Singles Day offers an early look at the ecommerce future: You may apply many of the ideas that can be learned from how the manufactured holiday has grown into a strong, almost instantaneous moneymaker to your own expanding business.
What Is Singles Day?
November 11 is Singles Day, a sales occasion with Chinese origins. It wasn’t always a shopping paradise, either. It started in 1993 as a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day when single people treated and celebrated themselves the same way couples and families received recognition at different life events. Consider the Sex and the City episode “A Woman’s Right to Shoes” starring Carrie Bradshaw.
Since then, it has beaten both Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined to become China’s largest online shopping day. Alibaba made $38.4 billion from Singles Day last year, beating the $30.8 billion record from the previous year.
Numerology has a great deal of meaning in Chinese. Although the number one might suggest success (i.e., first place), it may additionally refer to loneliness or the state of being in a single relationship. Bachelor Day has its origins as a means for students at Nanjing University to celebrate being single. Four young men who were not yet married invented the holiday. The four “1s” that appear on the calendar give rise to the nickname “bare sticks holiday.”
The Alibaba Group founder, Jack Ma, took on the day’s potential for profit in 2009 by providing massive discounts to throngs of consumers, as the holiday gained popularity in China, especially among youth.
How Is Singles Day Different from Black Friday And Cyber Monday?
To start with, it’s much larger. Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, which comes after Thanksgiving Day, saw more than 4.14 million online shoppers in 2018, according to the US National Retail Federation. Simply insignificant in contrast to Singles Day, which generated over $4.68 billion in sales in only ten minutes that same year.
Black Friday Cyber Monday (BFCM) is a customary Thanksgiving weekend sales event that originated in traditional stores and gradually spread to online stores in the years that followed. Despite the lack of a Thanksgiving holiday weekend in Asia Pacific, the region has embraced BFCM, with revenues exceeding both Click Frenzy and the customary Boxing Day sales. Some shops may have their best year ever with this kind of unique seasonal sales event if they use it wisely.
Why Should Other Countries Observe Singles Day?
The obvious advantage of a boost in sales aside, singles should be celebrated, too. There are many milestones couples achieve which are celebrated with gifts, but beyond the simple birthday, singles have no celebrated occasions.
In addition to being a relatively unexplored market, singles earn more money than members of a typical nuclear family. Whether they are young, recently divorced, or retired, the number of single individuals is increasing; over the past 50 years, the number of single people living in the US has doubled, and this trend is being observed worldwide.
Why Is Singles Day So Successful?
It helps that Alibaba is the largest e-commerce company in the world, with revenues that surpass both eBay and Amazon put together – and that its sales are extremely low.
In addition to selling straight to consumers and wholesale goods, the sales platform and its affiliates allow members to sell to one another. The deals for Singles Day are unbelievable: Alibaba was offering Bluetooth earphones for $1.50 – $6.90 for TWO sets during this year’s Singles Day.
The sales platform’s incredible Singles Day success must be due in part to these products’ extremely low costs. The low cost of labor in China, the way the website sells in bulk (why not buy two pairs of Bluetooth earphones if they’re just $6?), the low cost of electricity, and less customer targeting are the reasons behind Alibaba’s low prices, according to a merchandiser who uses the platform.
Why is consumer targeting declining? Sellers, who stock these products in their stores, are the site’s primary target market. Nevertheless, Alibaba does participate in Singles Day and offers both Aliexpress.com and a Wholesale Market where users can purchase goods for personal use.
However, there is significant doubt over the Singles Day-related sales reports Alibaba is claiming. The New York Times states that “it’s not entirely clear how all of this might be affecting middle-class China’s appetite for retail therapy, given the big numbers that Alibaba likes to show off on Singles Day.”
According to the Times, Alibaba publishes gross merchandise volume, which is the entire amount of orders placed on its platforms. However, the Times notes that there is no set method for quantifying this quantity, making it difficult to track in practice.
What Can Your Online Retail Business Learn From Singles Day?
Singles Day highlights how e-commerce is growing. In the beginning, you had better be prepared to close such deals using a smartphone.
According to McKinsey, mobile devices accounted for almost 90% of Singles Day sales in 2018, while Cyber Monday saw 34% of sales take place on this platform. It also shows a certain level of willingness to give out steep discounts to draw people to your website for a one-day event. According to McKinsey, parent, and baby goods prices dropped 33% on average on Singles Day 2018, translating into 18–19% of sales in China, as opposed to 6–7% on a typical day.
This helps create the impression that customers in specific market segments, such as parents, should take note of the day, put it on their calendar, and prepare their credit cards for it. Nonetheless, McKinsey cautions that smaller businesses may find it more difficult to offer significant product discounts. “Pairing more modest discounts with gifts or moving the emphasis towards product launches is one way to avoid unprofitable sales.”
Any foreign business hoping to get into China’s huge market is finding that participation in Singles Day is becoming an absolute must. If you want to dive deeper into that global ecommerce goldmine, start incorporating the event into your growth strategies.
Strategies For Singles Day
Mobile first. Mobile sales optimization is essential for this event because singles shop on their phones. You will be invisible if you are not on mobile as over 90% of Singles Day sales in 2018 took place on these platforms.
Put treats on sale, not just essentials. Singles should pamper themselves on this special day by treating themselves to special events, vacations, hair and beauty treatments, clothing and fashion, and even dating apps.
Be a place for community. More than ever, businesses are turning into a virtual meeting place for like-minded individuals to interact. People may talk about and share the things they adore about their favorite products, which helps brands understand their target market. Promote and support a positive, values-driven, healthy online community; it might be a place where singles connect!
Tap into the massive Chinese market. As we can see, this year’s greatest sales event in China is taking place, so take advantage of this market with your brand to promote worldwide e-commerce.
Make it about value and appreciation. The event is worth the customers’ time because of the conventional platforms involved, which offer substantial discounts and exclusive deals on a wide range of products. Make it huge if you want to stand out; non-offers and little discounts won’t cut it.
In Conclusion
Singles Day is a great occasion if you want to expand your business in China. In the US and Europe, Singles Day can be an amazing potential because the number of single people has increased these years. Now, it’s time to try and test your target marketplaces with Singles Day!
