At 00:15 on November 11, 2019, applause echoed through the 26th-floor office at Shanghai Baohua Center. By 00:15, Tsingtao Beer's Tmall Supermarket sales had already surpassed its entire 2018 Double 11 sales. Twenty-four hours later, Tsingtao Beer broke records again. On Double 11, its Tmall flagship store sales grew 212% year-on-year, and on JD.com, Tsingtao Beer secured first place among JD POP stores and achieved the fastest growth in JD's liquor category.

2019 marks Tsingtao Beer's sixth year online. Over these six years, Tsingtao Beer's e-commerce has repeatedly broken records. As a leading Chinese beer e-commerce player, how has it achieved continuous growth?

The story begins in 2013.

In 2013, Tsingtao Beer's e-commerce team was established. This department, initially just four people, faced a market full of opportunities and challenges. Third-party agency operation became the stepping stone for Tsingtao Beer to enter the online beer category in China.

That year on Double 11, Tsingtao Beer's first online appearance achieved impressive results, with single-day sales accounting for 16.8% of annual sales.

The initial success showed Tsingtao Beer the appeal of e-commerce and sparked the idea of independent operation for the e-commerce department.

However, this decision led Tsingtao Beer's e-commerce into difficulties.

-01- Trial and Error: Tsingtao Beer E-commerce Falls into a Pit

Online operations may seem simple, but they test a team's operational, product selection, and logistics capabilities. Especially for the beer category, with heavy goods and low margins, a professional e-commerce team is essential. The seemingly blue ocean of online sales was actually turbulent, and like many brands new to the internet, the fledgling Tsingtao Beer e-commerce paid tuition fees.

1. Self-built warehouses with separate warehousing and distribution proved ineffective

In 2014, the independently operated Tsingtao Beer e-commerce department was established. For logistics, it used self-built warehouses and outsourced courier pickup to support retail order fulfillment. That year, Tsingtao Beer's e-commerce sales grew over 400%, boosting the team's confidence.

However, this confidence was shattered by Double 11 in 2014. Facing a surge in orders, Tsingtao Beer's e-commerce supply chain faced enormous pressure and problems. During the promotion, warehouse staffing was insufficient, operations were low in specialization and mechanization, picking and shipping were purely manual, leading to slow delivery, frequent errors and omissions, and low customer satisfaction.

Delivery delays directly impacted consumers' experience with Tsingtao Beer e-commerce. In 2014, increased sales on Double 11 were accompanied by poor customer experience.

2. Offline operations applied to online, lacking professionalism

With the establishment of Tsingtao Beer's Tmall Supermarket and JD.com self-operated stores, store operation became a new challenge. Due to limited staff, these stores were initially operated by offline regional teams.

Offline operations differ from online. Offline channels rely on scale advantages, using terminal shelf displays and end-cap displays to drive product sell-through, which is lagging. Online, on the other hand, favors short, fast campaigns that quickly launch activities around hot topics and holidays, using price and promotions to attract traffic. Applying offline methods to online stores clearly couldn't stand out.

3. Lagging marketing and lack of promotion

Before 2015, Tsingtao Beer did not emphasize the brand-building role of e-commerce channels, relying mainly on price wars to survive online. This approach of trading profits for sales clearly couldn't sustain long-term sales growth for Tsingtao Beer.

Who would have thought that Tsingtao Beer, with its brand advantages and fair prices, would struggle online? Relying solely on impressive Double 11 data each year couldn't support long-term development. The Tsingtao Beer e-commerce team understood that to break through online, they had to change.

-02- Seeking Change: Proactive Transformation and Strategic Alliances

Tmall and Taobao, which prioritize traffic, and JD.com, known for its strong logistics, are the two giants of Chinese e-commerce. Tsingtao Beer e-commerce realized that to succeed online, they needed not only internal transformation but also strategic alliances to maximize resource utilization. Thus, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce began a series of changes.

1. Closed self-built warehouses and integrated professional e-commerce warehousing and logistics

Timeliness, accuracy, and efficiency in logistics are key to e-commerce success. In 2015, JD Logistics and Cainiao Logistics began opening their services to external companies, extending an olive branch to Tsingtao Beer e-commerce.

In June 2015, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce closed its self-built warehouses and began cooperating with JD Logistics and Cainiao Logistics. By integrating the resources of these two major logistics platforms, they achieved economies of scale, reducing costs and improving customer experience. This strategic alliance was an important step for Tsingtao Beer e-commerce.

From 2016 to 2018, Tsingtao Beer products were fully integrated into the national warehousing systems of JD Logistics and Cainiao Logistics.

In 2019, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce optimized order flow information with Cainiao, allowing orders to reach warehouses directly, improving timeliness.

