In the AI era, Alimama leads consumer brands to "win the new".

Consumers, who are constantly showing new characteristics such as diverse needs, multiple values, and a continuous pursuit of novelty, no longer just pay for products. Instead, they vote for the lifestyle, values, and sustainable commitments conveyed by brands.

Their selection criteria go far beyond just "cost - effectiveness": a sun - protection suit should be able to create a "mountain - style outfit", and a pair of hiking shoes should tell a "climbing" story.

This is not a bad thing. According to the recently released "Alimama Festival Promotion Trend Discovery", the female consumer group, which is the main force in the consumer market, is releasing new impetus. They love life, understand life, and clearly know the life they aspire to.

"Now, just shouting loudly in business doesn't work. You have to learn the 'art of mind - reading,'" a brand manager told 36Kr. And the cultivation of the "art of mind - reading" is being quietly rewritten by AI technology. Based on in - depth insights into consumer trends and technological dividends, Alimama has put forward the keyword of "Winning with AI for High - quality Growth", attempting to use the power of technology to change the dialogue between brands and consumers from "mutual suspicion" to "a two - way pursuit".

1. The 3·8 Promotion: The First "New Growth Experiment" of the Year 

Understanding consumers is always a topic that remains fresh no matter how many times you look at it.

Gen Z consumers buy trendy toys for the "emotional symbols" and sugar - free drinks for the "health labels". Even when ordering a cup of coffee, they want it to be "delivered to their doorstep in 9 minutes". Behind this transformation is the diversification of consumers' definitions of "value". Beyond basic elements such as function and price, elements like emotional value, health concepts, instant experience, and even scene adaptation are all becoming important factors in consumption decisions.

This is both a challenge and an opportunity for brands. This is an old story, but those who can use new technologies to capture these needs will be half a step ahead in the competition and will be the first to hold the winning cards during the reshuffle period.

If the annual consumer market is compared to a marathon, the 3·8 Promotion is the first turn after the start, the starting point of a "new growth experiment". It is not only a carnival for female consumers but also a golden opportunity for brands to "renew" at the beginning of the year. According to a survey by Alimama's Damo Platform, 90% of the users who were in the pre - promotion stage during the 3·8 Festival in 2024 made purchases during the 618 Promotion, and 75% of the purchase users during the 618 Promotion were visitors from the 3·8 Festival.

This means that whoever can "win new customers" during the 3·8 Festival can set the tone for the whole - year business.

Alimama's "Winning with AI" strategy is precisely a customized solution for brands. Through the support of capabilities in three major directions - Technology for Progress (breaking through with technology), Brand for Innovation (occupying the consumer's mind), and Business for Optimization (reducing costs and increasing efficiency) - AI not only helps brands identify consumers' "pain points" but also enables new products to gain popularity faster and best - selling products to maintain their momentum. A home - furnishing brand increased its GMV by 600% through AI - powered advertising, and a trendy - toy brand doubled its conversion rate by using AI to target specific audiences. Behind this is Alimama's redefinition of the "growth logic" with technology.

2. Seeing the "Combat Power" of AI

Some brands' "pilot projects" have achieved tangible results.

Business optimization is the foundation, brand innovation is the path, and technological progress is the force for innovation and breakthrough. The directions explored and summarized by Alimama are now more concretely presented. Since values are diverse, so are the opportunities for brands. By segmenting values, it helps brands target precise consumer groups and achieve consumer operation from traffic to retention to precise targeting through AI - driven methods.

Chihuas: Making Products "Understand Consumers' Minds"

The success of the home - furnishing brand Chihuas is a typical case of "AI understanding consumers' minds". In the past, the common keyword for functional sofas was "comfort", but it was not clear what kind of comfort consumers actually needed in specific scenarios.

Alimama's "Wanxiangtai Unbounded Edition" analyzed user behavior and identified two core consumer groups: the "couch potatoes" who pursue relaxation at home and the "quality - conscious" who value environmentally friendly materials. Therefore, Chihuas promoted its "first - class cabin sofa" and "gold - A4 thick mattress" as the main products and combined them with scene - based marketing of the "lying" scenario to create an immersive experience in the live - streaming room.

The assistance brought by AI technology began to take effect. The AI - powered intelligent advertising capabilities of the full - site promotion can help merchants simplify operations, optimize advertising strategies, and ensure the maximum utilization of resources. With such technological support, the brand has transformed from a "scatter - gun" marketing approach to "precision targeting", which means that the brand can more effectively attract and convert target consumers under the guidance of consumer trends.

At the same time, Chihuas also built content channels such as super short - videos and "Guangguang", and used the full - site brand - effectiveness promotion to integrate the full - domain promotion traffic and AIGC capabilities to truly achieve intelligent joint advertising for brand and effectiveness.

Data during the 3·8 pre - sale period showed that its GMV increased by 600% year - on - year, the live - streaming GMV increased by 967% year - on - year, the conversion rate increased by 137%, the pre - sale amount of the new Lawrence sofa exceeded 800,000 yuan, and the brand ranked first in the functional sofa category on the Taobao platform.

Kailas: Telling Good "Circle Stories"

The powerful ability of AI lies not only in accurately identifying consumers' needs but also in helping brands tell attractive "circle stories".

