Singles Day 11.11

Lessons from Singles Day

By virtue of scale, China is an unrivalled market and has been for some time. Yet, only when initial sales figures streamed into public consciousness for this same event last year did the world really sit up and take notice of her prowess and consumer spending power. China is, and has been, incredibly dynamic, forward thinking (far more than many other markets) and brimming with innovations and entrepreneurialism to embrace the wants of the increasingly savvy product buyer. The 2014 edition of 11.11 saw sales dwarf 2013, with RMB 57 Bn spent on T-MALL alone compared with RMB 36 Bn on the same property in the previous year. Placed into relative perspective, RMB 9 Bn worth of transactions were spent on Cyber Monday in the United States in 2013; Chinese consumers spent diversely, from detergent (200,000 bottles) to cars (50,000 units) with Alibaba (Source: Techcrunch).

Specifically, the growing confluence of offline and online retail reveals the very practical trait about Chinese consumers: 11.11 takes full advantage of the offers e-commerce provide, in the form of convenience, accessibility and, importantly, price (with its favorable return policies). The challenge for many brands, then, continues to be how to properly integrate digital into the business management process, and even lead, from both branding and retailing perspectives.

China’s Use of Mobile Hits the World Stage

No country in the world has seen such a dramatic uptake in smart phone usage and, with it, has driven multi-tasking and convenience. Forty-percent of Single’s Day purchases on Taobao happened on mobile devices this year, with a similar proportion reported on JD.com (Source: ZO Performics). JD.com’s recently released financial data highlights mobile-fulfilled orders accounted for approximately 29.6% of total orders in the third quarter of 2014, a 534% year-on-year increase.

The meaning is obvious: what may not available in the physical world can be...