China’s Single’s Day Shopping Mania
By Bolin Wang, Gary He, Jane Yang, Mindshare
Background:
91.2 billion RMB (14.3 billion USD) gross merchandise value was generated on Nov. 11, China’s Single’s Day. This refreshed the world record for the highest daily gross merchandise value traded on a single e-commerce platform. Mindshare brings you a few insights into the shopping mania.
Details and Implications:
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Sense Of Ceremony Transformed Nov. 11 From A Date To A Holiday
Consumers all joined into the ceremony of filling in their shopping carts in advance, and competed to make their orders at exactly 12:00am. “Have you bought anything?” became a greeting phrase. The Tmall Global Celebration Gala this year further reinforced the sense of ceremony of Double 11 shopping. Double 11 shopping is now a new tradition, much like dumplings on Chinese New Year, moon cakes on Mid-Autumn Festival. People felt they were missing out if they didn’t participate in such a huge group celebration.
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Everyone Is A Sales Assistant
Selfies are out – posting your shopping cart became the new thing on WeChat Moments! “What to buy on Single’s Day” was everywhere. For the entire Tmall Gala, hosts, celebrities and even the corner labels were promoting something. Everyone jumped on the bandwagon when something was promoted. Whatever the Gala host talked about, the brand’s online visits grew exponentially.
- New Ways Of Payment Enabled New Double 11 Sales Record
One fifth of the orders were paid through Ant Check Later, Alibaba’s new product for consumers to “buy now, pay later”. As each payment took 0.035 second, it goes without saying that this “Buy now pay later” mode provided a quick way of pay as well as promoted the shopping enthusiasm heavily for consumers.
- Tmall Gala Marked A New Era for Online Shopping Entertainment
Alibaba’s Tmall Gala was a celebration of all the hot topics in entrainment for 2015. This gala marked a new era of online shopping, which is “Shopping = trend + entertainment + celebration”
The average rating of the gala was 1.6, topping the charts for all the TV shows of the same time slot. The Gala changed the way people waited for the start of midnight shopping, and got them in the celebration (and buying) mood in advance.
- From Buying in China to Buying Globally
Tmall Double 11 is expanding across the world, selling in 199 countries and 5,000 overseas brands. At New York Time Square, the Tmall and “11.11” logo were running on billboards. The event is also reported worldwide on top media. Consumers around world are buying from Chinese spices to Qipao, from Chinese skincare to Chinese white wine.
- Key Facts Behind The 91.2 Billion Bonanza
Payment on mobile was 72% of the total, but the peak hour at midnight led to a long period of mobile system crashes and the bell ringing ceremony on NYSE after gala was followed by the 1.94% decrease of Alibaba stock. The increased rate of sales in Q3 for Alibaba was still 50% decrease YoY; Super sales will likely come with a super return rate. 64% of the menswear top sales brands at Double 11 2014 were returned.
Final Thoughts:
This year, Double 11 evolved to Double E as e-commerce and entertainment came together. Areas for improvement? Yes. But undeniably, Tmall is growing itself into a world mall for all.