213.5 billion yuan! That's the scorecard for Tmall's Double 11 in 2018. Beyond marveling at the robust growth potential of China's consumer market after nearly a decade of rapid development, the active participation of brands has also fueled the event's prosperity. Tsingtao Brewery is one of millions of merchants on Double 11. This year, Tsingtao's single-day sales hit a new record, up 60% year-on-year, seven times its sales on June 18, and within just 10 hours of the event, it had already matched its full-day sales for Double 11 in 2017. This performance is particularly commendable against the backdrop of increasingly fierce competition and slowing industry growth. 1 Tsingtao Brewery's Internet Endeavors: Progress Through Exploration At 5 PM on November 10, the Tsingtao Brewery Shanghai Marketing Center was already adorned with balloons, banners, slogans, and other festive elements. Although this was the sixth consecutive year participating in Double 11, this young team, with an average age under 30, still displayed the appropriate sense of ceremony and tension when facing a major campaign. Tsingtao Brewery Shanghai Marketing Center Office As the earliest brand in the domestic beer industry to go online, Tsingtao Brewery began exploring e-commerce in 2013. While the e-commerce dividend drove this century-old brand forward, the Tsingtao e-commerce team also encountered its fair share of pitfalls along the way. 2013: First Attempt at Going Online The e-commerce team initially consisted of only four people. Since there was no precedent for low-margin, heavy FMCG products participating in e-commerce in China, and the team lacked professional experience, Tsingtao chose a relatively conservative approach to enter the e-commerce field—third-party operation. In 2013, Tsingtao Brewery made its first foray online, aggressively carving out market share on the e-commerce stage dominated by imported brands. It won first place on Double 11, with single-day sales accounting for 16.8% of annual sales, giving the e-commerce team a taste of Double 11's allure. 2014: Independent E-commerce Operations, Warehousing Issues, Heavy Losses After a year of observation and learning, Tsingtao decisively abandoned the third-party operation model before the contract expired, and began building its own e-commerce team, establishing professional e-commerce warehouses in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. That year, e-commerce sales grew by over 400%, with Double 11 alone accounting for 10.7% of annual sales. However, the fully independent Tsingtao e-commerce team seemed unprepared for the sudden surge in orders. After customers placed orders, errors such as wrong shipments and omissions were common. Moreover, with no logistics companies covering the entire country at that time, inadequate warehousing and distribution infrastructure meant that orders placed after Double 11 could only be delivered about a month later. More critically, the already low profit margins of beer could not support the high logistics and distribution costs. "Throughout 2014, every box sold meant a loss," which prompted senior management and the e-commerce team to consider how to reduce operational costs through scientific planning and management. 2015: Opening a Store on JD.com, Leveraging JD and Cainiao Warehousing to Achieve Profitability The following year, Tsingtao opened a dedicated store on JD.com. This opportunity brought Tsingtao into contact with JD Logistics and Cainiao Logistics. After nearly six months of磨合, the warehousing and distribution capabilities of JD Logistics and Cainiao Logistics won recognition from both Tsingtao's management and e-commerce team. In June 2015, the Tsingtao e-commerce team dismantled its three self-built warehouses and handed over management and operations to JD's three warehouses and Cainiao's Shanghai warehouse, truly achieving integrated warehousing and distribution for orders. That year, Tsingtao's e-commerce sales grew by 16%, with Double 11 single-day sales accounting for 13%, and the business began to turn a profit. 2016: Entering JD's Seven Warehouses, Launching Brand Activities with Platforms in the Group's Name As business cooperation deepened and JD Logistics' coverage expanded, in 2016, Tsingtao's products were fully integrated into JD Logistics' warehousing system, with all seven warehouses nationwide connected. In terms of marketing, the value of platforms became increasingly evident, and the brand department became more involved in formulating online marketing activities, reflecting a shift in the group's attitude toward e-commerce. In terms of sales, Tsingtao achieved 52% sales growth across all online channels in 2016, with Double 11 single-day sales accounting for 9.4%. 2017: Expanding E-commerce Channel Width, Upgrading from 'JD Cloud Warehouse' to 'JD Warehouse' The maturity of e-commerce and consumers' growing acceptance of online shopping led more brands to explore new e-commerce channels, and Tsingtao was no exception. In 2017, Tsingtao began cooperating with major domestic banks, selling its products on their online malls. In terms of backend warehousing and distribution, Tsingtao achieved the tagging of JD distribution orders, upgrading from the original "JD Cloud Warehouse" to the current "JD Warehouse." This not only improved the response efficiency of Tsingtao's orders but also greatly optimized the search weight of its products on JD. In 2017, Tsingtao's online sales across all channels grew by as much as 74%, with Double 11 single-day sales accounting for 5.7%. 