Ushering in the summer shopping season at full speed, China's "618" shopping festival – originally launched around June 18 but now spanning several weeks – has underscored a broader shift towards upgraded, quality-driven consumption.

As of midnight Wednesday, e-commerce giant JD.com reported over 2.2 billion orders across its online, delivery and offline channels, with the number of customers placing orders more than doubling year on year. Peer platform Tmall also saw record engagement, with 453 brands each generating over 100 million yuan (nearly $13.94 million) in sales, marking a 24 percent increase from last year.

A nationwide trade-in program is driving strong consumer spending this year, encouraging households to swap old goods for new. Backed by 300 billion yuan in ultra-long special treasury bonds and additional local government support, the initiative is boosting demand across sectors from home appliances to cars.

JD.com and Tmall launched dedicated trade-in channels combining government subsidies with platform discounts, cutting thousands of yuan off the cost of big-ticket purchases.

The impact was clear across major categories on JD.com, with mobile device sales rising 88 percent year on year and home appliance sales surging 161 percent.

Instant retail emerges as a new growth driver

One of the most striking trends of this year's 618 festival was the boom in instant retail – a form of on-demand shopping with ultra-fast delivery that bridges online and offline channels.

JD.com's takeaway business saw rapid expansion, with full-time couriers topping 120,000 by June 17, up from 100,000 just two weeks earlier. Daily orders surpassed 25 million as of June 1, and over 1.5 million branded restaurants have joined the platform.

During the initial week of Meituan's 618 flash sales, transactions in over 50 high-value categories more than doubled year on year, led by an eightfold increase in smart devices and a fivefold rise in e-learning products.

Lifestyle consumption gains momentum

The 618 shopping season also spotlighted a new wave of lifestyle-driven consumption, as spending expanded beyond daily essentials into areas like collectibles, pet care and leisure.

Tmall reported strong triple-digit growth in overseas orders for "guzi" merchandise – a catch-all term for spin-off goods tied to anime, music and gaming – with most items linked to domestic IPs. Pet products also saw a spike, with 653 brands doubling their sales in the first hour.

Meanwhile, gross merchandise volume in ticketing jumped nearly 556 percent year on year, while leisure and entertainment grew by 55.4 percent, and streaming by 54.84 percent, according to industry data.

AI-powered retail boosts efficiency

AI played a bigger role in this year's 618 festival, helping merchants cut costs and redefine how they connect with consumers.

JD.com said that its use of large language models during this year's 618 festival increased by 130 percent compared to last year's Singles' Day – another major online shopping event in China, held annually around November 11.

More than 14,000 AI agents and digital employees were deployed across the platform, while 17,000 merchants used virtual hosts for livestreaming on JD.com. These AI presenters cost just a tenth of their human counterparts.

"We used AI to instantly generate try-on videos by selecting outfits, models and scenes," said a manager from a fashion brand. "It helped us rapidly build a video library and enhance visual presentation during the sales rush."

JD Cloud introduced five free AI-powered marketing tools for select merchants, with its digital avatars supporting over 13,000 brands. Meanwhile, Taobao launched an image-to-video tool that produced more than 1.5 million promotional clips for merchants in just over a month.

(With input from Xinhua)