The new narrative of Douyin Mall's 618: Let good supply speak for itself
The resource focus of the platform is shifting from "who offers the lowest price" to "who provides the best supply."
At 9 p.m., Li Wei, a merchant who had just finished stocking up, sat on the sofa. Without time to relax, she habitually opened Douyin. She wanted to check the latest popular trends - the trend of setting up street stalls in real - life scenarios was booming, and the addictive AI infinite - stream content was making many people shout for more.
In Li Wei's view, the trend of content is the trend of business. This has also allowed Li Wei to stay calm in the face of regular large - scale promotions like the 618 Shopping Festival in recent years.
On May 15th this year, the 618 Good - Stuff Festival of Douyin Mall officially kicked off. Even though the battle started earlier, the essence is not to pursue a longer time period, but to release value more precisely.
36Kr learned that this year's 618 Good - Stuff Festival of Douyin Mall has focused on several dimensions: "good products, good content, good prices, and good services." This means that doing well in such supply is more likely to stand out in the large - scale promotion.
According to the data released by the platform, a set of remarkable results emerged at the beginning of this year's Good - Stuff Festival - The number of merchants with a turnover of over 100 million yuan driven by consumer vouchers increased by 325% year - on - year. In the business driven by both content and shelves, the number of merchants with a turnover of over 10 million yuan from searches and short - videos increased by 161% and 100% respectively year - on - year. At the same time, the number of beauty brands with a turnover of over 100 million yuan increased by 75% year - on - year, and the number of clothing brands with a turnover of over 100 million yuan increased by 100% year - on - year. The order volume of stores of merchants participating in the "national subsidy" increased significantly. The order volume of air circulation fans, ice makers, and mobile phone radiators increased by 348%, 122%, and 167% respectively year - on - year.
What this set of data reveals is the differentiated path laid out by the 618 Good - Stuff Festival of Douyin Mall for merchants: Centered around good products, good content, good prices, and good services, let business grow naturally between real - life scenarios and shelves.
Make good products more visible
Stylish car air fresheners, new skincare brands focusing on ingredients, and well - established hair - care brands with decades of experience. These hidden good products that failed to enter the public eye in the past have been continuously setting new records in Douyin Mall in recent years.
The beauty and skincare brand Lingboshi is such a representative. Although the beauty industry has been highly competitive in recent years, Lingboshi, founded in 2021, has taken a unique path driven by scientific research, moving from the laboratory to the market with its full - molecular - weight hyaluronic acid technology. This has also enabled Lingboshi to continuously produce competitive good products.
In Douyin Mall, good products always achieve good results. Through refined operations, Lingboshi has even achieved a double increase in scale and profit in Douyin Mall.
Digging deeper, the essence lies in its establishment of a stable and efficient regular replenishment operation system. It expanded the replenishment live - streaming room matrix from 1 to 6, completed a large - scale and fully - formed layout, and then achieved efficient traffic reception and refined product operations through the linked operation of the main live - streaming rooms. Finally, by precisely polishing the core explosive product, the muscle - gene essence, it drove a 310% year - on - year increase in GMV and a 132% year - on - year increase in overall GMV, achieving a leap from scale expansion to healthy profitability.
This story of mutual benefit naturally extended to the 618 period. In the past, the essence of large - scale promotions has always been the efficient matching of supply and demand, which is to help good products find those who want to buy them faster. This year, the 618 of Douyin Mall has given clearer guidance on the product side: Make good products more visible and convertible.
The support policies are also clear and definite - Explosive products participating in direct price cuts/immediate discounts will receive more support, which will directly guide the key promoted categories and high - search products to unlock platform traffic support. It should be noted that high - search products are also one of the focuses during this 618 period. The strategy of giving priority to in - stock products for shipping and multi - channel stocking of main products and channel products can achieve efficient traffic conversion and make good products truly achieve high sales.
Meanwhile, this year's 618 Good - Stuff Festival of Douyin Mall divides the period into several stages: the pre - sale period, the opening period, and the sprint period. The pre - sale period corresponds to the special 520 node, and gift categories are more likely to gain attention. The opening period is the main stage for all categories. And the final sprint period coincides with special nodes such as the World Cup and the Dragon Boat Festival. In addition to the full - category explosion, more attention should be paid to categories related to the World Cup and the Dragon Boat Festival. For example, categories such as clothing, sports and outdoor, food and beverage, and digital appliances also naturally attract attention during the World Cup.
Of course, with the help of emotional and node - based marketing, good products have a better emotional foothold for their debut. After finding the right target group, scenario, and traffic pool, good products can naturally stand out.
Content planting, search catching
Doing business on Douyin, content is the hub of all business. It is also the turning point for many brands to make a comeback.
The recently popular new - Chinese - style service brand YASTEE (hereinafter referred to as "YASTEE") is the best example.
Not long ago, Elon Musk's son, X, wore a new - Chinese - style top and carried a tiger - head bag with strong Chinese traditional characteristics, instantly becoming a hot topic on social media.
As the designer of the tiger - head bag, YASTEE also became popular and witnessed a sales explosion. On May 14th, the turnover of its live - streaming room increased dozens of times compared to normal days. The same - style tiger - head bag was out of stock for a while, and the single - product GMV directly exceeded one million yuan.
But this is not the first time YASTEE has felt the influence of content. As early as the end of 2021, when the live - streaming e - commerce boom emerged, YASTEE started doing live - streaming on Douyin. The relevant person in charge of YASTEE said, "I judged that this must be done."
At that time, on the one hand, they did a good job in design and built the supply chain. On the other hand, they decided to firmly invest in content operation. Coupled with the uniqueness of the products, the data performance was excellent as soon as the live - streaming started, and the performance in 2022 even doubled.
