Platforms Traded Coupons for Membership
Major platforms dropped cross-store discount stacking and shifted spend toward paying members instead of blanket subsidies.
China’s main e-commerce platforms moved in near-unison for Double 11 2026 to cancel cross-store discount stacking and team-forming mechanics, replacing them with straight product-level price cuts. Tmall dropped its longstanding threshold discounts across roughly 70 million items, JD abandoned deposit-based presales for in-stock shipping, and Douyin kept only instant discounts. Resources shifted toward 88VIP, JD Plus and Douyin mall members, and repurchase rates rose more than 12% year on year, moving the operating metric from acquisition to retention.
