Workers sort packages at an express distribution center in Donghai county, East China, Jiansu Province in December, 2018. Photo: CNS

December 12 marks the shopping spree of "Double 12," the follow up to last month's record-breaking Double 11 festival sequel and one of the most exhilarating shopping welcomed by China's e-commerce players.

Akin to the Double 11 festival, over 10 million items are on sale in the upcoming shopping spree. Brands on Tmall, an e-commerce website under Alibaba, are also offering discounts this year, and over one million businesses on Taobao have signed up for the upcoming spree sales, according to a report from Beijing-baed China Times, citing Tian De, director of the fast-moving consumer goods department of Taobao.

Although it is hard to tell how successful this year's sales in the shopping spree will be, online shopping has become a rising trend in China. During this year's Double 11, over 268 billion yuan ($38 billion) of sales were generated. In comparison, the total sales of Cyber Monday, the most popular online shopping spree in the US reached only $9.4 billion, according to figures from Adobe's digital insight report.

New drivers of e-commerce 

Behind the rising trend is China's growing middle classes and young people in counties and townships, who are gaining spending power and becoming the major driving force of China's e-commerce industry, Lu Zhenwang, founder of Shanghai Wanqing Commerce Consulting, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

Young people in fourth and fifth-tier cities are now used to shopping online for high quality items with lower prices, a wider range of selection and fast shipping services compared with offline retailers. 

Before the Double 12 of this year, the presales of JDDJ, an online-to-offline retail platform of China's another e-commerce giant JD.com, in tier 3-6 cities grew to 8.7 times last year's figure. Among them, the presales in Putian of East China's Fujian Province, Zhenjiang of East China's Jiangsu Province, Zhuhai of South China's Guangdong and other cities increased by more than 2.5 times compared with last year, the spokesperson of JDDJ told Global Times in a statement.

"The low-tier markets are proven to satisfy the rising needs of local upgrading consumption, along with the digital transformation and omni-channel strategy (a cross-channel content strategy), of retailers," the spokesperson said. 

The increasing channels and e-commerce platforms are providing customers with more reasons to spend, along with the fast-developing shipping business that reduced delivery time. 

"Online sales have become more and more popular in China thanks to China's well-developed delivery system, which usually takes less than three days to delivery items," Lu said, adding that "the US retail industry still relies on offline sales."

In recent years, companies like JD.com and Pinduoduo have joined in shopping sprees, offering consumers more choices. Promotion methods, meanwhile, have also expanded as more shoppers have turned to videos and online streaming to boost sales, which give consumers a direct and interactive experience. 

Rising niche market 

According to statistics from Taobao, some of the most popular brands in clothing and skincare have released the prices for the upcoming event. For example, Lancôme has posted discounts of up to 50 percent off some on its most signature products. Armani, Adidas and Nike are also among the brands offering deals as good, if not better, than the Double 11 festival.

However, as a shopping festival only one month later than the Double 11, the spree in December usually receives considerably less anticipation and is not likely to exceed Double 11 in terms of the total sales volume. The December's shopping spree still provides a platform for the latest niche products.  

"Double 12 is gaining more importance as an independent shopping festival," Lu said, adding that "the growing purchasing power of Chinese consumers and diversified sales channels and promotion methods are behind this growth."

"Unlike the Tmall, which is famous for the popular brands, the Double 11 for Taobao is for the so-called 'long-tail items' that are usually targeted toward a more niche customer group and are hard to find on the mainstream market," Tian from Taobao said. 

Toys and video games, as well as new brands of apparel are being made ready for the sales in the upcoming event. Nintendo's Switch, which is under collaboration with China's social media giant Tencent, released on Tuesday at the price of 2099 yuan. As of December 5, a total of 73,283 people have preordered Switchs on the e-commerce platform suning.com, according to eastmoney.com.

Pet products are also expected to see a surge in this year's Double 12. According to a report by Taobao, new pet products have become the latest rising trend. Cat beds, for example, have doubled in sales in this year's Double 12 presales compared to the same period last year. 

More specified markets are emerging and gaining importance with the spree. Electric heated blankets for dogs, for example, have double presales of the same period last year. 

Consumer demand for the most recent and innovative products is the key to  success of e-commerce platforms, and their rising standards have fueled a boom in manufacturing and commerce. 

"The 200-million-strong Chinese middles class whose demand of high-quality goods provided a strong boost to the sales of high-end products," Lu said.