Thus, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce established a robust logistics system, ensuring fast, efficient, and accurate delivery of online products to consumers.

2. Cultivating talent and dedicated store operation

In store operations, Tsingtao Beer boldly empowered young people, training professional online store operators. Each online store is managed by a store manager, who coordinates e-commerce company management and operations to quickly increase market share.

With dedicated personnel, they keep pace with consumer trends and platform rhythms, selecting products to participate in platform-wide activities based on different promotional requirements. The store manager responsibility system allows the e-commerce team to set plans based on the company's brand strategy, product strategy, and bestseller plans to enhance store competitiveness. Through this process, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce cultivated a group of excellent young store managers.

3. Strategic alliances, strong promotion, and product focus

Facing 700 million Taobao users and 400 million JD.com users, the Tsingtao Beer e-commerce team knew that relying solely on price and promotions wouldn't sustain a competitive position in the fiercely competitive beer e-commerce category. Tsingtao Beer e-commerce had to change.

In promotion, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce actively cooperated with leading platforms to amplify its voice; in products, Tsingtao Beer made precise positioning. After a series of changes, in 2017, Tsingtao Beer's online omni-channel sales grew by 74%, with Double 11 single-day sales accounting for 5.7%.

-03- Innovation: New Marketing in the New Consumption Era

Over six years, the Tsingtao Beer e-commerce team grew from four people to over forty. Youthfulness is a hallmark of the team. It is within this young and creative team, relying on Tmall and JD.com, that Tsingtao Beer e-commerce is accelerating development. In the new consumption era, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce uses new marketing methods to meet the needs of more consumers.

1. Livestream selling and community marketing, none missing

During the 2019 Double 11 pre-sale period, Tsingtao Beer used Viya's livestream to set a record for its classic series, selling over 20,000 cases in five minutes, with transaction volume 16 times that of the 2018 Double 11 pre-sale. In addition to influencer selling, the Tsingtao Beer e-commerce team also trained employees to become their own "influencers." The team conducts daily fixed livestreams on Taobao Live, interacting with consumers to convey the charm of the century-old brand. This adds a warm human touch between consumers and the cold products, strengthening brand-consumer affinity and trust.

At the same time, Tsingtao Beer actively explores community marketing. As early as 2018, Tsingtao Beer entered social marketing, building WeChat groups and spreading sales through Moments. In September 2018, Tsingtao Beer's customized 3L canned original pulp sold over 3.3 million units.

2. Store upgrades to enhance consumer experience

In 2019, Tsingtao Beer's Tmall flagship store launched Tmall 2.0, using Tmall VR technology to create a panoramic experience of the Tsingtao Beer Museum, allowing consumers to visit the museum anytime, anywhere and learn about the century-old brand's development. The upgraded flagship store improved traffic conversion rates, better capturing Tmall's public domain marketing IP traffic. During Double 11, the introduction and construction of the Tmall membership system boosted sales, and offline QR code scanning for coupons and special interactive methods enhanced brand-consumer interaction and fun.

3. New marketing beyond platforms

Facing a large young consumer base, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce extends scenarios beyond platform collaborations. In addition to the National Trend campaign with Tmall and the Tsingtao Beer Museum Fantasy Night, it partnered with JD.com and Hisense TV to create the "Fun Opening" online campaign, and with Suning to launch a customized version of Socrates White Beer. These efforts support online sales while also promoting brand rejuvenation.

New Distribution Commentary:

Tsingtao Beer's six-year e-commerce development is a microcosm of the Chinese beer e-commerce category's growth. From using low prices to harvest traffic to using products to enhance brand; from single product maintenance to brand online operations; from focusing on traditional e-commerce platforms to experimenting with livestreaming and social e-commerce. The Tsingtao Beer e-commerce team never misses any opportunity to change itself.

Focusing on leading platform operations, deeply mining market share, refining stores and markets; maintaining industry leadership in high average order value, avoiding negative-margin products, and actively experimenting with new platforms and social e-commerce with a measured approach—these are the underlying logic Tsingtao Beer e-commerce has followed over the years. As a very "trendy" century-old brand, Tsingtao Beer is willing to try different marketing plays, using a series of interactive marketing to enhance brand scenario marketing value, create brand memories, and cultivate a new generation of consumers.

As online traffic approaches its ceiling, facing diverse consumer demands, we should not fall into price wars. Instead, we should use different marketing methods and product combinations to satisfy different consumers and get closer to them. Today's e-commerce is not just about sales volume; it's about brand power, product strength, average order value, and repurchase rate.

From 2013 to 2019, over six years of development, as an important department of Tsingtao Beer's Innovative Marketing Division, Tsingtao Beer e-commerce has adjusted through trial and error, developed through continuous change, and advanced through innovation, becoming a successful model for online operations in the domestic beer industry.

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