After YASTEE became popular, within just a few hours, the sales volume of the tiger - head bag soared rapidly. The inventory was sold out on the evening of May 14th, and the merchant urgently arranged for additional production. The hot sales of this tiger - head bag also drove the sales growth of other products in the store.
Another brand that does well in content is Kangwang. As a key brand in the domestic functional hair - care and skin - care field, Kangwang collaborates with a large number of KOLs and KOCs every month to focus on planting grass around its core products. Its self - operated short - videos are shot with the main promoted products as the core, and combined with high - frequency mixed editing of influencer materials, ensuring the supply and use of more than 200 pieces of materials per day. This has enabled its advertising ROI to steadily increase.
By collaborating with influencers with strong live - streaming capabilities for live - streaming, Kangwang achieved a GMV of over 2.1 million yuan in a single 4 - hour live - streaming session. At the same time, Kangwang also built a 24 - hour non - stop live - streaming room to seize traffic opportunities and stabilize the basic daily sales of live - streaming. Finally, the proportion of live - streaming in the store's overall GMV increased by 71%, a 58% year - on - year increase.
After laying a solid foundation for product supply, content will provide the most solid framework for brand sales growth. This year's 618 Good - Stuff Festival of Douyin Mall has provided sufficient support and incentives in terms of short - videos and live - streaming.
There are two major gameplay methods in live - streaming: Collaborate with top influencers to form a "Super Value Team," and obtain exposure support based on GMV growth and investment in traffic, aiming for the peak. On the other hand, industry - specific influencers and merchants focus on industry - specific live - streaming, and then create special content in combination with nodes such as 520, the World Cup, and the Dragon Boat Festival. The platform will also provide traffic incentives.
Short - videos are divided into two categories. One is the product - linked short - videos that directly drive product transactions, allowing users to place orders directly after watching. The other is the live - streaming promotion short - videos, which can efficiently pre - heat and drive traffic to the live - streaming room, further driving the explosion of live - streaming. Product - linked short - videos are more inclined to direct transactions, while live - streaming promotion short - videos are more inclined to pre - heat in advance and increase the volume of live - streaming. Both will receive support in different dimensions. It should be noted that this is a combination of strategies. Combining the two gameplay methods can more comprehensively cover the short - video business link during the large - scale promotion period.
In addition, this year, Douyin Mall encourages merchants to actively use tools such as AIGC during the content production process, aiming to produce more high - quality video materials more efficiently.
Douyin Mall has also prepared a "Search - after - Watching Word - Cultivation Plan" in sync: When users are influenced by short - videos and directly search for the keywords you set, they can jump to the mall to place an order. This solves a problem that many platforms are troubled by - after planting the grass, the customers leave. Now, both grass - planting and conversion are completed on Douyin, and the loss rate has been significantly reduced. This also shows that merchants can completely use content to catch the large - scale promotion traffic and even convert it into long - term customers of the store.
Competitive prices and services, catalysts for long - term business
In addition to product supply and content supply, price competitiveness and service are the most calibrated indicators during large - scale promotions.
When good products naturally reach consumers, price competitiveness and service will be the key catalysts to retain consumers.
The first trump card played by Douyin Mall is the 618 consumer vouchers funded by the platform. It is worth noting that in addition to the Douyin app, multiple apps under ByteDance, such as Doubao, Hongguo Short Dramas, Toutiao, Toutiao Lite, Tomato Novel, and Tomato Listening, also issue vouchers simultaneously. Users can choose to receive multiple vouchers of different denominations on each platform according to their actual needs and use them to purchase products on each platform. This means more traffic and business growth for merchants.
In addition, Qianchuan also launched two product benefits during the 618 period: intelligent vouchers and AI investment tools. This includes additional coupon subsidies for key supported categories and the issuance of large - value vouchers for high - end product categories, further reducing the decision - making threshold for consumers and helping merchants acquire customers more efficiently. The red - envelope benefits during this large - scale promotion are quite generous, which will directly drive business growth by motivating new customers for products/live - streaming with multiple red - envelopes.
The service side is also on the table: The Feige intelligent customer service is free for a limited time, the ability to retain orders after - sales is enhanced, and logistics during the large - scale promotion is guaranteed... For merchants, actions such as improving the store experience score, opening the freight insurance, and making good use of the intelligent customer service are not complicated, but they can actually reduce the operational friction cost during the large - scale promotion.
According to 36Kr, during this year's 618 of Douyin Mall, the shipping GMV is also a key variable, which means that merchants need to ship products as early as possible to ensure the consumer experience of users. In terms of products, it means trying to supply in - stock products with a short shipping cycle.
Looking back, the logic of the large - scale promotion track is being rewritten.
In the past few years, the keywords of the 618 Shopping Festival were once dominated by "competing on low prices" and "chasing GMV," and merchants were struggling in the flood of traffic. However, the signal released by this year's 618 Good - Stuff Festival of Douyin Mall is clear enough. The resource focus of the platform is shifting from "who offers the lowest price" to "who provides the best supply" - The comprehensive scores in the three dimensions of product differentiation, content depth, sincere prices, and warm - hearted services are the real chips for merchants to obtain traffic.
When large - scale promotions change from a broad - brush approach to a precise, phased operation competition, what is being compared is no longer who can reach the highest peak in a short time, but who can make good supply continuously visible, convertible, and repurchased within the 35 - day period. This also means that merchants need to re - understand the concept of rhythm. Instead of constantly adjusting according to the platform's rhythm, they should find the best resonance point with the platform's traffic nodes within their own supply capacity.
The real end - game of the 618 Shopping Festival is not who sells more, but who truly retains users after the hype subsides.