Double 11 shopping spree boosted by brand awareness

This year's online shopping spree known as Double 11, which falls on Nov 11 annually, exemplified the growing influence of brands, according to industry insiders.

Consumers have become less sensitive to prices and are increasingly aware of brands, they said.

By launching various promotional events, shopping portals seemed stuck in a price war, yet what they really competed for was brand recognition, according to a report on this year's shopping festival released by the China e-Business Research Center.

The report found that with growing demand for branded products - chosen for their quality and customized services - online markets have shifted from low-pricing tactics to branding strategies.

Alibaba Group - which owns Taobao, China's leading online marketplace - invited a group of fashionable international brands to the business gala, including Louis Vuitton and Estee Lauder.

Chinese household names, such as cashmere manufacturer Erdos and menswear provider HLA, also joined in the brands' party.

Another research report on the Double 11 festival, released by Zhongtai Securities, shows that the trend of spending on branded products during the period spurred an approximately 11 percent year-on-year rise in average transaction value. This helped to create new records in online sales and top industry insiders' forecasts.

On JD, another major online marketplace, well-established brands dominated its top 10 listings in various product categories during the shopping festival. On the bestselling smartphones chart, all brands other than Apple came from China, including Huawei and Xiaomi.

"It shows that Chinese brands have gained growing acceptance among domestic consumers," Lyu Haoze, an assistant analyst of online retail businesses at the China e-Business Research Center, told China Intellectual Property News.

During the Double 11 shopping spree last year, Chinese brands contributed 63 percent to total online sales racked up that day, and more than 900 domestic brands joined the ranks of the top 10 popular products in their respective fields, according to a brand report publicized in May.

Lan Ye, executive vice-president of JD Group, told a brand forum earlier this year, "As a key channel linking brand owners and consumers, e-commerce platforms have grown into a crucial force boosting Chinese brands' growth."

Chinese branded home appliances saw an average annual sales growth of more than 70 percent in their sales on JD over the past three years, Chinese media reported.

Government data show China received roughly 4.4 million trademark filings in the first 10 months of this year, 722,000 more than in the same period of 2016.

The State Administration for Industry and Commerce forecast the annual number of trademark applications in China will reach 5.5 million by the end of this year.

(China Daily 11/30/2017 page17)