虽然越来越淡 但有些仗必须在618打

This article sorts out the overall changes of the 2025 June 18 (618) mid-year shopping festival and summarizes core takeaways and practical advice for general consumers.

1. Unlike the massive growth-driven shopping sprees of the past, this year’s 618 has evolved into a segmented-demand sales event in the era of stagnant market stock, with an overall muted atmosphere. Major platforms have simplified complex mechanisms such as pre-sales and tiered discounts, and the promotion has returned to its core of straightforward low pricing — meaning consumers no longer need to spend hours calculating savings.

2. There are clear buying opportunities this year: Driven by the upward trend of memory chip prices, 618 2025 will most likely be the lowest price window for 3C electronics in the next two years. For consumers in need of cooling products, graduation travel supplies, or bulk purchases of beauty and daily necessities, 618 is an ideal time to buy: these needs are strongly tied to June, and price advantages are significant this period.

3. Small and medium-sized businesses do not need to force participation to follow the trend. They can adopt a differentiated strategy by focusing on daily sales in April and May, which can also generate solid revenue. They should make the decision to participate based on their own actual situation.

This article sorts out the new changes of this year’s 618 shopping festival and provides multi-dimensional actionable insights for brands across marketing, channel strategy, and consumer trends.

1. Consumer trends: This year’s 618 features muted overall growth paired with strong performance in niche product categories. 3C old-inventory clearance, cooling appliances, bulk beauty purchases, and graduation travel-related categories have all seen robust demand. Data from one major platform shows year-over-year growth of 348% for air circulating fans and 167% for phone coolers, confirming the growth opportunity for time-sensitive, seasonal categories.

2. Channel positioning: E-commerce has become the mainstream sales channel, so brands can adjust their positioning to treat 618 as a testing ground for new product launches. After launching new products in spring, brands can test their market reception during the promotion, then rely on word-of-mouth and repeat purchases to drive full-year second-half profits. Brands can also position e-commerce as their main hub for brand marketing and user operation to lift overall gross margins.

3. Competitive strategy: With everyday product prices already near rock bottom today, small and medium-sized brands can adopt differentiated competition: skipping the main promotion to build out daily sales in advance, so as to protect their profit margins.

This article analyzes the new changes of the 2025 618 shopping festival and clarifies actionable opportunities, risks and development directions for all types of e-commerce sellers.

1. Opportunities: 618 still holds irreplaceable value for sellers. 3C sellers can leverage the event to clear inventory of older models to make room for new, price-increased products. Cooling categories, graduation travel-related goods and bulk beauty and daily necessities are all seeing explosive demand, so sellers can concentrate resources to prepare for these segments in advance. Data shows the number of beauty brands breaking 100 million yuan in sales in the first phase of this year’s promotion increased 75% year over year, confirming sufficient market space.

2. Risk warning: Overall traffic for the promotion has declined, so blindly pouring large budgets into traffic acquisition and influencer livestreaming will severely compress profit margins. Small and medium-sized sellers do not need to follow the crowd to host large-scale promotion activities, and can focus on daily sales via differentiated competition to protect profits.

3. Future direction: Promotions will increasingly move toward shorter cycles and focus on segmented consumer groups going forward. Sellers do not need to attempt to reach all consumers; they only need to serve their target users tied to the 618 seasonal window well, and focus on product refinement.

This article analyzes new changes in today’s e-commerce promotions and provides clear actionable insights for manufacturing factories across product strategy and channel development.

1. Product design and production planning: 618 demand now shows a clear seasonal node pattern, with seasonal and time-sensitive needs strongly tied to June growing rapidly. Demand is surging for sun protection and cooling appliances driven by high temperatures, outdoor apparel and gear driven by graduation season, and older 3C models driven by product iteration. Factories can adjust their production schedules to match these node-specific demands and stock up in advance to capture growth opportunities.

