An AI conceptual city in Shenzhen File photo: VCG

Chinese e-commerce players have kicked off the 2025 "11.11" annual online shopping festival, a key retail event of 16 years, and this year merchants are tapping into artificial intelligence (AI)-powered consumption, marking a new bid to unlock greater business opportunities.

Taobao and Tmall leverage AI solutions to enrich their catalog of 2 billion-plus product listings, and they integrate large language AI models to its core search and recommendation engine, Alibaba told the Global Times on Thursday. 

These AI upgrades have led to a major uplift in key metrics, including double-digit improvement in the relevance of search results for complex queries and a significant rise in click-through rates for recommended products. 

And, merchants are benefiting from a virtual "AI Team" to boost efficiency and drive growth during the busiest sales season of the year. 

An upgraded AI-Generated Content (AIGC) suite has helped create 200 million images and 5 million marketing videos for merchants monthly, driving an increase of over 10 percent in click-through rates.

Also, on September 25, JD.com unveiled its e-commerce AI architecture, Oxygen, for the first time. During this year's shopping gala, it will offer free access to related AI tools for merchants, covering the entire store development process, including image creation, product delivery, live-streaming and customer service, the Securities Times reported. 

Media outlets reported that JD.com has launched more than 50 AI tools to provide merchants with comprehensive support, including intelligent product selection, content creation, customer service and pricing. 

The e-commerce giant has upgraded its digital human JoyStreamer. From live-streaming and short videos to advertising generation, JoyStreamer can achieve a closed loop of "responsiveness, intelligence, and memory." 

On Tuesday, JD.com said that consumer shopping enthusiasm has remained high since the launch of the promotion. From October 9 to 10, the number of active users on JD.com app rose by 47.6 percent year-on-year. Many categories of products saw explosive sales. As of 12 pm on Tuesday, orders for electrical items such as home appliances, mobile phones, digital products, and computers increased by more than 70 percent year-on-year, the company said.

Global Times