China's E-Commerce Calendar

China's online shopping year is set by two kinds of date: festivals that the marketplaces run as promotions, some of them for several weeks, and public holidays and traditional festivals whose dates change from year to year, several of them because they follow the lunar calendar. A brand selling online in China plans its stock, its prices and its content around both, and anyone reading category data month by month needs to know where each one fell in the year being read, because a festival that moves by a few weeks moves the sales with it.

The calendar at a glance#

Spring Festival and the New Year goods season#

The year opens with buying for the Chinese New Year, and because Spring Festival follows the lunar calendar its date moves from year to year: it fell on 29 January in 2025 and 17 February in 2026, and falls on 6 February in 2027.¹ The public holiday moves with it, and in 2026 ran for nine days, from 15 to 23 February.⁶ The government runs a national online New Year goods festival (全国网上年货节) as well, which in 2026 was led and guided by the Ministry of Commerce and ran for 45 days, from 19 January to 4 March, with its main venue in Lanzhou,^{9, 10} and the goods named for it ranged from health foods, organic produce and regional specialities to cultural products and imported food such as Chilean cherries.⁹

Delivery continues over the holiday at a reduced level. For the 2026 holiday the State Post Bureau told express companies to stagger their staff's holidays, publish their service hours and coverage in advance, and keep basic delivery running, so a brand selling across the holiday should expect a reduced and uneven service and plan its last delivery dates around what its couriers publish.¹¹

Women's Day in March#

Retailers have turned 8 March into a shopping occasion under names such as Queen's Day (女王节) and Goddess Day (女神节), and in brand messaging those names have largely replaced the word for women (妇女) that the holiday itself uses.² In 2018 the categories named from Tmall's own figures were lipstick, handbags, running gear, boxing gloves and tool kits.²

520 and Qixi, the two gifting days#

520 takes its name from 20 May, because the digits sound like "I love you" in Chinese, and it has become an unofficial second Valentine's Day, with flower sales, roses especially, peaking on the day.³ Qixi, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, is often called Chinese Valentine's Day;¹² it fell on 19 August in 2026 and falls on 8 August in 2027.¹ For Qixi 2026 the goods named in one platform's figures were bouquets, beauty and personal care, cake and chocolate,¹³ and the travel platforms reported demand for night tours, exhibitions and evening cruises,¹⁴ so we believe the festival is read best across both goods and services.

618 in May and June#

618 is named after 18 June, the anniversary of JD.com, which dates its first 618 promotion to 2004 and opened the name to any partner in 2017.¹⁵ It now runs for about five weeks: in 2026 Tmall opened presale and spot sales on 21 May and JD opened on 30 May, and both ran to 21 June.^{4, 16} The 618 Shopping Festival entry sets out how the window has moved since 2023 and how the platforms now report the festival.

9.9 in September#

9.9 takes its name from 9 September. In August 2019 Alibaba's Juhuasuan formally upgraded its 99 promotion into the 99 Huasuan Festival (99划算节).⁵

Mid-Autumn and National Day#

The autumn holidays are demand seasons that the platforms do not run. Mid-Autumn follows the lunar calendar, and falls on 25 September in 2026 and 15 September in 2027,¹ and mooncakes are its signature food.¹⁷ In 2025 Mid-Autumn and National Day were merged into one holiday, from 1 to 8 October,¹⁸ while in 2026 they were separate, with Mid-Autumn from 25 to 27 September and National Day from 1 to 7 October.⁶ Over the 2026 holidays the Ministry of Commerce named smart wearables, organic food and outdoor gear among the goods in demand at Mid-Autumn,¹⁹ and goods bought under the trade-in programme (cars, appliances and digital products), smart glasses and outdoor gear over National Day, alongside strong demand for travel.²⁰

Singles' Day in October and November#

Singles' Day began in 2009, when Zhang Yong, then general manager of Taobao Mall, which was renamed Tmall in 2012, proposed a promotion in November.²¹ It now opens weeks ahead of its date: in 2026 JD opened spot sales at 8 pm on 12 October and Tmall's promotion ran from 8 pm on 15 October to midnight on 11 November, with Douyin opening on 15 October.⁷ Before the 2026 festival the Ministry of Commerce and six other departments issued a notice on quality in e-commerce that targets automatic price-matching and claims of the lowest price on the whole internet.⁷ The Singles' Day (Double 11) entry sets out how to compare one year's festival with another's.

Double 12 in December#

Taobao first ran a promotion on 12 December in 2011, and the name Double 12 (双12) was used from 2012.⁸ It began as a festival for Taobao's small and medium-sized merchants, following on from Singles' Day,²² was run in 2023 as the Year-End Good Price Festival (年终好价节), which Taobao and Tmall described as a renaming rather than a cancellation,⁸ and took back its old name in 2024, opening at 8 pm on 9 December.²³ Taobao's marketing head said then that Singles' Day leans towards brand promotions, while Double 12 is positioned as "a feast of individual items".²³

Reading category data against the calendar#

Three things in this calendar change from one year to the next, and each of them can make an ordinary month-on-month or year-on-year comparison report a change in the calendar as a change in demand.

