If you want to reach the highest peak with your eCommerce business in China, then engage with the country's consumer market during the festive season. With 1.02 billion internet users as of January 2022, China represents a golden opportunity to increase your profitability you don’t want to skip. Precisely, China is the world’s fastest-growing region in terms of online shopping with $2.64 trillion in eCommerce sales in 2021, registering 14% year-on-year growth. But if you’re a small and medium-sized business, you know the drill: ever-changing customer needs and regulations, local language and culture are just a few factors that may block you from accessing the Chinese market with ease.
Whereas the Chinese eCommerce ecosystem rapidly evolves, one thing remains constant and can drive increased revenue: Chinese shopping holidays. Although all national celebrations should spur you into tailoring your product offering and marketing campaigns to your target audience's needs, in this article we explore 7 key dates to take note of that can help you inform your business strategy by adding suitable product lines and engaging marketing campaigns.
Q1 timeline
Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day
Unlike Westerners who embark on a new year based on the solar calendar, the Chinese New Year (also known as Spring Festival) is ushered in according to the lunar calendar (read more about Chinese New Year in our article here). National celebrations occur between January and February for 15 days until it is concluded on the 15th Day with the Lantern Festival, marking the first full moon of the new lunar year and the end of the Chinese New Year. Gift shopping tends to peak two weeks leading to the event when locals are planning trips to reunite with their families. Retail sales during this period climb up to $127 billion in 2021, marking a favourable period for international merchants looking to grow their online business in China.
Despite being an inherently Western holiday, Valentine’s Day on 14th February is another major event that has been wholeheartedly adopted in China, especially among younger demographics. However, the Chinese have added their flavour to the celebration given that women typically gift sweets to their partners as a gesture of appreciation and endearment.
Building up on Valentine’s Day, White Day, which falls on 14th March, was originally for men who needed to reciprocate the goodies they received a month earlier. In today’s age, however, this tradition has spread to Asian countries and is no longer gender specific; consumers who have missed out on February’s Valentine’s Day may choose to celebrate in March. This event serves up an ample sales opportunity for food brands to promote offers and discounts on popular confectionery gifts, including marshmallows, cookies, chocolates, and other sweet treats.
Q2 timeline
520 ‘I love you’ festival and 618
Thanks to the vast number of homophones in Mandarin, the use of numbers by China’s internet youth culture to abbreviate “I love you” has consequently spawned the “520 festival” on 20th May – hence 520. The occasion gives Chinese lovers another chance to showcase their affection to one another through gift giving. High-value fashion products such as jewellery, watches, and bags are one of the top-selling eCommerce categories, enabling global fashion and luxury merchants to connect with Chinese online shoppers and build brand trust.
18th June is the founding anniversary of JD.com, one of the most prominent eCommerce companies in China, heralding the second largest shopping festival of the year after 520. The event – colloquially known as 618 – is celebrated annually for 18 days leading up to 18th June, with the long-awaited mid-year shopping festival topping a staggering $57 billion in June 2022.
Q3 timeline
Qixi festival
The Chinese eCommerce scene slows down in this quarter of the calendar year, having spiked considerably when Chinese holidays were in full swing between Q1 and Q2. This tends to be a period where brands evaluate their performance during the 618 festival and start mapping out their strategies for Singles Day on 11th November (more of this below).
Despite the period of downtime, there's an important festival in Q3 that retailers will want to participate. Signalling the annual meeting of the cowherd and weaver girl in Chinese mythology, Qixi Festival (otherwise known as Double Seventh Festival) is China’s answer to Valentine’s Day. In 2022, the festival was celebrated on 4th August, for being the seventh day of the seventh month of the Chinese lunar calendar. Just like in the West, China’s Valentine’s Day is a huge retail event. In 2022, sales climbed to more than 162%, while the festival witnessed surges in purchases of jewellery and cosmetics this year.
Q4 timeline
Singles Day and Double Twelve
The fourth quarter is, no doubt, the busiest time of year for Chinese retail. Singles Day, also known as Double 11 to reflect its 11th November date, is the biggest commercial holiday and takes place alongside Black Friday, Double Twelve (or else, Double 12) and Christmas. eCommerce giants, Alibaba and JD.com, set new sales records during Singles Day in 2021, racking up around $139 billion of sales across their platforms – nearly twice the previous year’s revenue of $74.1 billion.
Double 12, celebrated on 12th December, is another massively popular shopping event in China. In fact, it’s the third most popular festival following 618 and Singles Day. Double 12 was originally established for smaller businesses that might have missed out on the benefits of Singles Day. Every year, the event sees a storm of 500 million customers engaging in a five-day long shopping spree between the 8th and 12th of December. Double 12 occurs six weeks prior to the Chinese New Year festivities, which gives Chinese consumers enough leeway to prepare for the gift-giving season.
It's worth pointing out that when choosing Chinese shopping festivals to promote discounts and campaigns, brands need to define whether the regional holiday fits their product offering and target audience. 520, for instance, is ideal for luxury goods as seen above, while food brands like confectionery would perform better on Valentine's Day.
Simultaneously, although some festivals, such as 618 and Singles Day, have widespread appeal, others like Dragon Boat festival, are more limited to whom they're intended for with more customised product listings. Whereas the competition among brands might be less in smaller shopping festivals, larger festivals can widen your reach to China's growing purchasing power. Therefore, choosing shopping events based on your offering while building brand awareness throughout the year to solidify your market presence is key.
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Entering one of the best-performing markets like China and knowing key Chinese retail events to attract local online shoppers can be an exciting prospect. However, it can also carry its level of complexity with cross-border payments being challenging at best.
With mobile commerce's (or else, mCommerce) market size anticipated to reach $2,456,888 million by 2025 in China, according to emerchantpay's Global Payments Outlook report, there's one key payment method we can help you integrate into your payment system – WeChat Pay. WeChat is the most popular local messaging app in Asia Pacific (APAC), boasting 1.2 billion users as of Q1 2022. Having broadened its social media functionalities and introduced its eWallet among other features, including gaming, livestreaming, travel, social commerce, WeChat Pay is ideal for brands targeting Chinese consumers – both within and outside of the Chinese region.
Interested in how to access this dynamic market via the channels you want? Get in touch with our payment experts today.