China’s major e‑commerce platforms simplify Double‑11 rules, shift focus to service and AI Hong Kong, 27 October 2026 – The annual Double‑11 (Singles’ Day) shopping festival, which has become the world’s largest online sales event, is set to launch on 11 November with a new approach from China’s leading e‑commerce platforms. Both Tmall (Alibaba Group) and JD.com have announced that they will eliminate the complex “full‑amount discount” and “cross‑store minimum spend” mechanisms that have been criticised in previous years. Instead, the platforms will offer straightforward “official instant discounts” and “direct price cuts” on individual items. ### Simplified discount rules Tmall will no longer allow cross‑store minimum‑spend or “bundle‑to‑save” promotions. According to Liu Bo, senior vice‑president and president of Tmall, the platform has been encouraging merchants to adopt instant‑discount offers since last year. “The core requirement for the more than 70 million products participating in this year’s Double‑11 is that merchants provide instant discounts, which can then be combined with platform‑issued coupons,” Liu said. The change is intended to make the shopping experience “simpler” for consumers. JD.com will continue to use its “official direct‑price‑cut” rule. Other platforms such as Douyin and Xiaohongshu are also adopting instant‑discount or single‑item price‑cut models. ### Shift to services and AI While the discount structure has been streamlined, the two giants are redirecting competition toward high‑growth service categories and artificial‑intelligence (AI) offerings. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, service retail sales in mainland China grew 5.3 % year‑on‑year in the first half of the year, outpacing the 4.2 % growth of goods retail. JD.com is showcasing more than a hundred segmented service products, including elderly care, home appliance cleaning, vehicle maintenance and at‑home nursing. The platform will provide end‑to‑end services such as delivery, installation, dismantling and pickup through its self‑operated network. Tmall is integrating delivery and installation into a single, platform‑controlled service chain that can be tracked online and allows one‑click complaints. AI services are also being promoted as standardised products. Tmall’s chief of 3C and digital products, Si Dengyu, said that the platform’s AI‑related categories have attracted over 4 billion page views and more than 10 million purchases this year. Leading AI model providers such as MiniMax, Zhihu and Qianwen have joined Tmall to offer discounted AI services to consumers. ### Expansion into Hong Kong and Macau The Double‑11 event is extending to Hong Kong and Macau. Tmall is offering free home delivery for large‑size furniture, addressing a key logistics pain point for Hong Kong shoppers. JD.com is launching a “Today‑Delivery” service in Hong Kong, promising same‑day delivery for orders placed before noon. ### Industry context The Double‑11 festival began in 2009 as a clearance event by Alibaba and has grown from a transaction volume of 52 million RMB to over 1.6 trillion RMB in a single day by 2017. The gap between Tmall and JD.com has narrowed, and both platforms now operate in the same market segment. Senior internet analyst Guo Tao notes that the market has moved beyond the “growth‑phase” of traffic and price wars. With a user base of 937 million and a growth rate below 2 %, the overall traffic dividend has peaked. The overlap in users and merchants between Tmall and JD.com exceeds 80 %. According to Guo, the current competition is a natural outcome of a mature market where platforms must signal to brands and supply chains to secure marketing budgets and inventory. Researcher Lei Yiying adds that the era of pure traffic and price competition is over. “With mature users, price transparency, full‑network fulfillment, standardised services and AI‑driven capabilities will determine whether e‑commerce giants can achieve healthy growth,” she said. The two platforms will hold their first joint Double‑11 press conference on the same day, signalling a new phase of direct competition in China’s e‑commerce landscape.
Article source: Sing Tao Electronic Daily | Image credit: Sing Tao Electronic Daily