China Ecommerce Festivals 2026: Double 11 Dates, 618 and the Full Sales Calendar
Updated
Most foreign brands hear “Double 11” and picture one crazy day in November. Then they plan their whole China year around it, show up the week before, and wonder why they sold almost nothing. China’s ecommerce festivals are not a day you attend. They are a calendar you prepare for, sometimes for months. Below is the 2026 to 2027 calendar, the Double 11 dates the platforms have actually published, and what a small brand should do in each window.
Jon Wang, founder of SEO Agency China, writes from Shanghai about selling in China on small budgets.
He has planned festival runs on Tmall and JD for small foreign brands since the days when Double 11 still lasted one day.
The ecommerce festivals that drive the Chinese year
A handful of dates do most of the heavy lifting in Chinese e-commerce:
- Double 11, 11 November. Singles’ Day, started by Alibaba in 2009 and still the biggest sales event of the Chinese year. The one everyone knows, and the one that now runs for about a month.
- 618, 18 June. JD’s anniversary sale, now matched by every other platform. The second engine of the year.
- Double 12, 12 December. The follow-up to Double 11, smaller, and a second chance for brands that missed November.
- 38 Festival, 8 March. Women’s Day, huge for beauty, fashion and anything bought by women.
- Chinese New Year. Gifting, food, alcohol, travel and luxury, on a lunar date that moves each year.
Miss the prep window on these and you are not in the game. There is no walk-up entry.
China ecommerce festival calendar 2026 to 2027
Here is the table I give clients. The “start preparing” column is my own working rule, not a platform rule. The Double 11 2026 row uses only dates the platforms have announced.
| Festival | Dates | Main platforms | Categories that win | Start preparing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Double 11 (Singles’ Day) 2026 | JD from 12 Oct, 20:00. Tmall pre-sale from 15 Oct, 20:00; final payments and spot sales from 20 Oct, 20:00, to 13 Nov, 23:59 | Tmall, Taobao, JD, Douyin, Pinduoduo | Appliances, phones, beauty, apparel, everything | July to August |
| Double 12 | 12 December | Taobao, Tmall | Smaller sellers, year-end gifting | October |
| Spring Festival shopping (年货节) | The weeks before Chinese New Year (6 February 2027) | All platforms, plus WeChat gifting | Food, alcohol, gift boxes, health products | November |
| 38 Festival (Women’s Day) | 8 March, with sales starting late February | Tmall, Xiaohongshu, Douyin | Beauty, fashion, personal care | December |
| 520 | 20 May | Tmall, JD, Xiaohongshu | Jewelry, gifts, couples’ products | March |
| 618 | Late May to 18 June | JD, Tmall, Douyin, Pinduoduo | Electronics, appliances, beauty, sport | March to April |
| Qixi (Chinese Valentine’s Day) | 7th day of the 7th lunar month, usually August | Tmall, Xiaohongshu, Douyin | Luxury, jewelry, flowers, fragrance | June |
Double 11 2026: the dates that are confirmed
Today is 9 October 2026, so this is the festival that matters right now. Here is what has been published, and nothing more.
Tmall and Taobao. According to the 2026 merchant rules reported by Huxiu, pre-sale warm-up and deposits open on 15 October. Final payments are due from 20 October at 20:00, and spot sales run from 20 October, 20:00, to 13 November, 23:59. That is close to 25 days of selling. The main mechanic is an official instant discount (官方立减) that applies to a single item, so shoppers do not need to stack orders to hit a threshold.
JD. JD told its merchants in a rules briefing on 23 September that its 11.11 opens on 12 October at 20:00 with a launch gala, followed by a “super flash sale day” on 20 October and a new “super service day” on 28 October, as reported by Tencent News. Last year JD opened on 9 October, so the start is three days later this year.
Douyin and Pinduoduo have not published dates I could confirm, so I am not listing any. If someone sends you a “full 2026 timetable” with exact hours for every platform, check where it came from.