2018: Achieving Dual-Channel, Dual-Inventory for Alibaba and JD The formation of the Alibaba-JD duopoly in e-commerce meant that brands could no longer share the same backend warehousing and distribution system. In 2018, Tsingtao's products were fully integrated into Cainiao's seven warehouses, truly achieving dual-inventory for both channels. Coinciding with the tenth anniversary of Tmall Double 11, Tsingtao launched a commemorative edition "Night Cat Can" as the flagship product for this Double 11. This youthful attempt achieved impressive pre-sales of 1,000 boxes per day. 2 Marketing Innovation: Online-Offline Linkage, Full-Chain Marketing At 0:27:36 on November 11, Tsingtao Brewery surpassed the million-yuan mark, a full 20 minutes earlier than in 2017. The changing numbers kept everyone on edge, and many traditional marketing veterans participating in Tmall Double 11 for the first time understood the significance of the internet for this century-old enterprise. So, the Tsingtao e-commerce team used the most direct and effective method to repeatedly warm up for the annual carnival: sending red envelopes in WeChat groups to friends and colleagues, encouraging them to share the event on their Moments, and Tsingtao employees would attach the Tmall purchase link (tao code) to every visible post. Tsingtao Original Pulp 3L Can Although e-commerce development has only been a few years, it doesn't mean this century-old enterprise is ignorant of new retail and new marketing. In September, the Tsingtao e-commerce team sold over 3.3 million yuan worth of customized Tsingtao Original Pulp 3L cans through WeChat community building and Moments promotion—a significant innovation for this century-old company. Tmall 10th Anniversary Commemorative Night Cat Can Pre-sale Offline The same innovation was evident in the joint marketing for this Double 11. Before Double 11, the Tsingtao e-commerce team established ten highly coordinated combat groups across cities, and in each city selected the top ten KA supermarkets to use display stacks, Tmall customized guide signs, and other vivid elements to attract consumers to scan QR codes and pre-order on Tmall, forming an offline promotion matrix of ten cities and a hundred stores to drive traffic online. According to feedback from the offline department, the Night Cat Can received unprecedented popularity and attention during this online-offline joint marketing, and it was officially ignited in the offline market. 3 Double 11 Decade: Because We Believe, We See At 10:05 on November 11, Tsingtao's official flagship store achieved its full-day sales target for Double 11 in 2017. In previous Double 11 events, platforms often made a final sales push in the last 2-4 hours, but the Tsingtao e-commerce team clearly did not rely on the platform. "Wang Xun (pseudonym), check this graphic article. Can you copy the tao code inside to enter the Tmall store?" At 7 PM, the Tsingtao e-commerce team wanted to promote Double 11 promotions to all Tsingtao users through the company's official WeChat article. However, due to the competitive relationship between Alibaba and Tencent, their links were mutually blocked. Alibaba adopted the "tao code" as a guerrilla tactic to circumvent this risk, but this undoubtedly harmed the user shopping experience. At this point, there were still 5 hours until the end of Double 11, and Tsingtao was still 10% short of its goal. At this time, the Tsingtao Tmall store manager also began using Wangwang to urge payment and issue targeted coupons to stimulate users who had paid deposits but not yet paid the balance. For consumers who had previously placed orders on the Tsingtao Tmall store, he chose a more direct and blunt method—mass texting... At 11:47 PM on November 11, Tsingtao's Tmall official flagship store successfully reached its budget target, and the Tsingtao e-commerce team concluded its sixth Tmall Double 11 carnival with satisfactory results. As one of millions of merchants on Tmall, Tsingtao's Double 11 case is more like a microcosm of millions of FMCG brands. After initially looking down on, underestimating, and failing to understand new channels, brands ultimately chose to embrace new channels represented by Tmall and JD. Actively embracing new channels not only brings additional sales growth but also has long-term value and significance for enterprise development: 1. Data Accumulation E-commerce, by directly facing consumers, can capture purchasing preferences of different consumer types and regions, thereby providing guidance for brand product selection and development. 2. Promoting New Product Launches Traditional new product distribution is a lengthy process. It may take two weeks or longer from production to store shelves, whereas e-commerce allows direct consumer access, with new products reaching consumers in about 3 days, and it can also drive traditional channel restocking and sales, making it more efficient. 3. Brand Image Building Through joint marketing with Tmall and JD platforms, brands can present a more youthful image, helping to shorten the distance between the brand and consumers. Ten years of Tmall, a tribute to every brand that actively embraces change and the ordinary people who work silently in channel transformation! The value of Double 11 for brands might be as Zhang Yong said at the end of the event: "Ten years ago, because we believed, we saw; ten years later, it's right before our eyes, and we see everything." -END-