The Double 11 shopping festival has always been an important observation point for consumer trend changes.

This year's Double 11 is being called the "longest ever" by the industry. Major e-commerce platforms have made early preparations, holding high hopes for this annual consumer extravaganza.

Now, as the curtain slowly falls on the 2024 Double 11, many new changes have emerged: e-commerce platforms have generally increased subsidies; merchants are no longer solely competing on "lowest price"; WeChat, Taobao, JD.com, and other platforms are showing a trend of "interconnection"... Apart from these, what other noteworthy new developments are there in this year's Double 11?

The longest Double 11 in history, setting a new record for time span

Double 11 has arrived again as scheduled, but this year, to quote a line from a Tang Lang song, it "came a little earlier than before."

As early as October 14th, the "2024 Double 11 Shopping Festival" kicked off, with pre-sales, discounts, and other activities launched by various e-commerce platforms, making it the longest Double 11 in history.

Take Tmall and Taobao as an example, their Double 11 activities officially started on October 14th and lasted until 23:59 on November 11th. The event was meticulously divided into three phases: pre-sale, first wave of in-stock products, and second wave of in-stock products, with unique promotions and benefits prepared for consumers in each phase.

In media and KOL circles, Tmall and Taobao's small events followed one after another, driving media attention and engaging KOLs, pushing Double 11 to a climax.

On JD.com's side, the event started at 8 pm on October 14th and ended on November 13th. The event was further divided into five periods: Early Access, Kickoff, Special Sessions, Climax, and Replay, offering a variety of discounts, coupons, red envelope rains, subsidies, and other promotions to fully meet consumers' diverse needs.

In JD.com's media and KOL circles, featured recommendations were made from time to time, showing how attentive JD.com is in product selection. Additionally, showing the final transaction price after applying subsidies and discounts was also an interesting approach.

Against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition among e-commerce platforms and merchants, extending the Double 11 event duration can increase platform exposure and user engagement. Through prolonged promotional activities and discounts, it attracts more consumers to pay attention to and use platform services, increasing platform traffic and sales.

"Trade-in" combined with multiple subsidies stimulates consumer enthusiasm

Discounts, benefits, subsidies... These remain the consistent themes of Double 11. This year, the "trade-in" of consumer goods combined with e-commerce platform discounts has become a prominent highlight.

Tmall launched official discounts of 15% off or cross-store discounts of 50 yuan off every 300 yuan spent, and additionally invested 30 billion yuan in consumption vouchers and red envelopes. Its Taobao's Billion Subsidy Program even entered "Double 11 Mode," offering over 10,000 top-brand products at discounts of up to 60% off, with an additional 750 yuan "super large red envelope."

JD.com prepared sitewide direct discounts, an extra 60 yuan subsidy per day, and cross-store discounts of 50 yuan off every 300 yuan spent, covering a wide range of products.

Apart from these, the biggest highlight of this year's Double 11 is that multiple platforms have set up "trade-in" sections, covering digital products like mobile phones and computers, as well as home appliances and furniture like air conditioners and sofas."The trade-in policy has driven booming sales of home appliances and furniture. JD.com data shows that over 90% of consumers in county-level and rural areas nationwide have used JD.com for trade-ins, with large-screen TVs becoming the preferred choice for replacements. Sales of 519 categories of home appliances and furniture, including sweeping robots and dryers, increased by 200% year-on-year."

Suning's Double 11 consumption insights revealed that from October 14th to November 11th, home appliance trade-ins continued to be popular. Over 120 Suning stores underwent upgrades, with store traffic increasing by over 60% and trade-in sales growing by 247%. Among them, trade-ins of air conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines, and audio-visual products all more than doubled, with multiple brands and categories hitting sales peaks in the past five years."""Cost-effectiveness" moves towards "quality-price ratio," subtly shifting consumer attitudes

In recent years, with the rational return of consumption concepts and the rise of sustainable consumption awareness, consumers are no longer solely pursuing low prices but are paying more attention to the quality-price ratio, that is, the balance between product quality and price."Regarding the quality-price ratio, JD.com has stated that based on current trends, consumers have become more rational. They are willing to purchase higher-priced goods, but only if they feel they are getting value for money. Enabling consumers to purchase higher-quality goods at lower prices while enjoying more attentive service is precisely the retail essence that JD.com has always upheld."JD.com also emphasized that it would continue to "squeeze out water" in the supply chain, passing on the funds saved through extreme efficiency to users and partners, thereby creating "true low prices" that stimulate consumer market vitality."At this year's Tmall Double 11 press conference held by Taobao Tianmao Group, the focus was on how to enable consumers to buy more economically and better. Taobao Tianmao Group made it clear that not engaging in internal competition does not mean abandoning the low-price competition strategy. On the contrary, Taobao Tianmao hopes to make a difference in maintaining competitiveness across all price ranges, providing products that balance quality and price, and creating a healthy business environment."Under the trend of e-commerce shifting towards quality-price ratios, each platform has presented different solutions, whether by optimizing the shopping process or enhancing the shopping experience, resulting in diverse appearances across different platforms."Interconnection becomes a major trend, reshaping the e-commerce industry landscape

In the current era of rapid technological development, interconnection between platforms has become another major highlight of this year's Double 11."In logistics, on October 16th, JD Logistics and Taobao Tianmao Group reached a cooperation agreement, fully integrating with the Taobao and Tmall platforms. Platform merchants can directly select JD Logistics as their service provider in the shipping backend, leveraging JD Logistics' delivery capabilities to enhance logistics efficiency and service quality."At the same time, Cainiao has also integrated with JD.com's non-self-operated platform, allowing third-party merchants and users on the JD.com platform to use services provided by Cainiao Express, such as door-to-door delivery, half-day delivery, next-day delivery, and 2-hour pick-up."Apart from logistics integration, another noteworthy aspect of this year's Double 11 is the interconnection of payment gateways."On September 27th, Taobao fully integrated WeChat Pay, breaking down the long-standing payment barriers between the two platforms. When shopping on Taobao, consumers can directly choose WeChat Pay, and when opening a Taobao link shared by a friend in the WeChat app, they can also place an order directly on the current page without needing to switch back to Taobao."JD.com and Alipay have also started to "tear down walls." On October 29th, Alipay officially announced that JD.com Mall had enabled Alipay payments, and some users were already able to see the Alipay option at checkout and use tools like Yu'E Bao for payment. This marked the resumption of cooperation between JD.com and Alipay after a gap of 13 years."Zijin Business Review believes that the essence of the internet is openness and sharing, which the major internet players are well aware of. This trend of interconnection helps break down industry barriers, not only profoundly changing consumers' shopping experiences but also bringing new changes to the development landscape of the e-commerce industry.