How big these festivals still are
The platforms stopped publishing their own festival totals years ago, so the numbers come from third parties. For Double 11 2025, data firm Syntun (星图数据) counted 1.695 trillion yuan in sales across Chinese e-commerce, up 14.2% on the year, according to Southern Metropolis Daily. Instant retail, meaning delivery within the hour from Meituan, Taobao and JD, made 67 billion yuan of that, up 138.4%.
618 in 2026 was calmer. A report by the 中新经纬 research institute and partners measured national online retail sales up 7.7% year on year over 31 May to 11 June. Growth, yes. A gold rush, no.
Two things follow for a foreign brand. The traffic is still enormous. And the shopper is choosier than five years ago, comparing harder and waiting for the official discount instead of buying on hype.
Why showing up on the day does nothing
Here is the part the platforms do not advertise. The sales that land on Double 11 were won in the weeks before it. Chinese buyers build wish lists, compare, and pay deposits long before the date. With Tmall pre-sales opening on 15 October, the decision is mostly made by late October. The final day is just the checkout.
So if a buyer discovers your brand on the morning of 11 November, you have already lost them. They spent the last three weeks researching the brands they trust, on Xiaohongshu notes, Douyin videos and Baidu results, and your name was not in that research. The festival rewards the brands buyers already knew about and already wanted.
How small brands actually win a festival
You do not outspend the big brands on the day. You get into the research phase that happens before it. That means three things:
- Being findable when a buyer searches your category on Baidu, which works differently from Google.
- Having honest discussion about your product on the platforms where Chinese people research, months before the pre-sale.
- Giving them a reason to add you to the list early: a deposit offer, a gift with purchase, a sample.
Pick one or two festivals that fit your product instead of chasing all of them. A beauty brand lives for the 38 Festival. A gifting product lives for Chinese New Year. A jewelry brand should look hard at 520 and Qixi, where the competition is lighter than in November. Win one calendar slot properly and you have a real season, not a wasted day. Our breakdown of how Tmall promotions work covers the discount side in more detail.
Picture a small Australian skincare brand run by a founder called Hannah. She opens a cross-border store in August and puts 40,000 RMB into Double 11 coupons. She sells about 300 units, mostly to people who searched the brand name, which barely existed in Chinese. The coupons did nothing because nobody was looking for her. The following year she moves the same budget earlier: 30 creator notes on Xiaohongshu in August and September, a Chinese brand name that shows up on Baidu, and a small deposit offer on the first pre-sale night. Same discount, about four times the units, because this time buyers came in already knowing the brand. The festival did not change. Her timing did.
Questions we get about China’s shopping festivals
When does Double 11 2026 start?
JD opens first, on 12 October at 20:00. Tmall and Taobao open pre-sales and deposits on 15 October, with final payments and spot sales from 20 October at 20:00 until 13 November at 23:59. The 11 November date is now the end of a month-long event, not the event itself. Other platforms had not confirmed exact dates when this was written.
What are the biggest ecommerce festivals in China?
Double 11 in November and 618 in June are the two big ones, run by every major platform. After them come the Spring Festival shopping season before Chinese New Year, Double 12, the 38 Festival for women’s products, and gifting dates like 520 and Qixi. Each favors different categories, so pick by product, not by size.
How early should a foreign brand prepare for Double 11?
Three to four months. Store setup, platform campaign sign-up and stock for cross-border all take weeks, and the awareness work on Xiaohongshu or Douyin needs a run-up so buyers know your name before pre-sales open in mid October. Starting in October means you are paying for traffic that has already decided.
Is Double 12 worth it for a small brand?
Often, yes. It is much smaller than Double 11, which means less noise and cheaper attention. It works well as a second shot for brands whose November was crowded out, and as a year-end gifting moment. Treat it as a test you can learn from before Chinese New Year rather than a main season.
Planning your next festival run
We are a small team in Shanghai that gets startups into the research phase before a festival, not stranded on the day of it. Most of that work is Rednote UGC and seeding plus Baidu visibility, timed to the pre-sale window. Send us your product and the festival you are aiming for.