Every year I get the same email in October. A brand manager writes, three weeks before Singles Day, asking if we can “do something big on JD.com for 11.11.” The honest answer is no. Not because JD is closed to foreign brands, but because Singles Day on JD rewards the work you did four months earlier. The stock you booked. The coupons you funded. The content you seeded. Show up late and you pay full price for banner space nobody clicks.
This guide is the version of that answer I wish I could send in July, not October. It covers the real 11.11 calendar, how the promotions and platform subsidies actually work, what to prepare, and where JD is strong versus Tmall. The numbers are from the 2025 edition, the 17th Singles Day, which closed in November.
Written by Olivier Verot, founder of Gentlemen Marketing Agency. I have run brand stores and 11.11 campaigns on JD.com since 2012 from Shanghai, mostly for European appliance, 3C and consumer brands entering China.
What Singles Day on JD Looks Like in 2026
Forget the idea of a single 24-hour rush. That version of 11.11 died years ago. The 2025 JD campaign ran roughly 37 days, from early October to mid-November. It moves in waves, and each wave has a different job.
Here is how JD structured the 2025 waves, and this shape has been stable enough that you can plan against it:
- Warm-up and early buy (early to late October): shoppers collect red-envelope coupons and add products to cart. Adds-to-cart lock in demand signals. Core electronics and appliance deals already open here.
- Opening salvo (around 31 October to 3 November): the first real discount peak, big coupon drops like “spend 5,000, save 1,000.”
- Category days (4 to 9 November): one vertical spotlighted per day. This is where a mid-size brand can actually rank if it booked the slot.
- Peak carnival (10 November 8pm to 11 November): the night everyone remembers. Doubled red-envelope drops, the biggest traffic.
- Return round (12 to 14 November): restock of sold-out hits, price protection, last-chance buyers.
The practical takeaway: if your whole plan targets 11 November, you missed most of the sales. A lot of volume now lands in late October. Your team, your stock and your customer service need to be ready three weeks before the date on the poster.
The 2025 Numbers, and Why They Matter for You
JD stopped publishing a single headline GMV figure years ago. In 2025 it reported growth instead: the number of customers who placed an order rose 40% year on year, and order volume grew nearly 60%. For context, the shopper growth the year before was above 20%, so 2025 accelerated. Across the whole market, Fudan University’s consumption lab estimated total online retail of close to 2.4 trillion RMB over the 9 October to 11 November window, up more than 10% year on year.
Where does JD sit against Alibaba? During Singles Day 2025, third-party trackers put Alibaba around 55% of festival GMV and JD around 29%. JD is the clear number two, and it is number one in the categories that define it.
Those categories moved hard in 2025. New smartphone models grew more than fourfold. AI tablets rose about 200%, large-screen AI phones about 150%. Nearly 500 sub-categories across general merchandise and apparel grew more than 100%. JD’s home-services business, things like appliance installation and cleaning, grew over 200%. If you sell electronics, appliances, 3C accessories or home goods, JD is not an option to consider. It is the platform to win first.
Who Actually Shops on JD
This is where foreign brands guess wrong. JD skews more male than Tmall, more northern China, and more focused on things people research before buying. Electronics, appliances, cars parts, sports gear, anything where a buyer wants authenticity and fast delivery. JD built its reputation on first-party logistics and genuine product, which is why high-ticket and anti-counterfeit-sensitive categories over-index there.
So before you spend on 11.11, ask an honest question. Is your buyer on JD, or on Tmall, or on Douyin? A niche fashion or pure-beauty brand may get more from Tmall or content commerce. A kettle, a coffee machine, a monitor, a supplement men buy in bulk: that is JD’s home turf. Pick your battlefield before you fund the war chest.
How the Promotions and Subsidies Really Work
The discount a shopper sees is a stack, not one number. On JD in 2025 a single item could combine an official price cut, a cross-store “spend X save Y” coupon, a store coupon, a red-envelope, and on top of all that, a government subsidy.
That government subsidy, the guobu, mattered a lot in 2025. The fourth national trade-in batch, 69 billion RMB, went live on 1 November and stayed open through 31 December. Appliances and furniture qualified for around 20% back, capped near 2,000 RMB per item. Phones and digital products under 6,000 RMB got about 15%, capped near 500 RMB. Crucially, the subsidy stacked on top of platform coupons. A buyer could take the state discount and JD’s promotion together. That is why appliance and 3C volume spiked.
For a foreign brand, two lessons. First, you fund part of that stack. The cross-store coupons and store coupons come out of your margin, so your 11.11 P&L needs to be modeled in July, not discovered in November. Second, subsidy rules change every year and can end. The guobu programme was set to wind down after 2025, so do not build a plan that assumes the state will pay for your discount forever. Read the current rules each season.
Preparation: the Part That Wins or Loses 11.11
I will be blunt. Singles Day is not a marketing sprint. It is an operations exam, and the study happens months before. Five things decide your result.
Stock. Running out at 9pm on peak night is the most expensive mistake I see. You paid for the traffic, then handed the sale to a competitor. JD’s warehouse model means you commit inventory into their fulfillment centers weeks ahead. Forecast by wave, not by day, and hold buffer for the return round.
Customer service. Pre-sale questions flood in during warm-up. In 2025 most serious stores ran AI chat assistants to handle the first layer, sizing, compatibility, delivery timing, then routed the hard cases to humans. If your JD store answers in 40 seconds, you convert. If it answers in 40 minutes, you don’t.
Content and listings. Every product page needs to be finished before warm-up, not during it. Chinese-language detail pages, real specs, comparison charts, review seeding. Buyers on JD research. A thin page loses to a rich one even at the same price.
