Double 11 Price Competitiveness Showdown: When Buying Popular Smartphones, Which Platform Offers the Best Value for Money, Pinduoduo, Taobao or JD?
It is no exaggeration to say that Double 11 is the most important shopping festival of the whole year, and also the best timing recognized by many people to buy mobile phones. Of course, we all know that this year's situation is somewhat special: the price of memory chips has been rising for quite a long time, and almost all new phones released in September have seen price increases. Under huge cost pressure, even for the once-a-year Double 11, mobile phone manufacturers are unlikely to offer super discounts as they did in previous years.
But for many users, the mobile phones they have used for years have reached the point where they need to be replaced. Buying a new phone is a rigid demand, and if you are going to make a purchase anyway, Double 11 is still a suitable timing.
On October 20, several major domestic e-commerce platforms officially kicked off the Double 11 event. Taking this opportunity, Lei Tech (ID: leitech) decided to conduct a price competitiveness comparison of popular mobile phones on major e-commerce platforms, to see which platform offers more cost-effective purchases.
Pinduoduo, Taobao, JD PK: Who Offers Cheaper Mobile Phones?
We browsed the three major platforms of Pinduoduo, Taobao and JD, and found that the flagship new phones released in September are basically not discounted during this year's Double 11. To put it plainly, the cost pressure is too great, and cutting prices immediately after new phones are released will easily make users who buy at the first launch feel betrayed.
However, many old flagships released in the previous year have now entered the stage of price reduction for clearance, and the discount intensity during Double 11 is quite large, with more obvious cost-effectiveness advantages.
In this price competitiveness comparison, we selected a number of representative models, namely iPhone 18 Pro Max, Xiaomi 17 Pro, Huawei Mate80 Pro, OPPO Find X9.
Specifically, the iPhone 18 Pro Max and Xiaomi 17 Pro are the cheapest on Pinduoduo, the Huawei Mate80 Pro has the lowest price on Taobao with no coupon-grabbing requirements or hidden rules, and the OPPO Find X9 is the most cost-effective on JD after stacking national subsidies.
(Image source: Lei Tech)
Through the price comparison of several popular models, we can find that during this year's Double 11, among the three major e-commerce platforms, Pinduoduo still has the strongest discount intensity. However, many of Pinduoduo's large discounts are realized through limited coupons, which require fast hand speed, and the probability of failing to grab them is not low. Therefore, this extremely low discount price itself cannot be regarded as the general Double 11 preferential price.
Relatively speaking, Taobao's Double 11 activities have fewer hidden rules. The prices of some mobile phones are the lowest while there is no need to grab coupons, which is very user-friendly for consumers. The form of Double 11 promotion activities for many mobile phones on Taobao is relatively similar to that of Pinduoduo, which is basically the form of third-party stores plus platform subsidies. Everyone needs to pay attention to the 10 Billion Subsidies logo when purchasing.
As a well-established 3C digital sales platform, JD has many products participating in the big promotion during this year's Double 11. Most of JD's Double 11 mobile phone promotions are directly participated by the official, through self-operated channels. Relatively speaking, JD does not emphasize the absolute low price, but relies on self-operated channels to give full play to its service advantages in distribution, after-sales, value-added services and genuine product guarantee. In addition, JD has the most obvious advantage in the national subsidy section, with wide coverage and relatively simple and easy-to-understand processes.
New Phone Wave Meets Memory Price Hike, This Year's Double 11 Is Relatively Cold
Objectively speaking, the atmosphere of the mobile phone sector during this year's Double 11 is indeed a bit more deserted than in previous years. After carefully observing the mobile phone promotion pages of major platforms, the most intuitive feeling of many consumers is that the price reduction is not amazing enough. When the annual autumn new phone wave meets the ongoing memory price hike, the Double 11 promotion inevitably cools down.
First of all, from the perspective of the new phone market, manufacturers are facing unprecedented cost pressure. Every year, September and October are the new phone waves when major mobile phone brands intensively release annual flagships. According to the usual situation, in order to sprint sales and seize market share during Double 11, manufacturers often offer certain price concessions for these new products that have just been released for one or two months.
However, many changes have taken place this year. The prices of memory and flash memory have skyrocketed all the way, coupled with the rising cost of flagship processor SoC, the overall hardware cost of mobile phones has increased significantly. Under such huge cost pressure, the profit margin of manufacturers has been extremely compressed. For the new generation of flagship models that have just been launched, they themselves undertake the important task of expanding revenue and profits. In the current environment, manufacturers do not have much room to carry out price reduction promotions for new products. This has led to the unusually firm prices of this year's new phones during the Double 11 period, and it is difficult to see the situation in the past where the price dropped immediately after launch and plummeted during Double 11.
Secondly, for the products of the previous generation, the price trend this year is also particularly special. According to the normal law of the mobile phone industry, when the new generation of flagship models are released and launched, the old flagship models of the previous generation should enter the end of their life cycle, and their prices will naturally drop significantly. Then manufacturers and distributors will use Double 11, the largest shopping festival of the whole year, to hold a clearance sale.
For users who pursue cost-effectiveness, this is also the best time to buy the old models at the bottom price. But this rule has failed this year, and they are also seriously affected by the memory price hike. Many previous-generation models have raised their official prices in the middle of this year or even in the second half of the year to balance costs.