The first is the lunar festivals. Spring Festival, Qixi and Mid-Autumn can fall weeks apart in consecutive years, so a January or February in one year can hold the New Year buying that fell in the other month a year earlier, and we believe January and February are best read together for that reason. The second is the platforms' own windows, which open earlier or later each year, so that 618 and Singles' Day now start some weeks before the date they are named after. The third is the public holidays, whose dates the State Council sets each year in a notice published the November before,⁶ which decides when delivery slows and when holiday spending happens.

The working rule is to compare equivalent parts of the calendar rather than equal calendar weeks, to state the windows being compared, and to read the weeks either side of a festival as part of the same measurement, which the 618 Shopping Festival and Singles' Day (Double 11) entries set out. See GMV for what a promotional sales total measures.

Where to look next#

For the mid-year festival, see 618 Shopping Festival. For the November festival and how to compare one year's cycle with another's, see Singles' Day (Double 11). For what a sales total measures during a promotion, see GMV, and for reading prices across a festival, see Price Band Analysis.

Sources#

1. Hong Kong Observatory, Gregorian–Lunar Calendar tables for 2025, 2026 and 2027.
2. Jiemian, on Women's Day as a shopping occasion, 3 March 2018.
3. China Daily, on 520, 6 June 2022.
4. Ebrun via Sina Tech, on Tmall's rules for 618 2026, 29 April 2026.
5. Hangzhou Net, on Juhuasuan's 99 Huasuan Festival, 19 August 2019.
6. General Office of the State Council, notice on the 2026 public holidays, via Xinhua, 4 November 2025.
7. Xinhua, on Singles' Day 2026, 16 October 2026.
8. Jiemian, on the history of Double 12, 13 December 2023.
9. China Daily, on the 2026 national online New Year goods festival, 26 January 2026.
10. Yangtse Evening News, on the same festival, 21 January 2026.
11. State Post Bureau, plan for delivery over the 2026 Spring Festival, via Xinhua, 27 January 2026.
12. China Daily, on Qixi, 28 August 2025.
13. Beijing News, on Qixi 2026, 19 August 2026.
14. Xinhua, on Qixi 2026 travel and leisure, 19 August 2026.
15. JD.com corporate blog, on the origin of 618, June 2020.
16. Xinhua, on JD's 618 2026, 18 May 2026.
17. Xinhua via China Daily, on Mid-Autumn, 6 October 2025.
18. General Office of the State Council, notice on the 2025 public holidays, via Xinhua, 12 November 2024.
19. CCTV via Guangming, quoting the Ministry of Commerce on the 2026 Mid-Autumn holiday, 28 September 2026.
20. People's Daily via Guangming, quoting the Ministry of Commerce on the 2026 National Day holiday, 8 October 2026.
21. Jiemian, on the origin of Singles' Day, 10 November 2018.
22. 36Kr, on Double 12, 27 November 2023.
23. The Paper, on Double 12 in 2024, 11 December 2024.

Common questions#

When are China's online shopping festivals?#

They run through the whole year. The New Year goods season runs in January and February ahead of Spring Festival, Women's Day (3.8) falls on 8 March, 520 on 20 May, 618 runs from late May to around 21 June, Qixi falls in August, 9.9 in September, Singles' Day now opens in mid-October and runs to 11 November, and Double 12 falls on 12 December. Mid-Autumn and the National Day holiday in late September and early October are demand seasons that the platforms do not run.

Why do the dates of some festivals change every year?#

Spring Festival, Qixi and Mid-Autumn follow the lunar calendar, so their Gregorian dates move: Spring Festival fell on 29 January in 2025 and 17 February in 2026, and falls on 6 February in 2027. The platforms also set new windows for 618 and Singles' Day every year, and the State Council sets the public holidays each November for the year that follows.

What is Double 12?#

Double 12 is a promotion on 12 December that Taobao first ran in 2011, called Double 12 (双12) from 2012, and begun as a festival for Taobao's small and medium-sized merchants. It was run in 2023 as the Year-End Good Price Festival and took back the Double 12 name in 2024.

How should sales data be compared across festival years?#

Compare equivalent parts of the calendar, such as the same phase of a festival in each year, rather than equal calendar weeks. A festival that opens earlier, or a lunar holiday that falls in a different month, moves sales between months, so a plain month-on-month or year-on-year comparison can report a change in the calendar as a change in demand. State the windows being compared, and read the weeks either side of a festival as part of the same measurement.