and consistent delivery of orders this week as 6.18 shopping got underway.

And speaking of 6.18, gourmets are getting in on the action. Sales of tasty food options, from fresh cheese to sparkling wine, soared on the digital marketplace Tmall.

International Brands’ Sales Doubled This 6.18

International brands recently arrived in China reported an increase in sales year-on-year during the first hours of the 6.18 Mid-year Shopping Festival, which kicked off earlier this week.

Over 400 brands that launched flagship stores on China’s leading cross-border e-commerce platform Tmall Global in the last three years saw sales double in the first four hours of the checkout period beginning at 8:00 PM on May 31.

Bonpoint, a French children’s apparel brand, saw a 1,000% increase in sales year-on-year in this period. Another success story, Italian healthcare company Brieye Health, shared that its sales in the first four hours exceeded RMB1.6 million ($226,292).

“At 6.18, the turnover in one day can practically surpass the sales in one month at an Italian store,” said Jane Huang, who overseas Brieye Health’s business in China.

There are 40,000 brands taking part in 6.18 on Tmall Global, including 5,000 new names.

Cainiao Delivers 6.18 Orders In 12 Hours

Cainiao worked this week to improve its fulfillment service for 6.18.

The service delivered more than half of the pre-sale purchases on Tmall within the first 12 hours of the May 31checkout period. Cainiao also delivered about 70% of the pre-sale orders paid up in the first 16 hours of the checkout period. 

This year, Cainiao introduced a new 12-hour delivery service, giving retailers more options and consumers a better shopping experience.

The platform began processing, packaging, and transporting goods to the nearest delivery station on May 26 after consumers paid a deposit to reserve their favorite items at a discounted price, a common practice during major shopping events in China.

After customers paid the final amount due, a delivery person brought the products to their door.

A Foodie’s Paradise

Food enthusiasts flocked to their favorite brands this week on Tmall as 6.18 kicked off with a smorgasbord of discounts for hungry home chefs.

From 8:00 PM to midnight on May 31, sales of 84 fresh food categories, including buffalo milk, light meals, sparkling wines, and champagne surpassed last year’s first day’s full-day sales, according to the platform.

A diverse range of top 10 brands emerged on a sales ranking list from Tmall, with KFC taking the top spot, followed by China’s leading white spirit brand Moutai and renowned liquor brand Wuliangye.

Sales point to the growing popularity of healthy beverages and snacks.

In just the first hour of the shopping festival, categories such as fruit vinegar drinks, corn silk tea, black oolong tea, and light meal packages exceeded last year’s full-day sales.

Beauty Brands L’Oreal, Estée Lauder Sales Surge In China’s 6.18 Shopping Festival

Initial sales figures from the 6.18 shopping festival, one of the major events in the global retail calendar, pointed to a recovery for China’s $49 billion beauty industry after its pandemic-induced slump.

China is the largest market globally for skin care and the second largest for color cosmetics and contributes a growing slice of revenues for the world’s biggest brands.

On Alibaba’s marketplaces, the global leader in cosmetics, L’Oreal, racked up sales of over RMB100 million ($14 million) within the first hour of 6.18, as did China’s Proya Cosmetics, France’s Lancôme, and America’s Estée Lauder.  

The early sales figures also underscored the rise of Chinese beauty brands, such as collagen skincare brand Collgene and Comfy and anti-aging specialist Uniskin. Another standout trend was the upswing in beauty device sales, including Seayeo’s LED facial beauty device.

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Alibaba Kicks Off 6.18 Shopping Festival With Discounts and Livestreams  

Taobao and Tmall are offering discounts on over 60 million products during pre-sales for this year’s 6.18 Mid-year Shopping Festival, one of China’s major retail events.

Between May 31 and June 3,every time consumers on business-to-consumer shopping app Tmall spend RMB300 or over, RMB50 ($7.85) will be automatically discounted from their bill. On the consumer-to-consumer platform Taobao they will save RMB30 for every RMB200 or over they spend.

On top of merchants’ offers, Taobao will subsidize consumer spending to the tune of RMB10 billion during the 6.18 shopping festival, appealing to the nation’s deal hunters.

Learn more about the 6.18 sales here

Alibaba Cloud’s Latest Generative AI Update Takes The Admin Out Of Business Meetings

Alibaba’s cloud computing subsidiary said on Thursday that it is integrating its generative AI model into its intelligent assistant platform Tingwu, its latest move to update applications with the artificial intelligence.

Alibaba Cloud’s large language model, dubbed Tongyi Qianwen, will enable the platform to automate meeting tasks such as generating summaries in real-time, capturing key talking points, and creating timestamps in audio or video with summaries.

The move is part of Alibaba Cloud’s broader efforts to leverage generative AI to transform its businesses. Earlier last month, it revealed that the large language model will power over 10 functions on Alibaba’s enterprise communication platform DingTalk and Alibaba’s auto-operating system AliOS.

Get ahead with more on generative AI here

Puig’s Camila Tomas On Why China Is THE Perfume Market to Watch

Fragrance giant Puig is on a tear in China, intent on capturing a slice of the world’s fast-growing markets in scents.

Puig has been investing in local partnerships, opening points of sale and upgrading its user experience in the world’s largest e-commerce market.

Camila Tomas, Puig’s head of global innovation and new technologies, said the Catalan company’s motives were twofold: growth and trend spotting.