Platforms prepare for June 18 shopping carnival

Major Chinese e-commerce platforms have ramped up efforts to offer steep discounts and consumption coupons as well as to simplify promotions during this year's June 18 online shopping carnival, with direct price reductions being a preferred strategy of attracting price-conscious customers and bolstering sales.

As Chinese shoppers have become more rational and prudent about potential purchases, e-commerce players are taking a more pragmatic and simpler approach, with a key focus on stepping up support for merchants and offering subsidies for the country's consumer goods trade-in program, experts said.

Alibaba Group's business-to-customer platform Tmall kicked off its presale campaign at 8 pm on Tuesday, with the maximum discount reaching 50 percent, while offering artificial intelligence-powered tools to improve the digital operation capacities of merchants.