𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐚’𝐬 𝐒𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐞𝐬’ 𝐃𝐚𝐲: 𝟑 𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝟒𝟓% 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐥𝐞𝐬

Appliances, phones and clothes took 45% of Double 11 e-commerce sales last year, according to data firm Syntun, and three forces explain why.

First, 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐢𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐠 𝐬𝐚𝐥𝐞: nobody stockpiles refrigerators, so consumers time planned purchases to the deepest discount of the year. Half of the ten brands Tmall named above 1 billion yuan sell appliances or phones: Apple, Haier, Midea, Xiaomi and Huawei (The Paper).

Second, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐝 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐥. China doubled its trade-in subsidy to 300 billion yuan in 2025 and added phones for the first time, with 15% off, up to 500 yuan, on models priced at 6,000 yuan or less. Apple launched the iPhone 17 at 5,999 yuan. Retail sales of appliances and phones each grew about 20% from January to October, against about 4% for all retail, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Note that the state subsidy is 250 billion yuan this year.

Third, 𝐃𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝟏𝟏 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐞: down-jacket makers Bosideng and Xuezhongfei sat in Tmall's apparel top five, and down jacket sales on Kuaishou rose 49%.

The other categories lagged for the opposite reasons. Beauty and snacks are cheap and on promotion all year in livestreams. Groceries now arrive within the hour through instant retail, which Syntun counted separately: 67 billion yuan, up 138%. Baby products sell to a shrinking market, with under 8 million births in 2025, 17% fewer than in 2024 (NBS).

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐭𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐭: 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐬, and with online womenswear returns running 50% to 60%, apparel's share after returns was likely well below 14%. As Part 3 of this series showed, in China the sale isn't final until day eight.

If you sell in China: does your category wait for Double 11, or sell all year?

#Double11 #ChinaRetail #Ecommerce #ConsumerTrends #RetailStrategy

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