The First 12 Hours of Single’s Day 2016
By Chaojie Miao and Ben Condit, Mindshare — November, 2016
Background:
For millions of Chinese consumers, last night was a sleepless night, as they stayed up past midnight for their yearly shopping mania, Single’s Day (a.k.a ‘Double 11’). According to data released by commerce giant Alibaba, sales this year surpassed 100 million RMB (14.7 million USD) in 20 seconds. In 1 hour and 57 seconds, the number was 36.2 billion (5.3 billion USD) – the total Single’s Day sales in 2013.
Details and Implications:
Last year, Alibaba started an era of ‘Double E’: Entertainment + E-commerce by introducing a countdown gala for the shopping mania.
This year, with more advanced technology in multiscreen interaction and VR, Alibaba took this concept to another level. This interactive, celebrity-adorned gala featured David and Victoria Beckham, Katy Perry and Kobe Bryant amongst others. At different points, consumers could shake their phones and immediately connect to the corresponding brand e-commerce site. For example, Taiwanese actor Ming Dao mentioned Head & Shoulders in his comedy talk. If you shook your phone during the performance, Head & Shoulders’ Double 11 offering showed up on your phone’s screen.
-
Shifting away from price-only
In previous years, Double 11 has been all about discounts. This year, while some categories such as home appliances and sportswear are still communicating about price, there is a clear shift away from a price-led strategy. Alibaba has clearly focused their Double 11 communication on product variety and quality rather than discounts.
Experience is another keyword this year. From manipulating 360-degree product photos by simply tilting your phone, to infant milk formula brands enabling VR shopping in Australian drugstores, brands prioritized consumer experience in China’s increasingly sophisticated market.
This shift is even more meaningful for luxury brands as many have argued that Tmall (the huge ecommerce site owned by Alibaba), or more so Double 11, is not a luxury-friendly environment. Personalization is one of the answers for these brands with many offering personal engraving on beauty products.
- It’s not just a one-day game
Pechoin, a household skincare brand with long history, led the sales scoreboard for the cosmetics category. Its sales broke the 20 million RMB (3 million USD) mark in the first 5 minutes. This follows the brand’s multi-year effort of rebranding for a younger audience. Leading up to this year’s Single’s Day, it launched a campaign called “save you from unhappiness” including millennial-friendly elements like viral videos and mobile games.
Uniqlo is the #1 brand in the apparel category on Single’s Day. This year, it broke the 100 million RMB (14.7 million USD) sales mark in 2 minutes 35 seconds. Its success is a combination of its track record for high quality Single’s Day promotions and its excellent social engagement. Lots of attention was on the brand as it launched a collection with fashion icon Carine Roitfeld the day before Double 11. Uniqlo also included a new ‘store pickup’ function to alleviate delivery pressure, satisfying eager shoppers and driving more traffic to offline stores.
Summary:
This 8-year-old shopping mania gets more extravagant every year. The secret? Being adaptive. Every offering from Alibaba is designed to answer the evolving wants and needs of Chinese consumers. A lesson for all marketers.
To continue reading please visit the
full article here.