When big promotions no longer rely on who shouts the loudest, what can businesses rely on to win?

The data for the 618 promotion has been gradually released.

For the e - commerce industry, it is not only a summary of the results of the "mid - year exam" over the past month or so but also the best opportunity to understand the platform's operation logic and merchants' growth.

Compared with previous years, this year's 618 promotion has many new features: multiple consumption nodes such as May 20th, the World Cup, and the Dragon Boat Festival are interspersed throughout the promotion period, more precisely matching consumers' shopping needs at different times.

At the platform level, "immediate discounts/direct price cuts on single items" and "simplified gameplay" are becoming clearer. Subsidies are no longer a one - size - fits - all approach but emphasize more on the accuracy of reach and the efficiency of conversion.

At the merchant level, an increasingly clear consensus is that the brand's operating ability is becoming more and more important, gradually replacing the role of traffic - attracting skills. Those who can do a better job in terms of products, content, prices, and services are more likely to achieve growth.

The performance of Douyin Mall during this 618 promotion just confirms this change.

According to the final battle report released by the platform, this year's 618 Good - Stuff Festival on Douyin Mall achieved significant growth in multiple dimensions.

For example, the live - streaming turnover of over 120,000 merchants doubled year - on - year. The turnover of over 570,000 influencers increased by 100% year - on - year. Nearly 30,000 new merchants participated in the 618 promotion for the first time, and their turnover exceeded one million yuan. Small and medium - sized influencers contributed over 80% of the influencers' turnover from goods promotion.

What is more worthy of attention than the data is the driving force behind the growth. The platform's layout in three major aspects of product supply, content supply, price, and service, aiming at "providing good supply and securing good business", is providing merchants with a more definite and replicable growth path.

After the gameplay is simplified, the competition has shifted to a new track

The environment of this year's 618 has changed significantly.

The promotion rules have been significantly simplified, and the operational burden has been reduced. In previous 618 promotions, merchants had to deal with multiple rules such as full - reduction, deposit, final payment, flash sales, and category vouchers simultaneously. The operation team often had to start preparations one month in advance.

Many merchants reported that this is the most worry - free 618 for Douyin Mall over the years. The team no longer needs to spend a lot of time calculating accounts and can focus on product selection and content creation.

The logic of transaction improvement is more transparent and more dependent on the quality of supply. This year, the platform has sent a clearer signal in traffic distribution: merchants with attractive content and guaranteed services will have more conversion opportunities. This mechanism gives merchants a clearer direction for optimization.

Consumers are making more rational decisions, and simple low prices are gradually losing their appeal. In the past, "50% off for the whole store" could trigger a rush to buy. Now, consumers will think more rationally: Do I really need this product? Is this price really cost - effective? Is the service of this store reliable?

During this year's 618, the decision - making cycle of consumers has significantly lengthened. This means that merchants need to provide more value beyond price, whether it is the differentiation of the product itself, the sense of identity brought by content, or the sense of security brought by service.

These three trends jointly point to a conclusion: After the gameplay is simplified, the supply ability has become the core barrier for merchants in the new round of competition.

Those Douyin Mall merchants who achieved high - speed growth and strong performance during this year's 618 are precisely those who have done an extremely solid job at the supply end.

The new direction of content supply: from "peddling" to "connecting"

In the context of simplified gameplay, the role of content has been magnified. This is because when price and rules can no longer create strong differences, content is one of the few tools that merchants can use to create differences independently.

During this year's 618, a group of merchants made effective explorations in content supply. They no longer regard content as a simple "traffic - attracting tool" but as the core carrier for building user trust and conveying brand value.

For example, the beauty brand Maogeping held a live - streaming event of "National IP co - branding × AI interactive live - streaming" during the 618 "Super Brand Day" on Douyin Mall. They launched 7 new products in collaboration with the panda "Huahua" and upgraded Huahua's image into an AI digital character in the live - streaming room.

This cross - dimensional content innovation upgraded the product - promotion session into a content event. The average viewing time per person in the large - scale store live - streaming exceeded 4 minutes. The GMV of a single live - streaming session exceeded one million yuan. The daily sales explosion coefficient of the whole store exceeded 890%, ranking first on the sales list of beauty - category Douyin stores. More than 200 influencers supported the Super Brand Day. The daily sales of new customers increased nearly 2.5 times, and the daily sales of members increased by more than 3.5 times.

Maogeping's attempt shows that when a brand can transform product selling points into attractive content experiences, users are not only willing to stay but also willing to actively spread. This content - driven growth does not rely on single - time traffic purchases but can be accumulated as brand assets.

When the promotion gameplay tends to be homogeneous, innovation in content form can be the key for a brand to break through. Especially for those merchants with a large user base but in need of updating their brand image, making the live - streaming room into an "attractive program" can be more appealing than simply emphasizing price.

The sports and outdoor brand Salomon demonstrated the possibility of combining content and technology. During the 618 "Super Brand Day" on Douyin Mall, they had the top influencer "Mechanical Ji" team up with Unitree robots to form a "robot dance troupe". AI technology combined with the brand's genetic aesthetics created a future - sci - fi - style live - streaming scene.

When the brand spokesperson Bai Jingting entered this live - streaming room full of virtual and real elements, the peak number of online viewers increased by 1000 times, and the average viewing time per person increased by 200%. The bold innovation in content directly drove sales: The XT - 6 RECUT series was exclusively launched on Douyin and sold out as soon as it was launched. Six single products achieved a GMV of over one million yuan, and the daily GMV of the store live - streaming refreshed the historical peak.

If the above cases focus on the virtual space, then Supor and DJI chose to move the live - streaming room offline to impress users with a sense of reality.