Media budget. JD’s ad system, JD Zhitui and its search and display placements, gets expensive and crowded during the festival. Book and test creative early. The brands that win peak night warmed their traffic during October so the algorithm already knew who to show them to.
External traffic. JD does not hand you an audience for free. You bring it. Live streaming on JD Live, plus video and content seeded on Xiaohongshu and Douyin, is how demand gets built and then cashed in on JD. Treat the outside platforms as the top of the funnel and JD as the checkout.
Live Streaming and Outside Content
Live commerce is now baked into 11.11. JD runs its own procurement-team livestreams where buyers vouch for deals, and it hosts brand and influencer streams. The mechanism is simple: a live room compresses the decision. A host demonstrates the product, drops a limited coupon, and the viewer buys inside the same window. It works best for products with a demo moment, appliances, kitchen tech, gadgets.
But the room needs an audience. That audience is warmed on Xiaohongshu and Douyin weeks before, through content that answers real questions and quietly points to your JD store. A brand that starts seeding content in October is already too late. Start in summer.
After the Sale: Returns and Retention
The festival does not end on 11 November. Price protection means a buyer can claim the difference if you drop the price after they bought, so plan your post-festival pricing carefully. Returns spike in the two weeks after. A clean, fast returns process protects your store rating, and on JD the rating drives future visibility.
The smart move is to treat 11.11 buyers as the start of a relationship, not the end of a transaction. Push them into your private-domain channels, a WeChat account, a member program, so you can sell to them again in December and next year without paying JD for the traffic twice.
A Polish Brand That Got It Right the Second Time
Ola runs a Polish small-appliance brand, kitchen devices, mid-premium. Poland already trades into China through cross-border e-commerce, so JD was a logical door. Her first 11.11, she improvised. The store went live in late October, listings were half-translated, no coupon budget modeled, no external content. Result: about 30 orders across the whole festival, and a customer-service backlog she could not clear. Her margin on the few sales evaporated in refunds.
She almost quit JD. Instead we rebuilt for the next edition, starting in July. We finished the Chinese detail pages by August, seeded product reviews on Xiaohongshu through the autumn, modeled the coupon stack so the discounts did not sink the margin, and booked a JD Live slot for the category day, not peak night, where a smaller brand can actually be seen. We staffed an AI-assisted chat desk for the warm-up questions.
The second 11.11 she did roughly 900 orders across the waves, sold out her lead product during the opening salvo, and kept her store rating high because returns were handled fast. Nothing magic happened. She simply did in July what she had tried to do in October the year before. That is the whole lesson of Singles Day.
For the full picture of how 11.11 fits with the other big shopping dates, see our guide to the key e-commerce dates in China, and our overview of selling on Chinese e-commerce platforms.
Frequently Asked Questions
When should a foreign brand start preparing for 11.11 on JD?
Three to four months before. The store, Chinese listings and content seeding should be done by late summer. Stock has to be committed into JD’s warehouses weeks ahead, and external content on Xiaohongshu and Douyin needs the autumn to build an audience. Brands that start in October compete for full-price ad space against brands that started in July. The date on the poster is the deadline, not the start.
Is JD or Tmall better for Singles Day?
It depends on your category. JD leads on electronics, appliances, 3C and anything where authenticity and fast delivery matter, with a more male and northern audience. Tmall is stronger for beauty, fashion and lifestyle brands. Many brands run both. If your product has a demo moment or a spec sheet, JD usually converts better. If it lives on aesthetics and content, weigh Tmall and Douyin.
How much of the discount do I pay versus JD?
You fund most of the store-level and cross-store coupons out of your margin. Some platform-wide red-envelopes and government subsidies are not your cost, but you cannot rely on them. Model the full coupon stack before you commit, because the visible price a shopper pays can be well below your list price once everything combines. Brands that skip this modeling often make sales and lose money.
What were the government subsidies in 2025 and will they continue?
The 2025 trade-in subsidy gave roughly 20% back on appliances and furniture, capped near 2,000 RMB, and about 15% on phones and digital under 6,000 RMB, capped near 500 RMB, and it stacked with platform coupons. It was a major driver of appliance and 3C volume. The programme was set to wind down after 2025, so check the current year’s rules rather than assuming the same support.
Do I need live streaming to succeed on JD’s 11.11?
For products with a demonstration moment, it helps a lot. JD hosts procurement-team streams, brand streams and influencer rooms. A live room shortens the decision by showing the product and dropping a time-limited coupon. But the stream needs an audience warmed beforehand on Xiaohongshu and Douyin. Live streaming is a conversion tool, not a traffic source. Build the demand first, then close it in the room.
Can a small or mid-size brand compete during 11.11?
Yes, by choosing where to fight. Do not try to win peak night against giants. Target a category day, where a focused brand can rank, and pick one hero product to concentrate stock and budget behind. Nearly 500 sub-categories grew over 100% in 2025, which shows demand exists well beyond the top brands. Preparation and focus beat budget more often than people expect.
What happens after 11.11?
Returns spike for about two weeks, and price protection lets buyers claim refunds if you cut prices further. Handle both fast to protect your store rating, which drives future visibility on JD. Then move your new buyers into private-domain channels like WeChat so you can sell to them again without repaying JD for traffic. The festival should start a relationship, not end a transaction.
Sources and Further Reading
JD’s own 11.11 results were reported by Chinese financial press, see Sina Finance on the 2025 campaign. Historical JD Singles Day GMV is tracked by Statista. For the official brand view, JD publishes its results on the JD Corporate Blog.
Gentlemen Marketing Agency
We run JD and Tmall stores and 11.11 campaigns for foreign brands, from listing and store setup to media, live streaming and Xiaohongshu content. We have worked with more than 350 international brands entering China. If you want your Singles Day planned in summer instead of improvised in October, contact us.
