Sales of smart devices sales exceeded expectations at the recently-concluded 618 annual shopping festival in China. A majority of the products posted double-digit growth, led by laptop sales, according to figures from IDC. More than a million smart bands were sold, making it the bestselling smart device type during the festival.
IDC earlier predicted that sales of PCs, tablets, smart phones and other products with displays would drop in 2018. Despite such concerns, the results in this year’s 618 shopping festival beat expectations.
Similar to previous years, the promotional period prompted fierce competition between platforms and brands, with all sorts of discounts being offered. Generally speaking, the pecking order of the platforms remained the same, with JD leading the smart device market and Tmall close behind. JD is particularly strong in the laptop and desktop sectors, which accounted for 83% and 93.2% of its total sales respectively.
Established brands continued to dominate the top three positions in the market, with Lenovo leading the PC market through extremely high sales, closely followed by Dell. Other brands such as AOC, Huawei and Xiaomi also increased their market share, particularly in the laptop segment, which they have recently entered.
Major manufacturers looked to defend and increase their market shares by offering attractive and competitive pricing, which was a main driver of the impressive growth in the laptop market, amid overall stagnation.
Due to an ageing population, shoppers aged 45 and above now have the strongest purchasing power. Despite this, data from IDC shows that those between 26 and 35 are still the driving force in online shopping.
In the last few years, there has been a digital migration to online shopping from those born in the sixties and seventies, which has been reflected by the increase in participation from this age group at this year’s 618 festival.
Purchases by consumers over 45 years old accounted for 8% of the total PC product category this year, twice as much as two years ago. Geographically, there was a greater sales increase in tier-4 to tier-6 cities than in tier-1 to tier-3 cities, especially in terms of smart device product purchases. An IDC analyst commented:
“The JD 618 shopping festival has continuously delivered growth in revenue since its launch in 2010. It has now become one of the two major shopping carnivals in China, the other being the Double 11 shopping festival. IDC believes that as consumers upgrade enters the next phase, or the so-called 2.0 stage, e-commerce platforms should make the shift from focusing on price-based strategies to offering enhanced user experiences, solutions and cultivating greater recognition of their brands”.
