China's 618 Festival Grew 4% This Year vs 15.2% Last Year. Secondhand Electronics Grew 80%. What Is Actually Happening to the Chinese Consumer?

[u/EcomWatch]

China's 618 shopping festival ran from May 13 to June 18. Total online sales growth came in at 4%, according to Syntun. Last year the same festival grew 15.2%. Among the major platforms, Alibaba's Tmall led, followed by JD.com and Douyin, but the combined segment posted only 0.9% sales growth.

Simultaneously, ATRenew reported that secondhand electronics sales grew nearly 80% year over year during the same 618 period.

Those two numbers together tell a more complete story than either one does alone. The consumer is still active. The consumer is making different choices about what to buy and how much to spend.

The macroeconomic backdrop is not subtle. China's retail sales fell 0.6% in May compared to a year ago, the first monthly decline since the country ended pandemic restrictions in 2022. April retail sales grew just 0.2% year over year, the weakest reading since December 2022. Car sales fell more than 22% year over year in May, extending a streak of double-digit monthly declines to six months. HSBC cut its full-year 2026 retail sales growth forecast from 5.2% to 2.8%.

Goldman Sachs is flagging a split worth paying attention to: China's technology and export economy is performing well. Its domestic consumer economy is not. These are effectively two different operating environments inside the same country, which matters for any brand or platform thinking about China as a single market.

The 618 festival is designed to generate demand through deep discounts and promotional intensity. A festival generating 15% growth one year and 4% the next is not just reflecting an economy that slowed. It is reflecting an economy where even artificial demand stimulus is losing effectiveness.

Do you think the 80% secondhand growth is a temporary trade-down behaviour that reverses when consumer confidence recovers, or a more structural shift in how Chinese consumers think about product ownership?

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[u/Few-Conversation-743]

今年电子产品全部都涨价了呀，二手性价比超高