Sellers double on Tmall ahead of ‘6.18’ online shopping fest

E-commerce giant Alibaba says the number of sellers signing up for the annual “6.18” mid-year online shopping event has more than doubled from last year.

The “6.18” shopping festival, originally launched by Alibaba rival JD.com to mark its launch date of June 18, 1998, “6.18” has grown into a major promotional event throughout the e-commerce sector, including for Alibaba’s Tmall. For both Tmall and JD.com, the shopping frenzy created by heavy discounting attracts a vast volume of sales and revenue. 

The context

• Tmall has seen an inflow of 250,000 brands this year, double last year’s number, and puts the growth down to lower entry barriers.
• In November, Tmall saw record sales during the “Double 11” shopping festival, but it was hit with an SAMR fine for inappropriate pricing, including pushing up prices during the promotion and false advertising.
• “6.18” will run this year from May 24 to June 20.
• The news follows a record fine of $2.8 billion for Alibaba in April, when China’s State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) found it guilty of monopolistic practices, which included forcing sellers to “pick one from two”, effectively compelling them to choose either its services or those of a rival. The SAMR has launched a widespread crackdown on practices seen as anti-competitive.

Key takeaway

After SAMR launched a probe into Alibaba’s alleged monopolistic behaviour, Yang Guang, vice president of Tmall, who’s in charge of the operation of vendors, announced at the start of 2021 that Tmall would no longer support the “pick one from two” practice and would not restrict rights and interests of sellers for competitive reasons.

Sourced from Caixin Global. Image: Tmall