(Image source: Weibo)
Therefore, when these old models enter the Double 11 promotion cycle, although they nominally participate in the discount, many of them are only slightly reduced on the basis of the previous price increase. This has created an awkward situation: the clearance price of old models is not much cheaper than usual, and some even just fall back to the level of daily promotional prices a few months ago. This kind of promotion performance has, to a certain extent, weakened the price attractiveness of old flagship models during the Double 11 period.
In terms of e-commerce platforms, we can also find that the industry is changing. Double 11 used to be the most important battle moment of the whole year for major e-commerce platforms, and platforms would spare no effort to invest massive resources to create the lowest price across the network. However, up to now, discount promotion activities have been highly normalized. From 618, 10 Billion Subsidies, Brand Super Day to various activities under numerous names, the promotions running through the whole year have made promotions normalized.
Under such a background, the resources and subsidy intensity that platforms tilt separately for Double 11 are not as large as in the past. In order to maintain the activity throughout the year, e-commerce platforms have distributed the marketing budget originally concentrated on Double 11 to various usual promotion nodes. When consumers are gradually less interested in promotions, the real Double 11 has lost its original explosive power and scarcity.
At the same time, the competition pattern of the e-commerce industry is completely different from before. Former dark horse e-commerce platforms like Pinduoduo, relying on simple and direct subsidies and extreme low-price strategies, have now steadily grown into mainstream market giants. Its rise has largely changed the rules of the game for e-commerce promotions, passing the concept of daily low prices to consumers.
Facing the strong impact of Pinduoduo, platforms such as Taobao and JD have also had to follow up the normalized subsidy strategy. Taobao's 10 Billion Subsidies targets Pinduoduo, and JD also places its Super Channel in a prominent position. This normalized close competition among giants has made the prices of products with relatively high price transparency such as mobile phones more transparent. Usually, in order to compete for users, all parties have already pressed the prices to the extreme. When Double 11 comes, it is naturally difficult to squeeze out excess moisture to create the gimmick of large price cuts.
Mobile Phone Prices Generally Rise, How Should Users Shop This Double 11?
To be practical, the discount intensity of mobile phones during this year's Double 11 is indeed not as good as in previous years. The reason we mentioned earlier is that the price of memory has risen too wildly. Of course, through the price comparison of several representative models above, we can also find that even if the prices of mobile phones generally rise, Double 11 is still a good time to buy products at relatively low prices. If you plan to buy a new phone recently, the following tips may be useful to you.
First, shop around. The price of the same capacity version of the same model will vary on different platforms, and even different stores or channels on the same platform will be different. Under normal circumstances, you can naturally choose the cheaper one. However, you should also choose channels with more guarantees, and it is recommended to give priority to channels such as self-operated, 10 Billion Subsidies, and official flagship stores.
Secondly, make full use of various subsidy and preferential tools. There are many specific types of discounts for Double 11 mobile phone promotions. The most common ones are direct price cuts from brands and platforms, and many others are coupons. Some require consumers to grab them by themselves, and some can only be obtained in the live broadcast room. Another discount that cannot be ignored is the national subsidy. Mobile phone products usually can get a maximum subsidy of 500 yuan, but note that it can only be used once within a certain period of time.
Now major platforms also have trade-in activities. Under normal circumstances, the recycling price offered by e-commerce platforms may not be higher than that of second-hand platforms, but promotion activities usually provide additional subsidies. In this case, directly participating in the trade-in program is more cost-effective than selling your old phone on a second-hand platform and then buying a new one.
You also need to pay attention to the issue of return and exchange. Theoretically, mobile phone products can also enjoy 7-day no-reason return, but this policy is now being continuously tightened for mobile phones. At present, many mobile phones under 10 Billion Subsidies require users to turn on and activate the device when signing for the package in person, mainly to prevent scalpers. This leads to the fact that most mobile phones in the Double 11 promotion cannot be returned without reason after the package is opened. So you need to pay attention to this point before placing an order.
(Image source: Pinduoduo)
From the perspective of Lei Tech (ID: leitech), this year's Double 11 really lacks the carnival feeling of casual shopping in previous years. The cost pressure brought by the price hike of memory and chips, coupled with the iteration of new and old models, has made manufacturers more precise in their pricing strategies, and the subsidy strategies of major e-commerce platforms are no longer full-scale reckless spending.
Frankly speaking, if you are a real price-sensitive user and are willing to spend time grabbing limited offers with fast hand speed, Pinduoduo's 10 Billion Subsidies is still the platform most likely to get the lowest price; but if you value a worry-free, no-hassle return and exchange shopping experience more, then Taobao's 10 Billion Subsidies with fewer hidden rules and JD's self-operated channels which still have advantages in logistics and after-sales are obviously more secure choices.
In terms of specific model selection, old flagship models are still a relatively more rational choice. After the price reduction promotions from brands and platforms, plus the national subsidy of up to 500 yuan, many old flagship models released last year have basically squeezed out all the price moisture, and their cost-effectiveness advantages have become increasingly prominent. So if you have a rigid demand for a new phone right now, it is still cost-effective to buy it during Double 11.
This article is from "Lei Tech", authorized for release by 36Kr.