With respect to market share, in the second quarter of 2018, Tmall's total sales increased by 34.5% over the same period of last year, accounting for 58.2% of the market share, ranking first. The total turnover of JD.com increased by 28.2% year on year. Its market share was 26.2%, ranking second. Suning.com's market share increased to 5.5% in the second quarter, ranking third. The market share of Vipshop and Gome was 4.5% and 1.2%, respectively, ranking fourth and fifth, respectively.
The second quarter of each year, especially the "June 18" promotion, is an opportunity for users to purchase and stock up in the middle of the year. For major e-commerce businesses, it is an important period for harvesting and testing. Every major e-commerce platform needs to pay close attention to such issues as how to catch the attention of users, how to expand its influence on users, and how to improve performance indicators. In order to take a lead in the short promotion war, most of them begin to make arrangements in advance.
Following the investment in Gaoxin Retail in succession at the end of last year and the beginning of this year, Alibaba, which is frequently operating offline, further strengthened the bilateral cooperation in April and June. The Tmall supply chain first signed a supply agreement with Auchan China, and then signed a consignment agreement with RT-Mart China. The new brand "Hexiaoma", which is jointly operated by RT-Mart and Freshhema, was officially introduced. Alibaba's new retail renovation of large-scale commercials is showing initial results. In addition, its new retail has developed new forms in a number of scenarios: In early April, a Tmall campus store was first opened at Sichuan Normal University, officially starting the pace of Alibaba's entry into the university campus retail market. As of the beginning of June, agreement has been signed with 100 colleges and universities. Alibaba has also introduced a new brand of "Tmall Worry-free Purchase" to enhance the service capabilities of all links, and has also extended the service contacts to the offline fields. China's first "Tmall Worry-Free Purchase - Qinxin Service Center" was opened in the Wulin Branch of Intime Department Store in Hangzhou. While both online and offline new retail capabilities and services continued to improve, Tmall's performance was significantly improved during the "June 18" promotion period: As of June 13, Tmall's online turnover had exceeded the overall 18-day performance of the "June 18" promotion last year; as of June 16, 14:00, due to Tmall's "June 18" promotion, the offline consumption of RT-Mart stores surged by 45% over last year, and the average number of China's new retail business districts grew by 31%. Such a growth rate was nearly 50% in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Beijing, Shenzhen and Chongqing. Customer traffic increased by more than 30%.
JD.com, which has always been the most concerned about "June 18", was not careless about its layout of offline retail: In early April, Jddj.com announced that its developed store digital upgrade solution had been on the line or were coming online in Forus Supermarket, Fmart, Zhongnan Commercial, Flower Supermarket, Good Harvest and other commodity supermarkets, covering more than 200 physical retail stores in more than 10 major cities in China, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. In addition, from April to June, JD.com's X unmanned supermarket project was launched in Changchun, Shanghai, Wuhan and other places by using face recognition, behavior capture, intelligent tally and other technologies. JD.com's sales performance also achieved substantial growth in its main battlefield of "June 18": From June 1 to 18, the cumulative amount of orders placed by users reached RMB 159.2 billion. The amount of outbound orders increased by more than 37% over the same period of last year. More than 500,000 offline stores carried out cooperation on goods and services with JD.com.
Suning.com, which best reflects online and offline integration and development, has entered into strategic cooperation agreement with well-known Chinese real estate companies, such as Evergrande, Wanda, Vanke, Country Garden and Jinke, to jointly develop a number of business projects. In addition, Suning.com has maintained a rapid development of its smart retail business community since the first quarter: As of June 30, Suning.com's smart retail development had achieved nearly 2,000 new stores in the first half of the year, and Suning Xiaodian had achieved more than 700 new stores in 60 cities. In early April, Suning.com acquired 100% equities in Dia China, and therefore Suning Xiaodian's layout in Shanghai accelerated. Dazzling achievements were brought about by its down-to-earth work: During the "June 18" period, Suning.com's overall sales increased by 121% over last year. The total sales volume of Suning.com's smart retail format increased by 30% over last year, and the total number of orders increased by 24% over last year. The growth of Suning Supermarket was more amazing. As of June 18, 18:00, its overall sales increased by 402.58% in 18 hours, and new users increased by 119%. The newly released report on Suning.com's performance shows that the transactions on its online platform increased significantly, with an increase of 76.51% over last year.
The enthusiasm for new formats is a recently consistent attitude of e-commerce platforms, but a way to find a tailor-made, differentiated and personalized operation strategy is also a test for e-commerce platforms to know about its own users and to integrate the various resources. Vipshop is just one of the pioneers with such vision. Vipshop has extended its focus on women to the whole family. Since a man is an indispensable part of the family, attention to men's consumption psychology and consumption characteristics would broaden Vipshop's business space in terms of width and depth, and will remain as Vipshop's exploration for new growth space. The launch of the men's edition in early May and the introduction of the small WeChat program "VIP Men" were unique actions among mainstream e-commerce businesses, reflecting the further refinement of its operational strategy and operational model. Such strategic changes have been evidently shown in the data: Recently, the number of new male users increased significantly, and their love for men's wear, sporting goods, outdoor equipment, 3C home appliances and other categories was evidently shown in Vipshop's "June 16" promotion period. According to the report on " de-gendering consumption trend" jointly released by Vipshop and JD.com, it can be seen from the data of both parties that the gender boundary characteristics of consumption are no longer obvious, and that de-gendering has become one of the consumer trends that can not be neglected. On the whole, during the "June 16" promotion period, the total number of Vipshop's orders was nearly 10 million, while its traditional superior category - women's wear increased by 90% over last year.
Major e-commerce businesses have always valued the promotion war in June. Their competition has been increasingly fiercer from any perspective during the promotion period. The duration lasts longer and longer, and the form of activities varies more greatly. The extension of time and the change of forms consume the shopping enthusiasm of online users, and, in many cases, are even prior and excessive withdrawal of users' consumption plan, which is actually adverse to the development of users' long-term loyal consumer habit. At the same time, users are becoming increasingly accustomed to the various promotional activities, and the marginal utility of online promotions is gradually decreasing. Major e-commerce platforms have noticed this change, so new models, new ideas, and new strategies have emerged accordingly. The direct confrontation on the line has become a competition for online and offline integration. A low price can no longer be a lethal peril. The quality of services, the efficiency of data application, the availability of related supplies and the number of tactics are the key factors that determine how far and fast offline models which have been powered by online models can move. In addition, new customer groups and their consumption habits are also factors that cannot be ignored. For example, college students' offline consumption preferences and spending power are worthy of research and exploration by e-commerce platforms, because college students represent future trends as well as the backbone which determines China's future business landscape. For another example, we can't simply expect new consumption cycles, new consumption trends and new consumption ideas to appear naturally after the exploration for the consumption potential of women - the traditional main shopping group reaches the staged ceiling. Instead, more resources should be invested in male users who were previously less valued, so that more development directions and development opportunities can be found.