Traditional outdoor equipment has always carried the label of "tough - guy". However, with the help of AI - powered crowd detection by Alimama's Damo Platform, it has captured consumer groups such as professional outdoor enthusiasts, general outdoor enthusiasts, and trendy dressers, expanding from crowd segments to crowd circles and tapping into the incremental potential of opportunity groups. In particular, female Gorpcore enthusiasts are not only outdoor sports lovers but also participants in the trendy fashion.

Therefore, Kailas quickly adjusted its strategy. On the one hand, it launched the theme of "Her Climbing" in cooperation with the "Little Black Box" on the platform to promote female power. On the other hand, it simultaneously promoted topics such as "Climbing Only for the Summit" and "Her Climbing" on off - site platforms like Xiaohongshu to attract more attention. At the same time, in terms of products, it launched a new hiking shoe that won the ISPO Design Award and cooperated with the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute to tell the color story of Chinese mountains.

In combination with the "Super Live - Streaming", the pre - sale ROI of Kailas' best - selling hiking shoes increased to twice the industry average. As of now, during the 3·8 pre - sale period, the GMV increased by more than 100% year - on - year, the marketing coverage rate of the new - customer acquisition circle for outdoor products exceeded 50%, and the brand even jumped to the 4th place in the ranking of outdoor/mountaineering/travel supplies stores on the Taobao platform.

AI has become the brand's "circle translator". It can not only find high - potential consumer groups but also transform the tough - guy outdoor stories into emotional languages that the public can resonate with.

OPPO and Proya: AI - Driven Consumer Engagement

In the era of stock competition, traffic is precious, but brands have clearly realized that the real growth code lies in how to convert the passing "traffic" into the "retention" of consumers who are willing to come back repeatedly.

Take OPPO as an example. When the brand launched the new Find N5 folding flagship product during the 3·8 Promotion, it faced a key problem: how to accurately target "tech enthusiasts" and "office elites" from a large number of users? Alimama's business tools became the key to solving this problem.

Through AI algorithms, the system identified the users who frequently searched for "black - tech mobile phones" and "business flagship phones" on and off the platform and accurately pushed product videos on external social media platforms. Combined with the in - platform content entrance, it intuitively presented the product value. At the same time, the AI capabilities of the Wanxiangtai Unbounded Edition connected the off - platform grass - planting traffic with the in - platform search behavior to undertake users' in - platform behavior. With this combination of strategies, the GMV of the Find N5 exceeded 100 million yuan in the first week, and the proportion of new customers reached 65%.

Another typical case is Proya. The brand targeted the "gift - giving scenario" during the 3·8 Promotion and hoped to make the Ruby Set the top choice for "gifting to mothers", "gifting to girlfriends", "gifting to oneself", and "gifting to girlfriends". But how to stand out from thousands of skin - care products? Alimama's "Intelligent Pricing for Product Operation Scenarios" provided the answer. AI analyzed historical data and found that gift - giving consumers were sensitive to the keywords "anti - aging" and "gift - box packaging" and were less price - sensitive than self - use consumers.

Therefore, Proya targeted high - potential groups such as "white - collar women in first - and second - tier cities" and targeted advertising at benefits such as "peptide anti - aging" and "limited - edition gift - box gifts". Eventually, the pre - sale GMV exceeded 3 million yuan, the ROI increased by 20% year - on - year, and the click cost decreased by 40%.

These cases confirm a trend: AI is no longer just a cold "advertising machine" but a "demand translator" between brands and consumers. When technology can accurately identify the implicit needs of "office elites who want to show their taste" or capture the psychology of "gift - givers who care more about decency than price", traffic will naturally be converted into retention.

The complexity of "people" is decoded by AI into business certainty. Whether it is OPPO using ShowMAX to occupy the minds of tech - savvy consumers or Proya leveraging intelligent pricing to tap into the gift - giving market, the same logic lies behind: using AI to decode consumers' minds and making every budget spent on the truly "right people".

3. In the AI Era, Growth is a "Two - Way Pursuit"

In the business scenario of merchants, AI has penetrated into the entire e - commerce value chain, from the pre - stage insight into consumer trends, to the accurate judgment and reach of consumer groups, and then to the efficiency improvement in the business process, becoming a new round of technological dividend.

Once, users were just a series of data and a unit of traffic. Now, AI allows brands to see the specific people behind the traffic: the girl who is choosing a healing toy for her girlfriend, the working mother who wants to prove her independent spirit with a windbreaker, the overtime worker who is seeking comfort on the sofa late at night... What Alimama and those brands that take the lead have verified is not only the iteration of technology but also the reshaping of the relationship between brands and people. Consumer trends are no longer a black box but a new productive force that can be utilized.

This reshaping is also enabling Alimama to create a healthier ecosystem: when the "Net Transaction Bidding Model" automatically filters out bargain - hunters, when the "Return Insurance" provides a safety net for honest merchants, and when the "New Year Winning New Customers Plan" offers one - on - one support to small and medium - sized brands, growth is no longer a zero - sum game.

When technology is no longer a cold tool but a bridge connecting brands and users, growth has a human touch. Behind this "track - changing" is the evolution of the market from "resource - competition" to "wisdom - competition", and it is also Alimama's ultimate interpretation of "Winning with AI for High - quality Growth".

As Alimama's slogan goes, every business effort counts. Standing on the consumer battlefield in 2025, Alimama, with the 3·8 Promotion as a carrier, reveals a truth: the future belongs to those brands that use AI to understand consumers and use technology to achieve "precise empathy".