Singles Day Global Shopping Festival — The Magic of Double 11 Gala
November 11th may not be as significant to people living in the United States, but it has become a special festival in China during recent years. With four characters of “1”, November 11th is called “Singles’ Day”. This day started out as an entertaining festival celebrating the fact of being single among young Chinese people, but Alibaba changed the meaning of double 11 in 2009.
In 2009, Alibaba held the first Double Eleven Shopping Festival on Taobao.com, storming the online shopping for the very first time. Seven years later, Double Eleven Shopping Festival is bigger than ever. More than 10,000 businesses are working with e-commerce sites and poised to rock the shopping festival again. Participating businesses strive to succeed in this shopping festival. We know some clothes manufactures began to hoard products for this winter from August and they made full preparation on supplying chains and staff arrangements.
The results of 2016 Double Eleven Shopping Festival are stunning. The company reported that sales this year had reached 121 billion yuan, a rise of 32% on last year’s sales which were worth $14.3 billion. However, some have questioned the accuracy of the numbers due to claims of inflated sales data at Chinese online retailers.
In North America, we have Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping events when retailers offer steep discounts. According to many reports, Double Eleven Shopping Festival has a great sales volume than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
Double Eleven Shopping Festival went international in 2015, and the term “Singles Day” was also trending on Twitter. If we take a quick look at what people are talking about on Twitter, there are a few key points that stand out.
- The Sales number passed 1 billion RMB within 7 minutes.
- International superstar Katy Perry was named the global ambassador for the festival, but she canceled her appearance due to a family emergency.
- People compare Double Eleven to Black Friday and Cyber Monday
- People are extremely interested in getting extra discount codes and do not mind staying up all night for the shopping festival.
So how did Alibaba create the biggest online shopping festival? There are a few reasons we think contributed to their success.
- Chinese shoppers are seeking high-quality international products, and global brands are seizing that opportunity.
We all know that China has the biggest market and probably the greatest buying power in the world. Alibaba is aware that many Chinese shoppers are demanding high-quality products from outside of China, so it came up with a globalization strategy to partner with global brands to meet consumers’ desires, allowing them to purchase imported goods at a good price. Here are some reported results that proved this strategy to be smart.
- More than 16,000 international brands with completed transactions.
- 33 percent of total buyers purchased from international brands or merchants.
- Buyers and sellers from 232 countries and regions.
- Top countries selling to China included: United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Australia
In order manage the high volume of international orders and packages, Alibaba has also developed partnerships with delivery and logistics companies to ensure smooth delivery and shipping processes.
2. Alibaba knows how to drive consumer engagement and Double Eleven is MORE THAN a shopping festival.
If you think Double Eleven is merely an online shopping festival, you’re wrong. Alibaba has turned Double 11 into a night of entertainment and excitement with it’s Tmall Double Eleven Gala. This is a three-hour live broadcast on November 11 created by Alibaba studded with international superstars such as David Beckham, Kobe Bryant and Scarlett Johansson. This event is the world’s biggest online retail promotion, and Double 11 shoppers are able to make purchases while watching the “commershow.”
Alibaba is the best example of utilizing big data, cloud computing and mobile innovations to create the most engaging experience for its customers. Big data analytics has allowed them to be able to engage fans before, during and after the festival with every touchpoint.
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