618 Shopping Pre-Insights: From Lowest Price to Quality-Price Balance

This year’s 618 is no longer just a race to the lowest price. The market is shifting toward a broader value model built on price, quality, service, and merchant efficiency. That is the real change behind this year’s event: value still matters, but value now means smoother conversion, stronger service, and better shopping confidence, not just a deeper markdown.

Quick take

• The 2025 618 cycle ran from May 12 to June 21, confirming that the event is now a longer shopping season rather than a single peak moment.

• Promotion rules became simpler, with more direct discounting and easier-to-understand subsidy mechanics replacing more complex offer structures.

• Consumer spending remained broadly stable, but shoppers became more selective about where and why they spent

• Content now plays a bigger role across the full purchase journey, from product discovery to final conversion.

• Service is moving closer to the centre of decision-making, alongside price and product quality.

  
  

Why this matters

A longer campaign window changes the playbook. Instead of relying on one giant traffic spike, brands now need a steadier rhythm: preheat content, repeated conversion hooks, mid-cycle product pushes, and consistent service signals across the full event period. A one-off discount burst can still create attention, but it no longer carries the whole campaign.

At the same time, simpler rules are becoming a conversion tool in their own right. Consumers still want savings, but they no longer want friction. Service now sits much closer to the centre of the decision, with after-sales support, shipping speed, insurance services, and logistics timeliness all shaping the final purchase.

Consumer spending is steady, but more selective

The most important spending signal is not a sharp consumer pullback. It is a change in how shoppers define value. Spending during 618 was broadly steady for many consumers, with 38.3% saying their spending was in line with last year. At the same time, 32.5% aligned with enjoyment-led consumption, showing that people are still willing to spend when the purchase feels worthwhile.

That does not mean consumers are becoming reckless. It means they are becoming more intentional. Some are still highly promotion-driven, but others are balancing price with personal relevance, better service, and stronger confidence in the purchase. The market is increasingly serving multiple shopper mindsets at once: bargain-led, self-rewarding, and more rational, lower-frequency planners.

The product mix reflects that shift. Fashion accessories, beauty and skincare, toys and collectibles, home appliances, and gold and jewellery all ranked strongly in purchase intention. Emotional value and practical value are now coexisting rather than competing.

The market proof

This shift is backed by strong performance data across major commerce ecosystems:

• 453 brands passed the RMB 100 million sales mark during 618, up 24% year on year.

• Subsidy-linked categories grew 116% versus the previous major shopping event.

• 81 livestream rooms passed RMB 100 million in sales, while rooms above RMB 10 million rose 21%.

• In another major ecosystem, ordering users grew by more than 100%, with total orders exceeding 2.2 billion.

• Commerce-linked livestream sales in that same environment rose 285%.

• In a major content-commerce ecosystem, more than 60,000 brands doubled sales.

• More than 2,000 products passed RMB 10 million in sales, while 67,000 SMEs exceeded RMB 1 million.

• Search-driven sales rose 56%, mall sales rose 77%, and a value-led sales zone rose 171%.

Taken together, the pattern is clear: 618 growth is increasingly being driven by operational strength, better conversion systems, and stronger content-commerce integration, not just discount depth.

Full-funnel content matters more than one-off discounts

The strongest strategic signal in the main pack is that content now shapes the whole shopping journey, from awareness and consultation to decision, purchase, and post-purchase feedback.

What shoppers want from content also makes this clear:

• 54.8% are looking for lower-price offer information.

• 46.5% want more product information to support decisions.

• 44.2% are engaging for rewards, interaction, or participation.

• 67% said rich information helps meet information needs.

• 47% said it helps purchase decisions.

• 31% said it increases attention toward creators, brands, or retail environments.

This is why full-funnel content is now more influential than isolated one-off discounts. It does not just create awareness. It reduces uncertainty, builds confidence faster, and helps close the sale.

What is shaping the final decision

Price still opens the door, but it no longer closes the sale on its own. Subsidy-led shopping remains a major trigger, with 66.7% actively seeking subsidy-related information during 618. More than half of shoppers still want lower-price information before they buy, and 21.9% place strong weight on price and discount at the point of decision.

Even so, service is becoming the stronger swing factor. Logistics delivery, guided shopping support, after-sales service, insurance, third-party protections, and broader service assurance now carry real decision-making weight. In other words, shoppers still want cheaper deals, but they increasingly want those deals wrapped in reassurance.

This is also shortening the decision chain. Product discovery is happening earlier, seeding happens before the sale window peaks, and richer information is helping consumers move from evaluation to check out faster. The result is a shorter path from discovery to conversion.

Category signals: where value is evolving

The category read is equally telling.

• In skincare, face-care sets, essences, and creams remained the top three categories by sales.

• Smaller segments such as body cleansing, neck care, and body care grew faster from lower bases, pointing to more specific and experience-led demand.

• In big appliances, demand is shifting from simple replacement toward trade-up demand.

• Faster-growing segments included portable air conditioners (+174%), wall-mounted washing machines (+115%), and central air conditioning (+82%).

At the same time, emotional-value demand remains strong. Broader consumer research shows that more than four in ten consumers are willing to spend for emotional value or interest-led happiness, and 618 category momentum suggests toys and collectibles are benefiting from that demand.

On the other side of the spectrum, shoppers are also thinking more about retained value and longer-term utility: gold prices rose 40.1% year on year, and smartphone replacement cycles have stretched to 3–4 years or more for most users.

The message is consistent: consumers are still price-aware, but they are increasingly buying for better performance, better use experience, and better fit.

What brands should do now

• Plan for a season, not a single peak.

  Build a longer content and conversion calendar.

  
  

• Simplify the offer to reduce friction.

  Clearer mechanics now work as a conversion lever.

  
  

• Use content across the full funnel.

  It should inform, reassure, and convert, not just attract clicks.

  
  

• Strengthen service signals.

  Logistics, after-sales support, and price protection now shape the final decision.

  
  

• Treat tools and enablement as part of the sales strategy.

  Traffic support, livestreaming, AI, and merchant services now sit at the center of 618 execution.

Final word

The 618 cycle shows a more mature market. Low price still matters, but it no longer wins on its own. The stronger model is quality-price balance: longer sales cycles, simpler rules, stronger merchant tools, richer content influence, and category demand that is shifting from basic replacement to better-quality consumption.

Get in touch with us to see what this insights means for your brand’s next campaign.