Douyin E-commerce Singles' Day Day 1: Merchants with Livestream Sales Over 10 Million Yuan Up 96% Year-on-Year, Product Cards and Search Emerge as Growth Engines

Douyin E-commerce delivered better-than-expected results on the first day of the Singles' Day shopping festival. On October 15, platform data showed that the number of merchants with livestream sales exceeding 10 million yuan grew 96% year-on-year, while merchants newly surpassing 1 million yuan in sales grew 74% year-on-year. Behind these two figures lies not only the release of consumer demand but also the result of Douyin E-commerce's continuous iteration on business tools and support strategies.

Merchants with Livestream Sales Over 10 Million Yuan Double, Small and Medium-Sized New Merchants Become the Main Force

The number of merchants with livestream sales exceeding 10 million yuan grew 96% year-on-year, nearly doubling. This growth rate stands out even in the context of the entire e-commerce industry's major shopping festivals. More noteworthy is the structure of this growth — the number of merchants growing from 1 million yuan to 10 million yuan in sales increased 94% year-on-year, indicating that a large number of mid-tier merchants are completing a leap in business scale.

This growth is not driven by a handful of top players. The report notes that behind the growth data are numerous new merchants and small and medium-sized merchants who have only recently started on the platform. Douyin E-commerce has continued its tiered support strategy, providing differentiated support for merchants at different stages: new merchants can receive up to 2,450 yuan in advertising subsidies and shipping insurance support after completing tasks such as product listing and sales activation; merchants focused on self-broadcasting can sign up for the "New Merchant Ten Thousand Store Incentive" to receive real-time traffic support; high-potential small and medium-sized merchants can win Qianchuan grants through "Challenge Competitions."

The number of livestream rooms with first-day sales exceeding 1 million yuan grew 43% year-on-year, and the number of creators participating in Singles' Day for the first time and surpassing 1 million yuan in sales grew 30% year-on-year. These two data points confirm a trend: Douyin E-commerce's creator ecosystem and store livestream ecosystem are expanding simultaneously, and newcomers still have considerable room for growth.

Store livestreaming (店铺直播) refers to livestream commerce conducted by brands or merchants through their own store accounts on the platform, as opposed to the distribution model of inviting external creators to sell products. The advantage of store livestreaming is that merchants have full control over livestream content, pacing, and user asset accumulation, and sales data more directly reflects the brand's own operational capabilities. In recent years, the share of store livestreaming in Douyin E-commerce's overall volume has continued to rise, becoming a core arena for brands to achieve stable daily sales and user repurchases.

Qianchuan is Douyin E-commerce's advertising platform for merchants, officially known as "Juliliang Qianchuan." Through Qianchuan, merchants can push short videos or livestream rooms to target audiences and pay based on performance. The "Qianchuan grant incentives" mentioned in this article refer to the platform subsidizing merchants' advertising costs in the form of gifted ad credits, lowering the barrier to cold start.

Product Cards and Search: The Underestimated Growth Channels

In this Singles' Day Day 1 data, the most surprising growth came from two areas: product cards and search. The number of merchants with product card sales exceeding 1 million yuan grew 103% year-on-year, and the number of merchants with search-driven sales exceeding 1 million yuan grew 111% year-on-year. Both broke through triple-digit growth, leading among overall growth rates.

In the past, discussions about Douyin E-commerce often focused on livestream commerce. But the growth of product cards and search shows that Douyin E-commerce's "shelf scene" is becoming an important pillar of merchant operations. Consumers' active search and product browsing behavior beyond video scrolling is translating into real transactions.

At the platform level, this path is also being consciously strengthened. Products participating in the shopping festival can stack basic support with consumer coupons, and flagship store bestsellers, core categories, and in-stock products can receive up to 5x traffic incentives in "Guess You Like" and search. This means that if merchants can effectively capture demand in product card and search scenarios, the traffic leverage they gain is greater than relying solely on livestreaming.

Platform-funded consumer coupons also played a clear driving role on the first day of the shopping festival: the number of merchants with coupon-driven sales exceeding 1 million yuan and 10 million yuan grew 54% and 74% year-on-year, respectively.

