Tmall 618 Unlocks Health Consumption Potential with Aesthetic Medicine Services Surging by 572% Year-on-Year

China’s widely anticipated health consumption potential was once again unleashed during the recently concluded Tmall 618 shopping festival. Data released by AliHealth on June 19 showed that the gross merchandise volume (GMV) of pharmaceuticals on Tmall doubled on the day of June 18. During the entire 618 campaign period, GMV for consumer healthcare services surged by 244% year-on-year, with medical aesthetics services registering a remarkable 572% year-on-year growth. The GMV of multiple pharmaceutical and health brands surpassed their Double 11 performance.

As national awareness of health-related consumption continues to grow year by year, premium “health” consumption has quietly become the main driver of consumption upgrading. As China’s leading pharmaceutical e-commerce platform, Alibaba Health maintained its rapid growth during this year’s Tmall 618 shopping festival, with health-related brands delivering particularly outstanding performance.

Data released by Alibaba Health shows that during this year’s Tmall 618 Shopping Festival, more than ten health brands achieved transaction volumes surpassing those of last year’s Double 11 (Singles’ Day) event. These brands include domestic and international names such as Yuwell, Durex, Omron, Cofoe, Hydron, MuscleTech, Sinocare, Okamoto, Jissbon, Xiao Xiandun, Bi Shengyuan, and HORIEN/Hailien.

Behind the collective surge of these brands lies their long-term, in-depth collaboration with Ali Health. Taking the bird’s nest brand Xiao Xian Dun as an example, this April, the brand participated in Ali Health’s Big Brand Day. With support from the Ali Health Brand Growth Center, it identified breakthroughs for refined brand operations and new business opportunities through consumer insights. By fully integrating operations and marketing to achieve synergy between brand building and performance, the company accumulated a substantial base of followers and potential customers. During the 618 shopping festival, this “rising star” that grew on the Tmall Medical Platform leveraged its earlier groundwork to achieve explosive sales growth, with year-on-year revenue increasing by 464.6% and 45,000 units of its best-selling fresh-stewed bird’s nest sold.

On June 18, the top 10 health brands by transaction volume were: Bausch + Lomb, By-Health, Swisse, Durex, Yuwell, Hydron, iKang Guobin, Omron, Okamoto, and Yan Palace.

Data from Tmall’s 618 Shopping Festival reveals that the Tmall Medicine and Health platform has transformed from a pure pharmaceutical e-commerce marketplace into a comprehensive health product and consumer healthcare service platform. During this year’s 618 event, consumer medical services continued to demonstrate robust growth, with the gross merchandise value (GMV) of aesthetic medicine services surging by 572% year-on-year and dental services increasing by 306% year-on-year.

The top-selling products also corroborate the aforementioned trends. According to data from Ali Health, the top 10 health-related products or services by transaction value on the Tmall Medical Platform during the 618 Shopping Festival were: leg slimming injections, pediatric ear thermometers, bird’s nest, orthodontic treatment packages, hyaluronic acid, Huiren Shenbao (a traditional Chinese medicine), hair transplant packages, female cancer screening, protein muscle-building supplements, and condoms. Consumer medical services emerged as a strong force, accounting for half of the total market share.

This year’s 618 Shopping Festival was once again a “battle of aesthetics.” Hyaluronic acid fillers, botulinum toxin injections for facial slimming, and skin booster injections emerged as the most popular medical aesthetic products. Juvederm, hailed as the “Hermès of hyaluronic acid fillers,” participated in Tmall’s 618 event for the first time, with its sales volume surging to 35 times the daily average within just one day.

During this year’s 618 shopping festival, the winner of the “Health Fortune Deer Baby” lucky draw launched by Alibaba Health Pharmacy was a female college student from Qiqihar, Heilongjiang Province, serving as a vivid testament to how “Internet + Healthcare” is benefiting residents in non-tier-1 cities.

In fact, as a major trend of this year’s 618 Shopping Festival, pharmaceutical e-commerce has met the health needs of more consumers in third- to sixth-tier cities. Taking colored contact lenses as an example, over 400,000 units were sold within the first hour of the 618 event. In terms of buyer demographics, “young people from smaller towns” have shown rapid growth. Consumption from fourth- to sixth-tier cities and towns accounted for 56%, with post-95s comprising 46.6% of these purchases.

Furthermore, on the Tmall Health platform, medical-grade facial mask brands targeting sensitive skin, acne, and post-minimally invasive procedure repair—such as FuErJia, KeFuMei, ChuangFuKang, and FuQing—have all launched official brand flagship stores on Tmall. These brands are highly sought after due to their more pronounced functional selling points. Notably, consumers born after 1995 account for the largest share of purchases at 38.1%. In terms of growth rate, young consumers in third- to sixth-tier cities are driving a faster increase in purchases compared to the overall market average.

In fact, the trend of health consumption penetrating lower-tier markets was clearly reflected in this year’s Tmall 618 Shopping Festival. Data shows that the growth rate of health-related consumption in cities below the second tier exceeded that in first- and second-tier cities, indicating a strong momentum for “overtaking on the bend.” Among them, prefecture-level cities such as Jieyang, Zhanjiang, Dongguan, Jiangmen, Liuzhou, Shangrao, Foshan, Zhongshan, and Guilin led the nation in health consumption growth.

During the Tmall 618 Shopping Festival, offline partner pharmacies of the Alibaba Health O2O Pioneer Alliance provided new retail-style home delivery services for medications. The platform launched promotional campaigns, including discounts such as money-off deals and free shipping on select items, to reward users. On the day of the 618 event, order volume increased by 266% year-on-year. To date, the China Pharmaceutical O2O Pioneer Alliance has partnered with 200 chain pharmacy operators, covering more than 100 cities and 30,000 pharmacy outlets.