5 Things You Need to Know About China’s Singles Day Shopping Festival
Being single might be a life choice for some people. For business and tech giant Alibaba, it means opportunities.
Singles Day happens on November 11 or known as Double 11 (11.11). This event is the largest shopping festival in China and also known as the “Bachelor’s Day Promotion”. Double 11 starts in October and reaches its peak on November 11.
This annual promotion is not only a challenge for marketers but also an important campaign to integrate their sourcing, supply chain, storage, logistics, and operations. Many brands use popular channels for their marketing, include Weibo, WeChat, online video, display advertising, etc.
Wonder how Singles’ Day gradually become Alibaba’s Shopping Festival? Check out these facts below.
1. Alibaba and the Initial Idea to Start
Back then, November 11 is celebrated as “bare sticks holiday (光棍节)” because of how it looks numerically (written 11.11 or one-one-one-one). In Chinese, “bare stick” is a funny way to call people who are single.
Alibaba promoted the festival with the slogan “even if you are single, you can at least shop like crazy” (就算没有男女朋友, 至少我们可以疯狂购物).
By emphasizing that singles status, Alibaba created a kind of party vibe and a sense of belonging. In the very first year in 2009, the sales record reached US$7 billion and only 27 merchants offered discounts.
It was renamed to the “11.11 Global Shopping Festival” in 2015 to reflect Alibaba’s efforts to grow the sales outside of its market in China.
2. China’s Consumption Power Grow
Sales volume from Double Eleven has surged from US$7 billion in 2009 to US$25 billion in 2017, US$31 billion in 2018 with 3,700 different categories representing 180,000 foreign brands from 75 regions.
In 2019, the sales record hit US$13 billion just in the first hour.
Consumption has remained a significant driving force in China’s economy. In the first half of 2018, consumption contributed to 78.5% of the country’s economic growth according to the National Bureau of Statistics.
3. Double Eleven > Black Friday
This event might be the same with Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S, but 2.5 times larger than both of those dates put together.
4. Expansion to Offline Sales
In 2017, Former Alibaba Chairman, Jack Ma coined the term “new retail” to describe a future of seamless integration between online and offline retail sales.
In 2018, 200,000 smart stores signed up for Singles’ Day to make discounts available to Alibaba customers. Other than that, more than 30 Alibaba’s physical retail advancement operated.
5. E-Commerce Offers New Paths
By the end of 2016, there were 8.32 million rural online stores, bringing jobs to more than 20 million people. In 2017, rural retail sales accounted for 17.14% of the national online retail sales, up by 38.3% year-on-year, 5.6% points percentage points higher than in urban areas. The promising prospects of rural e-commerce have also attracted young migrant workers to return to their hometowns and have an online store.
Did you also shop on November 11?
