China’s e-commerce players gear up for mid-year sales event

China’s major e-commerce players are launching early campaigns for this year’s 618 shopping festival, with a renewed focus on simpler discounts and broader subsidies. Tmall announced it will offer straightforward “official instant discounts” ranging from 15% to 50%. Shoppers can also stack savings using 88VIP coupons, category-specific vouchers and livestream room red envelopes. JD.com will kick off its main 618 sales at 8 p.m. on May 31, following a warm-up “shopping season” on May 13. Last year, JD reported more than 500 million buyers during 618, with 83 brands surpassing 1 billion yuan in sales and its subsidy-backed product offerings doubling from the previous year. Douyin, ByteDance’s short video platform, plans to start even earlier, on May 14, and promises hundreds of millions of yuan in cash subsidies. Meanwhile, Tmall is partnering with Xiaohongshu to embed product links into posts, aiming to tap into the platform’s 300 million monthly active users. [iThome, in Chinese, SCMP]