Alibaba’s online shopping extravaganza will be followed closely, but is unlikely to be matched by Black Friday and Cyber Monday across an ever-growing number of markets.
In its short lifespan, Singles' Day, also known as Double 11 or 11:11, has already surpassed its predecessors in terms of consumer engagement and sheer sales volume. Last year Singles' Day grossed over $14 billion for Alibaba, with promotions and deals that blew the competition away. As the event matures we can expect to see advances in the use of personalisation, social commerce, and the influence of online celebrities or Key Opinion Leaders, in Alibaba’s efforts to drive even more sales.
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Singles Day 2016 Goes OmniChannel
This year’s event promises to be a true omnichannel happening, including an all-star TV gala, to support a staggering combination of internet, mobile and offline offers. Already, weeks in advance of the day itself, Chinese consumers have been selecting millions of products and adding them to their baskets in Tmall, and other online stores, in the hope that as the clock ticks over to the 11th their chosen products will be discounted for check-out.
Social Commerce & Key Opinion Leaders Heavily Influence Double 11 Sales
Celebrity endorsement has become central to the expansion of ecommerce in China. On top of the new Singles' Day TV gala, we can also expect to see a lot more ‘eCommerce Live’ this year. eCommerce Live is a particularly Chinese phenomena where video of shoppers choosing products in physical stores is streamed to online consumers, who can interact with the in-store shoppers.
eCommerce Live has become a vehicle for 'Wanghong', online celebrities or Key Opinion Leaders such as movie stars or pop stars, who are paid to drive conversion with live demos, endorsements and even interactive question and answer sessions. The combination of Key Opinion Leaders and eCommerce Live has proven to deliver better and more immediate results than traditional TV advertising, while also taking some pressure off the customer service infrastructure of major online trading platforms during mega sales events such as Singles Day.
Beyond eCommerce Live, social commerce has always played a significant role in the online shopping experience in China. Identifying a need to keep shoppers’ attention for longer eCommerce platforms have been investing in improved social capabilities, based on content and interaction, to help stimulate consumer demand and increase purchase conversion
Personalisation to Target More Shoppers on Singles' Day
Tmall says it also aims to better target consumers with a renewed emphasis on personalisation. Under the banner 'Qian Ren Qian Mian' – which can be loosely translated as 'A thousand browsers, see a thousand different displays'. Tmall says delivering personalised, targeted recommendations to ecommerce consumers is a key part of its strategy.
To support personalisation brands have been able to set-up different product, image, and promotion combinations for different consumer demographics using tags within the Tmall platform. With targeted, differentiated offerings, Tmall believes it can significantly increase consumer engagement and conversion for Singles' Day 2016.
Double 11 has become China’s national shopping festival, despite attempts by competitive ecommerce platforms to build rival festivals – JD on June 18th and Suning focusing on August 18th, for example. But for Alibaba’s competitors it has become a case of ‘if you can't beat them, join them,’ with most now also offering discounts on Singles' Day in a bid to mitigate some of the ecommerce behemoth’s pulling power.
The recent announcement of closer cooperation between Walmart and JD.com to offer more choices for Chinese shoppers ahead of Singles' Day is just one example of how more and more retailers from across the globe have been drawn into the fray. The latest JD/Walmart initiative includes two-hour delivery services at some Walmart stores and a Walmart global store on JD.com's cross-border platform, JD Worldwide.
JD, Walmart and others are pushing hard for a greater share of the sales on Double 11, but given the investment from Alibaba in its TV gala, omnichannel, social commerce and personalisation it’s unlikely to surrender too much of it share of the online shopping goldmine.
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