618 shopping festival shows Chinese economy's resilience

Alibaba helped merchants of wormwood, a Chinese herb with medicinal efficacy, sell the product to over 80 countries prior to June 18. Outbound sales jumped 50 percent year-on-year via Tmall's overseas channels.

Song Xin, owner of a wormwood store in Nanyang, Henan province, said its sales in the past two months almost doubled compared with previous years, and monthly transaction volume stabilized at 30 million yuan.

While running e-commerce platforms, Alibaba is also eyeing the empowerment of brick-and-mortar stores by promoting products and discounts online that redirect users to shop offline.

At Shanghai's Yuyuan Garden, sales between June 1 and June 3 jumped 157 percent compared with the same period of May (which happened to fall within the May Day holiday), with revenue from a particular liquor expanding seven times.

Harbin's Central Avenue, which brings together a number of time-honored brands, saw daily transactions jump 84 percent since June 1 compared with the previous month. The business community leveraged livestreaming events on Taobao to promote sales and offer discounts exclusive to the 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival.

"Sales almost doubled during this year's campaign compared with our conventional sales level, with Tmall helping us open up new sales and marketing channels online," said Nan Yafei, who is responsible for the Tmall store of Central Avenue. "This is extraordinary, especially as most offline businesses were hit hard by the pandemic."

Due to COVID-19, this year's campaign featured simplified promotions and more innovative ways of selling such as livestreaming, said Chen Wen, principal at consultancy Oliver Wyman.

"There were more discounts. Retailers want consumers to focus on choosing the right products. Brands that previously didn't participate in such events will also join the game as they've been hit hard during the pandemic," said Chen.

But Chen said the actual impact on overall consumption remains unclear. "Many consumers are just stocking up on daily groceries during this period, so there is no extra or pent-up consumption, it's just consumption in advance for the following period," he said. "Besides, due to the pandemic, many people are concerned about their future income."

The 618 Midyear Shopping Festival, just like Double 11, has become a new normal in China's retail ecosystem, meaning that gaining traction is becoming more difficult but merchants have to be part of it.

"It's probably like the CCTV's Chinese Lunar New Year gala show－everyone knows it will come and expects something new, but there's just less passion. If a brand or a retailer wants to be successful during the event, one needs to make good use of the showroom for new products, new technology and new incentives for consumers," he said. "It will be more and more difficult, but it's a must."