Domestic online retailers are changing their strategies for the Double 11 online sales promotion, shifting from the "clearance sale" model used in previous years to models that establish distinct market positions, experts told the Global Times on Wednesday.
"In the beginning, merchants on business-to-customer (B2C) platforms simply reduced prices of certain products to attract more consumers in the Double 11 shopping event, which was more like a clearance sale," Jack Chuang, a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
The Double 11 event, held each year on November 11, also known as Singles' Day, was launched by Alibaba Group Holding in 2009.
The shopping event is genuinely helpful in making new brands known to consumers, Chuang said.
But over the years, consumers have formed the habit of online shopping, said Chuang, and online retailers have realized they must change their promotion strategies for the shopping event to achieve a clear market position.
"The Double 11 online shopping event has also put some pressure on logistics and after-sale services," Jing Linbo, director of the Chinese Evaluation Center for Humanities and Social Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Alibaba's Tmall online marketplace reported sales of 91.2 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in the Double 11 shopping event in 2015, up 60 percent year-on-year.
Alibaba is also in a fight against counterfeiting, said Jing, noting that it's time to shake off its negative reputation and rebuild its brand image in the market via changing its market strategy gradually.
In May, the International AntiCounterfeiting Coalition (IACC) suspended a new category under which Alibaba was granted membership, mainly due to concerns by various IACC members, according to the IACC in May.
For example, Tmall is set to focus on promoting high-end products during the Double 11 shopping event this year, noted Chuang.
JD.com Inc, China's second-largest B2C platform, is also promoting some high-end brands in fast-moving consumer goods such as wine, Chuang said.
JD is also taking the advantage of the fast and broad logistics networks to provide relatively low-priced goods for consumers, he noted.
JD on Wednesday showcased its capabilities in smart logistics ahead of the nationwide Double 11 shopping spree.
The company displayed its self-developed drones and driverless cars during a press conference held in Beijing.
They will be used in the delivery of packages during this year's shopping festival, especially in rural areas, Xiao Jun, head of JD's X Lab, a business arm dedicated to adopting edge-cutting technology in delivery and logistics, said at the conference.
The large volume of packages generated during the Double 11 shopping festival is a major reason why JD started to explore smart logistics, Xiao noted.
The number of packages to be delivered during this year's event is likely to exceed 1.05 billion, up 35 percent year-on-year, according to the China Express Association's prediction in mid-October.
JD conducted trials of drone delivery to villagers in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province in June.
The X Lab's Xiao said that they are expected to complete the construction of an automated warehouse covering 30,000 square meters in Yizhuang, a town in Daxing district in Beijing by 2018.
Cainiao Network, a logistics arm of Alibaba Group Holding, is also working on the application of automatic technologies.
Cainiao has built an automated warehouse in Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province.
Using autonomous technologies is necessary to increase efficiency and cut delivery costs, said analysts.
The Double 11 shopping event won't just be held on one day this year. JD started its Double 11 shopping event from Wednesday and is set to end it on November 12. Alibaba also will run this event for 24 days this year, instead of only 24 hours as it did in the past.
The domestic online fast-moving consumer goods market has become larger than those of the U.S. and UK combined and will maintain strong growth, showed a report released by OC&C Wednesday.
