"2024 Double Eleven Consumption Insight Report" | Domestic brands are "selling like crazy", and the era of AI shopping is accelerating.
On November 12, the Zhongxin Jingwei Research Institute, in collaboration with the Research Institute of the China International Electronic Commerce Center and Inspur Zhuoshu, released the "2024 Double Eleven Consumption Insight Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). The "Report" indicates that during this year's Double Eleven period, the overall consumer market has demonstrated a steady growth trend. Domestic brands have shone brightly, Generation Z leads the trend of domestic fashion consumption, and the boosting role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology in e-commerce shopping is increasingly prominent.
The "Report" reveals that from October 14 to November 11, 2024, the online retail sales exceeded 1.9 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth rate of more than 8%. The sales of clothing, shoes, hats, knitwear and textiles, daily necessities, household appliances and audio-visual equipment ranked the top three. In terms of the sales proportion of the main platforms, Tmall and JD.com ranked the top two.
Screenshot of the "2024 Double Eleven Consumption Insight Report", the same below
The research group also conducted an online questionnaire survey. The results show that for this year's Double Eleven, in addition to paying attention to price, cost performance, brand, etc., consumers attach greater importance to the shopping experience, and the trend of rational consumption is more evident.
Generation Z Leads the Trend of Domestic Fashion and Values Emotional Value More
The "Report" indicates that during the monitoring period, the top ten industries in online sales are clothing, shoes, hats and knitwear, daily necessities, household appliances and audio-visual equipment, grain and food, cosmetics, cultural and office supplies, communication equipment, furniture, sports and entertainment supplies, and gold and silver jewelry. Among them, the industries of gold and silver jewelry, communication equipment, and cosmetics have a faster growth rate.
From the perspective of the main platforms, the "Report" shows that JD.com has the largest sales proportion in industries such as 3C digital and household appliances, Tmall performs exceptionally well in industries such as grain, oil and food, and cosmetics, and Douyin Shop leads in fields such as clothing, shoes and hats.
The performance of domestic brands is remarkable. The "Report" shows that for this year's Double Eleven, domestic brands continue to perform strongly in the market, occupying 7 seats in the top 10 in sales. This indicates that domestic brands not only gradually catch up with international brands in product quality and technological innovation, but also gain high recognition from consumers in cultural value and emotional identity.
The "Report" shows that affected by the gold fever, domestic brands of gold jewelry have performed well. The sales of products with Chinese cultural connotations and elements such as new Chinese-style jewelry, new Chinese-style gowns, Song brocade, museum cultural and creative products, and intangible cultural heritage products have increased by more than 50%. The combination of traditional culture and fashion elements has become a hot topic among the Generation Z consumer group.
The online survey results of the "Report" research group show that the sales of products with a strong emotional substitution and those that help improve personal pleasure and satisfaction have shown a significant upward trend. The consumption behavior of Generation Z consumers is not only to meet material needs, but more to seek psychological satisfaction and emotional belonging.
As an emerging consumer force, the consumption choices and behaviors of Generation Z are leading a new market trend. In response to this trend, Wang Wei, the former director and second-level researcher of the Market Economy Research Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Council, believes that this not only reflects the high recognition of Generation Z on cultural confidence, but also reveals the important position of emotional value in their consumption decisions. The cultural identity of Generation Z brings new business opportunities to brands, and brands that can resonate with consumers emotionally are more likely to stand out in the competition.
Wang Wei also pointed out that the consumption characteristics of Generation Z not only change the market demand side, but also put forward higher requirements for the supply side. "China has a rich industrial system and a huge supply capacity, but how to find a balance between high-quality supply and flexible response has become the main challenge for brands and platforms."
AI Technology and Interconnection Achieve New Growth
The interconnection of e-commerce platforms is an important feature during this year's Double Eleven period and has become an important factor in promoting the growth of sales. The wide application of AI technology has further facilitated shopping convenience and promoted sales growth.
The "Report" points out that on the one hand, interconnection optimizes the consumer payment experience and improves the delivery efficiency; on the other hand, it reduces the operating costs of merchants and alleviates their business costs. The gradual elimination of barriers between platforms has enhanced the capabilities of various infrastructure such as payment and logistics, and users can flow freely between different e-commerce platforms, which has a significant positive effect on promoting consumption.