Product cards (商品卡) are a non-livestream, non-short-video shelf-style product display format in Douyin E-commerce, typically appearing in the mall, search, store pages, and "Guess You Like" sections. Consumers can browse and place orders directly without entering a livestream room, featuring the "people find products" active consumption characteristic. An increase in the share of product card sales often means that merchants' long-term operational capabilities on the platform have strengthened, rather than relying solely on the pulse-like traffic of a single livestream.

Shelf scene (货架场) is Douyin E-commerce's collective term for non-content recommendation scenarios such as the mall, search, and stores, alongside the "content scene" (livestreaming, short videos). The core value of the shelf scene is to capture users' active shopping intent, helping merchants continuously gain exposure and transactions outside of livestream hours, thereby building a more stable operational foundation.

Autumn-Winter Seasonal Transition Combined with Category Explosion, Merchants Across Industries Find Incremental Growth

The release of autumn-winter seasonal consumption demand has brought growth windows for multiple categories. The number of merchants with sales exceeding 10 million yuan in the apparel industry grew 69% year-on-year, and merchants in the brand beauty and personal care industry saw sales grow 101% year-on-year. The growth logic for these two categories is not hard to understand — seasonal necessities plus shopping festival discounts are naturally suited for impulse purchases and stockpiling behavior.

Fast-moving consumer goods and durable goods industries performed even more impressively. The number of merchants with sales exceeding 10 million yuan in the FMCG industry grew 223% year-on-year, and the number of brands with sales exceeding 100 million yuan in the durable goods industry grew 120% year-on-year. The high growth in FMCG categories indicates strong demand for daily necessity stockpiling during the shopping festival, while the growth in the number of 100-million-yuan brands in durable goods reflects that consumers' willingness to purchase high-ticket items during the shopping festival has not diminished.

Specialty categories of interest-based e-commerce also performed actively. Merchants in the pet supplies industry saw sales grow 129% year-on-year, with the number of merchants exceeding 1 million yuan in sales growing 192% year-on-year; the number of merchants exceeding 1 million yuan in sales in the agricultural products and fresh food industry grew 205% year-on-year. These data points show that Douyin E-commerce's content-driven seeding capability is penetrating into more niche categories.

Fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) typically refers to products with lower unit prices, short consumption cycles, and high purchase frequency, such as food and beverages, personal care, and daily necessities. FMCG categories are prone to stockpiling-style consumption during shopping festivals, so sales growth tends to be concentrated and significant.

Durable consumer goods refers to products with higher unit prices, long usage cycles, and low purchase frequency, such as home appliances, 3C digital products, and furniture. Purchase decisions for durable goods are more considered, and discounts and subsidies during shopping festivals play a particularly critical role in driving sales. The "number of brands with sales exceeding 100 million yuan in the durable goods industry growing 120% year-on-year" mentioned in this article shows that the sales capability for high-ticket items on Douyin E-commerce is rapidly improving.

Platform Intentions Revealed Through Support Strategies: Helping Small and Medium-Sized Merchants "Capture" Shopping Festival Traffic

Breaking down the Day 1 data, Douyin E-commerce's core strategy for this Singles' Day is actually quite clear: use tiered support to precisely deliver traffic and subsidies to merchants at different stages, then use multiple pathways like product cards, search, and consumer coupons to help merchants capture demand.

For brands and top merchants, the platform provides customized resources through the "Pilot Program" and "Thousand Attraction Program"; for small and medium-sized merchants and new merchants, it uses low-threshold tasks and cash incentives to lower participation costs. Quality creators and merchant self-broadcasting can also gain additional display opportunities through activities such as "Super Value Categories" and "Ten Thousand Store Mega Deals."

The effectiveness of this tiered logic is already reflected in the Day 1 data: the number of new products with sales exceeding 1 million yuan grew 111% year-on-year, indicating that the explosive power of new supply is strengthening. For small and medium-sized merchants, the shopping festival is no longer a game for top players — as long as they choose the right categories and make good use of platform tools, surpassing 1 million yuan on Day 1 is not out of reach.

From an industry perspective, Douyin E-commerce is transforming the shopping festival from a pure "traffic battle" into a "comprehensive test of operational capabilities." Product cards, search, store livestreaming, creator distribution... multiple business scenarios are firing simultaneously, and merchants' growth no longer depends on a single path. This diversified operational structure may be the most noteworthy signal in the Singles' Day Day 1 data.