Supor cooperated with the IP "New Arrivals! Street Press Conference" on Douyin Mall and set up a street live - streaming room at Baiyulan Square near the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai. Without a delicate studio setting, only the "Three Great Buildings in Shanghai" served as a natural background. Food influencers made pancakes, caramelized sugar from a first - person perspective, and even conducted a hardcore test of "stir - frying steel nails in a big fire" to prove the durability of the titanium pot in the most intuitive way.

This kind of content full of a sense of life made the natural traffic explosion more than 20 times that of daily store live - streaming, and the interaction rate in the live - streaming room doubled. The new titanium pot was priced at 999 yuan, combined with platform consumption vouchers and an exclusive buy - and - get - free mechanism. The GMV of the new product exceeded 8 million yuan, and the GMV of the brand during the new - product launch period increased by 202% year - on - year.

More notably, the large - scale materials from this street press conference were directly reused in daily store live - streaming. The click - through rate of the new product increased by nearly 50%, and the GMV of the live - streaming room increased by 70% accordingly.

DJI cooperated with the IP "New Arrivals! On Douyin" on Douyin Mall and made its first attempt at outdoor live - streaming on the go. Top influencers walked out of the live - streaming room and carried out Vlog challenges and pet - capturing on the street. The product selling points of "small, light, stable, and easy to take good photos" were verified one by one in real shooting scenarios.

Before this, DJI had already built a complete content matrix: records of celebrity trips, evaluations by top KOLs, and large - scale promotion by pan - vertical KOCs, combined with splash ads and precise traffic - guiding contracts. This combination of "comprehensive brand and star traffic - guiding + hierarchical content promotion" made the new product explode as soon as it was launched. The search rate after viewing increased by 62%, and the mental keywords such as travel shooting, imaging, and intelligence all ranked first.

The common inspiration from these cases is that the quality of content supply is becoming the key to determining the upper limit of promotion growth. The live - streaming room is no longer just an efficient tool for "selling products one by one" but a place for brands to communicate with users. Those merchants who are willing to innovate in content form and pay attention to user experience often get far - exceeding - expected returns.

The new logic of product supply: good products will sell themselves

If content makes users interested, then products make users think it's worth buying.

In the past traffic - driven logic, as long as the exposure was large enough, even ordinary products could generate sales. However, under the supply - driven logic, the competitiveness of the product itself is becoming more and more important. Because users have too many choices, only good products that truly meet their needs can get continuous repurchase and good word - of - mouth.

An obvious signal during this year's 618 is that more and more brands choose to exclusively launch new products on Douyin Mall. This is not accidental. For brands, during the promotion period, users' attention is the most concentrated and their purchasing willingness is the strongest, which is the golden window for launching new products. And the platform mechanism of Douyin Mall, "from content promotion to search reception and then to live - streaming conversion", just provides a complete infrastructure for the rapid cold - start of new products.

The deeper reason is that the freshness brought by new products is a powerful supply advantage. During the promotion period, when a large number of products are on discount, users are prone to aesthetic fatigue. A new product with a unique design, innovative function, or co - branding attribute can attract users to place an order because of its freshness, even if it doesn't have an obvious price advantage. In other words, new products don't need to compete fiercely in the market; they have their own value that can be discovered by consumers.

In terms of actual results, brands that launched new products on Douyin Mall during this year's 618 generally achieved a growth curve higher than the industry average. The new products of these brands contributed the majority of the store's GMV and drove the sales of other products in the store. This shows that new products are not only a sales increment but also a traffic engine. They will attract users to enter the store and browse, and then drive the conversion of related products.

For example, the 7 new products co - branded with Huahua by Maogeping mentioned above achieved a completion rate of over 200%, and the sales of co - branded new products accounted for over 90%. DJI's new product launch combined with the matrix live - streaming room competition mechanism achieved a paid GMV of over 170 million yuan. With the dual support of the large - scale street press conference and consumption vouchers, the GMV of Supor's new titanium pot exceeded 8 million yuan. Multiple new products of Salomon were exclusively launched on Douyin and sold out as soon as they were released, with the sales of popular models exceeding 10,000 pairs.

Beneunder's performance shows the value of key - industry support. During the 618 "Super Brand Day" on Douyin Mall, Beneunder created a ten - million - level sunscreen clothing item, the ts402 Mountain - Style Zero - Sense Sunscreen Clothing. The celebrity Chen Yao wore the same style. The inventory was sold out within 2 hours after entering the live - streaming room on the big day, and the GMV of a single live - streaming session exceeded 4 million yuan.

But more notably, the brand also made over 20 single products with a turnover of over one million yuan popular, achieving a full - category explosion from wide - leg pants, sports pants to sunglasses, face masks, backpacks, and hats.

This is not an exception but the result of the platform providing industry - exclusive traffic packages, channel exposure positions, and category - day event resources for key categories such as sports and outdoor. When a category is systematically supported, good products will develop on their own like a snowball.

Another trend worthy of attention is the change in the role of the search field during the promotion. In the past, search was regarded as part of the "shelf field" in interest - based e - commerce, mainly used to handle users' query behaviors after they had a clear purchasing intention. However, during this year's 618, "search after viewing" became an important bridge connecting content and business. After users are inspired by interest while watching short videos or live - streaming, they often directly search for relevant keywords on the platform.

When users actively search, it means they have completed the psychological transition from passive browsing to active purchasing. At this time, the conversion efficiency is much higher than that of passive recommendation.

Product supply is no longer a passive act of "putting products on the shelves and waiting to sell" but a systematic strategy that needs to be actively designed. Launching new products can be the engine of the promotion. The search field is a stable increment worthy of in - depth development. And "hidden supply" such as in - stock availability and