今年618 安静到让人害怕

This year’s 618 shopping festival broke from past years’ hype of splashy marketing, complex order bundling and coupon chasing, taking on a far more low-key tone. This shift has brought tangible changes to average consumers, with key takeaways as follows:

1. The shopping experience has improved drastically: Promotion rules have been simplified to direct official discounts and immediate in-stock availability. Consumers no longer need to calculate minimum-spend discounts or hunt for hidden coupons, making the checkout process as simple and smooth as regular online shopping, saving hours of tedious math.

2. Common shopping traps have been significantly reduced: Regulators have issued clear pricing rules banning deceptive tactics like inflating prices before marking them down or fake discounts. Product pricing is now far more transparent, so shoppers no longer need to worry about falling for promotional tricks.

3. It is now easier to shop for what you actually need: Consumers are no longer pushed into impulse buying by platforms’ "you’ll miss out if you don’t buy now" anxiety. Shoppers can order based on their actual needs, and even use AI tools to compare prices, product specs, and make faster, more confident decisions for a far more relaxed shopping experience.

The low-key tone of this year’s 618 signals a new development trend in China’s e-commerce industry, with clear implications for brand operation strategy. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Shifting consumer trends: Consumers now shop far more rationally, and are no longer driven to impulse purchase by low prices. Their decisions now center on whether a product fits their needs, product quality, and brand trust. Brands need to adjust their operational priorities to adapt to this shift.

2. Clearer compliance requirements: Regulators have issued explicit rules banning irrational promotional tactics including fake discounts, price inflation before markdowns, and opaque subsidies. Red lines for price competition are now clearly drawn, making the old playbook of driving GMV via big promotions and accepting strategic losses through price wars unsustainable.

3. Direction for operational transformation: Brands need to shift from competing on price to competing on product strength and brand value. They can leverage AI tools provided by platforms to achieve end-to-end cost reduction and efficiency improvement, adapt to the trend of extended promotion cycles, allocate resources steadily, and prioritize actual profits over illusory traffic growth.

The changes we saw at this year’s 618 send clear signals about policy shifts and market direction for e-commerce sellers. Key insights are as follows:

1. Policy and risk reminder: China’s new rules for internet platform pricing officially took effect this year. Regulators have explicitly banned irrational large subsidies and deceptive tactics such as price inflation before markdowns and fake discounts, with clear red lines drawn for price competition. Sellers need to update their old promotion strategies promptly to avoid compliance risks.

2. Market shift alert: The "exchange lower price for higher volume" strategy is delivering diminishing returns, and the era of price wars has come to an end. The old playbook of chasing GMV via big promotions leads to sustained losses and is no longer viable, so sellers need to transform their business models as soon as possible.

3. Opportunities and actionable directions: Sellers can shift focus to competing on product strength, service quality and user retention. They can also leverage platform-provided AI tools to cover the full process from product selection, pricing, and marketing to customer service, cutting costs and boosting efficiency. The extended 618 promotion cycle also allows sellers to allocate inventory more steadily, reducing cost pressure from short-term demand spikes.

The e-commerce industry changes reflected in this year’s 618 bring new business opportunities and transformation insights for manufacturing factories. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Shifts in product development and production demand: Consumers now prioritize product quality, design appeal and practicality over impulse purchases based on low price, and downstream merchants have shifted from price competition to competition based on product strength. This is forcing factories to adjust their product design and production strategies: instead of only pursuing low-cost high-volume output, they now need to build high-quality products aligned with actual consumer demand.

2. Insights for digital transformation: E-commerce operations have become fully digital and AI-powered across the entire value chain. Factories can connect to digital tools from platforms and brands to more accurately track shifts in consumer demand, schedule production, reduce the risk of excess inventory, and improve production efficiency.

3. New business opportunities: With extended promotion cycles and the industry shifting toward rational, sustainable development, factories no longer need to overwork to handle the explosive short-term order spikes that used to come with big promotions. They can now schedule capacity more steadily, maintain a stable long-term operating rhythm, and reduce volatility risk on the production side.

The changes at this year’s 618 clearly outline new e-commerce industry trends and reveal emerging market pain points, with key implications for service providers as follows:

1. Industry development trend: The e-commerce industry has shifted from the early phase of cutthroat price competition in a growing market to精细化 operation competition in a saturated market. AI-powered end-to-end operational enablement is a clear core direction, and normalized, dispersed big promotions have become a new industry norm.

2. Unmet client pain points: Merchants have long struggled with low profits from price-driven volume chasing, and short, concentrated big promotions create massive pressure on logistics, labor and inventory management. Consumers are also dissatisfied with complex promotional rules and deceptive tactics. All of these are unmet needs in the current market.

3. Direction for solution development: Merchant demand for AI-powered cost reduction and efficiency tools has surged significantly. Merchants need intelligent service support for everything from product selection, pricing, customer service and marketing to full-process operational reviews. Service providers can build corresponding products and solutions centered on AI-powered merchant enablement to align with the industry’s new demands.

The changes at this year’s 618 reflect new demands from both merchants and consumers for e-commerce platforms, and outline a new direction for platform operation and management. Key insights are as follows:

1. Compliance reminder: Regulatory oversight of price promotions and industry competition order is tightening. Regulators have explicitly required platforms to fulfill six core responsibilities, including strict entry requirements, standardized pricing, quality control, and after-sales protection. The old playbook of capturing traffic via cutthroat subsidized price wars no longer meets regulatory requirements, so platforms need to adjust their operating logic to mitigate compliance risks.

2. Shifting demands from users and merchants: Consumers want a simple, transparent shopping experience, while merchants want stable operations and solid profits. Platforms need to adapt to these demands by simplifying promotion rules, extending big promotion cycles, dispersing traffic and operational pressure, and building a more friendly operating environment for merchants.

3. New growth direction: Conversational AI shopping is an emerging growth area. Platforms can build out AI shopping entry points, provide end-to-end AI operational tools for merchants, improve shopper efficiency, help merchants cut costs and boost efficiency, attract more merchant sign-ups, and optimize overall platform operational performance.

The low-key tone of this year’s 618 is a milestone event marking the e-commerce industry’s entry into a mature stage, highlighting multiple notable new industry trends worthy of research. Key observations are as follows:

1. New overall industry trends: The e-commerce industry has completed its transition from early-stage unregulated growth and cutthroat price competition to a mature phase of rational, sustainable development. Four factors—stricter regulatory standards, more rational consumers, merchant operational transformation and technological upgrading—have jointly driven a restructuring of industry logic, and industry order is returning to rationality.

2. New business model shifts: The big promotion business model has shifted from short, concentrated hype events to extended, normalized promotions, resolving the many industry problems caused by short-term demand spikes. At the same time, AI is restructuring the entire end-to-end process of e-commerce shopping and merchant operation; conversational shopping is emerging as a new e-commerce entry point, giving rise to an entirely new e-commerce operating paradigm.

3. Future development direction: Going forward, the e-commerce industry will prioritize product strength, brand value and operational efficiency over traffic and price competition. The entire industry will develop in a more stable, long-term-oriented direction, and low-key big promotions will become the new norm, serving as a marker of the industry’s ongoing advancement.