This year's Double Eleven, in the payment field, Taobao and Tmall can access WeChat Pay, and JD.com can also access Alipay. Users can directly open the product links of Taobao on WeChat, which greatly improves the shopping experience. In the supply chain field, the logistics service of JD.com has also been connected to Taobao and Tmall, greatly increasing the logistics convenience.
In this regard, Jia Kang, the founding dean of the Huaxia New Supply-side Economics Research Institute, believes that interconnection actually builds a strategic alliance with a cooperative nature. This measure is based on the consideration of the long-term development interests of each leading enterprise. It seems to be a public welfare connection, but in fact, it fundamentally serves the investment return logic of the enterprise and has the characteristics of the sharing economy.
In addition to interconnection, another notable new technology comes from AI. Major e-commerce platforms use AI technology to optimize multiple links such as commodity recommendation, customer service experience, and supply chain management, greatly improving shopping efficiency and user satisfaction, and directly promoting the sales conversion rate of merchants.
The "Report" points out that from personalized recommendation systems to dynamic pricing strategies, AI is helping merchants more effectively meet consumer needs. By using deep learning algorithms, the platform can analyze information such as users' historical purchase data and browsing habits, and generate personalized commodity recommendations in real time to help consumers find the products they like more quickly, thereby improving the conversion rate and enabling merchants to obtain higher sales.
Li Mingtao, the chief e-commerce expert of the China International Electronic Commerce Center, said that the integration of AI and the entire e-commerce chain will be more closely. A future channel for intelligent and precise matching of supply and demand is rapidly arriving with the support of AI. More intelligent, personalized, and scenario-based shopping models and business forms will continue to promote the transformation and upgrading and high-quality development of the e-commerce industry.
It is worth noting that in addition to the technological innovation of e-commerce platforms, the subsidy support of the government and platforms also plays an important role. The "Report" points out that this year's Double Eleven government subsidy for trading in old for new is very strong. In addition to the eight subsidy categories uniformly stipulated by the country, many local governments also subsidize categories such as projectors, water dispensers, and air purifiers according to the consumption habits and market conditions of local residents. The introduction of this policy has enabled consumers to get more benefits and increased their enthusiasm for consumption. Combined with the platform's "10 billion" red envelope activity, the subsidy has effectively stimulated consumption and accelerated the activity of the market. The "Report" shows that JD.com's household appliances and 3C digital product categories have the highest sales and have achieved a high growth rate.
The Return of Rational Consumption
The "Report" points out that for this year's Double Eleven, the new consumption trends are mainly reflected in the return of rational consumption, the balance between price and quality, the emphasis on shopping experience and service, the promotion of shopping experience by new technologies, the increase of emotional and spiritual consumption, and the refinement of live-streaming with goods. Among them, the most recognized by consumers is the return of rational consumption.
The "Report" shows that in terms of after-sales service, major platforms are committed to improving the customer service experience and the return and exchange process to enhance user satisfaction. The survey shows that among the main platforms, JD.com has the highest shopping satisfaction ranking.
The "Report" shows that this year's Double Eleven promotion activity rules are complex, the preferential strength is insufficient, and the uneven quality of goods and other issues are also of great concern to consumers.
Cui Lili, the director of the Electronic Commerce Research Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, pointed out that for consumers, refined operation brings many benefits, such as more personalized commodity recommendations, high-quality shopping experience, and more convenient and efficient shopping methods. However, for some potential problems, such as excessive personalized recommendations may lead to the information cocoon of consumers and limit the diversity of consumption choices, Cui Lili reminds that consumers should remain rational and vigilant to avoid over-reliance on recommendation algorithms; at the same time, regulatory departments should also strengthen the supervision of data use and algorithm recommendations.
In response to some problems that consumers are concerned about in the big promotion, Jia Kang suggests that in the future Double Eleven and 618 and other big promotion activities, manufacturers should summarize the existing promotion experience, develop technologies with the times, continuously innovate and improve promotion strategies, and better meet the psychology of consumers, so as to promote the sustainable development of the e-commerce industry.