China is a market with a calendar punctuated with many major shopping events, with 11.1 Singles Day perhaps being the best-known, but currently we’re in the middle of the Chinese 6.18 (June 18) Mid-Year Shopping Festival.
Alibaba officially kicked off the event with 250,000 participating brands, more than double the number compared to last year. For global brands, 6.18 is as an important precursor to Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, as they fine-tune their strategies to ensure success for 11.11, the world’s biggest online shopping festival.
Brands increasingly recognize that Chinese shopping holidays are prime opportunities to build their brands globally and introduce new products and collections to consumers. This year’s 6.18 is also expected to bring 1.4 million newly launched products, including British hairstyling and appliance brand GHD’s new hair styler carrying their latest technology. British health and wellness retailer Holland & Barrett launched its flagship on Tmall Global ahead of the festival and is offering a wide range of products to Chinese shoppers.
“From our perspective, 6.18 is the biggest activity after 11.11 in the China market. We’ve got a full lineup of influencer activities and a detailed plan encompassing our latest technology products. We launched new products a couple of months earlier in preparation to generate interest behind them and to peak the conversation during the shopping festival.”
– Ross Leibbrandt, global commercial director, GHD
While shopping festivals have long been popular in China, leading retailers in the West are now doubling down around new shopping holidays in June, especially as the global retail industry looks for growth and recovery following disruptions caused by Covid-19.
Launching in China is definitely a challenge and one that most brands and retailers will seek a partner to assist with. To find out more about how a partner can assist, watch our ‘How to reach and retain profitability selling on Tmall Global‘ masterclass from Tamebay Live presented by Pattern illustrating how they have launched and manage multiple brands on Alibaba in China.