2. Business opportunities: Consumer polarization is obvious today, and niche consumption is growing rapidly. Factories do not need to only chase large-volume commodity orders; they can develop products for segmented demands, and there is sufficient opportunity whether partnering with brands or launching direct-to-consumer e-commerce operations.

3. Digital e-commerce insights: E-commerce is now the mainstream sales channel, so factories can leverage 618’s new product testing function to quickly validate market reception for new products, adjust production plans flexibly and reduce the risk of excess inventory.

This article sorts out current development trends of the e-commerce promotion industry, clarifies core pain points for merchants, and outlines business development directions for all types of e-commerce service providers.

1. Industry trends: The 618 shopping festival has shifted from a mass growth-driven shopping spree to a segmented seasonal marketing event in the stock era. Major platforms are simplifying complex promotion rules and investing in AI tools to empower merchants. Going forward, promotions will develop toward shorter cycles and a focus on segmented demand, as the industry matures overall.

2. Core merchant pain points: The core pain point for merchants today is the continued decline in promotion return on investment; blind participation in major promotions compresses profit margins. At the same time, many merchants lack clear guidance on whether to participate in promotions and how to match their product offerings to seasonal demands, leading to widespread positioning anxiety.

3. Business expansion directions: Service providers can develop tiered services for merchants of different scales: provide daily operation plans for small and medium-sized merchants pursuing differentiated competition, and offer segmented operation services such as new product testing and seasonal marketing for brand merchants. Service providers can also develop tools to meet merchants’ growing demand for AI application, helping merchants cut costs and improve efficiency.

This article analyzes existing problems in this year’s 618 shopping festival, summarizes the industry’s latest practices, and provides actionable reference for platforms on merchant recruitment and operation adjustment.

1. Core demand: Today, both merchants and consumers have very clear core demands for 618: merchants want simpler rules, shorter promotion cycles, and lower operation costs for the event; consumers resent complicated pre-sales and tiered discount mechanisms, and want straightforward low prices, as well as a return to the perceived scarcity and ritual of major promotions.

2. Proven effective adjustments: This year, leading platforms including Taobao, JD.com and Douyin have proactively simplified promotion rules and eliminated complex pre-sales and discount mechanisms to counter rule bloat, returning promotions to the core of retail. This shift aligns with the shared needs of both merchants and consumers.

3. Future operation directions: Platforms can further shorten promotion cycles to rebuild the scarcity and ritual of 618, allocate more resources to segmented categories strongly tied to June, continue to deepen AI tool empowerment for merchants, and offer differentiated services for brand merchants and small and medium-sized sellers to meet the needs of different groups.

This article sorts out the latest changes of the 618 shopping festival 18 years after its launch, illustrates new trends in China’s e-commerce industry, raises new key questions, and offers high reference value for industrial research.

1. New industrial trends: After reaching peak penetration, China’s e-commerce sector has seen consecutive small declines in penetration. In 2025, the penetration rate of physical goods e-commerce stands at 26.1%, with online retail sales growing 8.6% year over year. Promotions have shifted from growth-driven expansion to stock-based operation, with both platforms and merchants adopting more rational strategies. The overall shift from a frenzied to a muted 618 marks the maturation of China’s e-commerce industry. On the consumer side, polarization is clear, niche consumption is rising, and node-specific demand has replaced the one-size-fits-all demand of mass national promotions.

2. New industry problems: Current promotions face issues such as overly long cycles that erase perceived scarcity, complex rules that deviate from the original purpose of retail, and falling return on investment for merchant spending. The sector now finds itself in the unique position of "declining user enthusiasm, but unavoidable participation for merchants".

3. Business model evolution: 618’s positioning has shifted from its original role as a discount and inventory clearance event to a scenario for new product testing, seasonal marketing, and consumer emotional release. Going forward, it will evolve into a segmented service model that no longer pursues mass national participation, and will only focus on serving specific consumer demand groups.