Eleven years in, and Alibaba Group, the e-commerce and media giant that created and grew 11.11 into the world’s largest shopping festival, is still delivering record results – and the innovations necessary to make them happen every November.
By the time 11.11 ended at midnight on Monday, Alibaba had generated RMB268.4 billion (US$38.4 billion) in gross merchandise volume in just 24 hours, a 26% jump over last year’s numbers. GMV in 2018 was RMB213.5 billion, or US$30.8 billion.
“Today we showed the world what the future of consumption looks like for brands and consumers,” said Fan Jiang, president of Taobao and Tmall. “We are meeting the growing demand of Chinese consumers and helping them upgrade their lifestyles, while introducing new users to our digital economy from across China and around the world.”
WATCH: Highlights from 2019’s 11.11 Global Shopping FestivalPlay
In addition to a new record GMV, the total number of delivery orders also reached a new high: 1.292 billion, up 59% from 812 million last year. There were 299 brands to reach RMB 100 million in GMV, including Apple, Nike, Estee Lauder and Giorgio Armani. The top 10 countries selling to China through Alibaba’s cross-border platforms were Japan, the U.S., Korea, Australia, Germany, France, the U.K., New Zealand, Italy and Canada.
Last year’s festival was all about the Alibaba ecosystem, and certainly that ecosystem continues to play a critical role in setting new GMV records and generating greater levels of consumer engagement, as Alibaba draws additional businesses into 11.11. 2019, however, was all about consumers: where they are in China, how to reach them and providing them with the best possible selection of products.
“Lower-tier areas are the most important business strategy for us this year and a strategic direction for the company, because China’s less-developed markets have a lot of potential for growth when you consider their population, geography and shopping habits,” said Liu Bo, general manager of Taobao and Tmall Marketing, at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Alibaba is leveraging its powerful consumer analytics and supply-chain capabilities to create new products for lower-tier consumers, Liu said, firstly by partnering with multinational brands, such as P&G and L’Oréal, and secondly by working with China’s vast network of manufacturers. The company provides both brands and manufacturers with the data they need to develop and market products tailored directly to these new online shoppers.
By delivering better-quality goods at affordable prices, consumers in lower-tier areas “have a lot of potential to make frequent purchases,” Liu said. And Alibaba wants to capture that consumption.
New Products to Meet New Demand
As essential as lower-tier areas are to Alibaba’s growth strategy, the company’s focus on new products is not bound by geography. In fact, this year’s 11.11 alone included 1 million new products on the company’s e-commerce platforms.
“We take new products as a major strategy for this year’s 11.11 has become the largest platform to launch new products,” Liu said. “Many international brands are leveraging the platform and the results have been excellent.”
For example, cosmetics brand MAC sold 60,000 units of a limited-edition, just-for-11.11 lipstick in five minutes of pre-sales. And brands are committed to developing even more new products for Alibaba’s platforms going forward. Ten global brands, including Olay and Shiseido, have committed to incubate more than 50% of their new products with Tmall this year, Jiang said.
The Must-Do of Livestreaming
Once just a single marketing tool among many for brands selling to China, livestreaming has since become a must for any company that wants the attention of Chinese consumers.
These consumers use livestreams, typically hosted by popular key opinion leaders, to find and learn about new products, making it an essential part of product discovery. That’s a stark contract to the West, where most livestreaming platforms are focused on gaming and entertainment.
Just how popular is the trend? Taobao is home to over 4,000 livestream hosts who generate 150,000 hours of content each day. For 11.11, more than 100,000 brands and merchants used livestreaming to market their products.
“It’s a brand-new experience. Livestreaming is becoming ubiquitous for merchants and a new [shopping] channel for consumers,” he said.
A Green 11.11
Jiang said that Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao, had delivered 100 million packages before 8 a.m. on Monday, just eight hours into 11.11. But he said the company was committed to fulfilling those orders sustainably.
“Green is the most important keyword for this 11.11,” Jiang said. “We’ve shipped 1.292 billion packages, but through this we want even more to promote the concept of green consumption.”
To that end, Cainiao has set up more recycling stations – 40,000 of them – across China through its Cainiao Smart Logistics Network, while its express-courier partners is hosting an additional 35,000. Consumers will also be rewarded “green energy” points on Ant Forest for their recycling efforts.
Alibaba has established Nov. 20 as “National Cardboard Box Recycling Day” in China, as well, to further promote its push for a green shopping festival.
The joint venture features AliExpress, Mail.ru Group, MegaFon Russian Direct Investment Fund
The operation to establish a joint venture in Russia signed Alibaba Group – which will bring together e-commerce platforms, social media and popular games for the benefit of the country’s consumers and will offer Russian small and medium-sized enterprises greater access both locally and locally international markets – it’s a done deal.
First announced in September 2018, the joint venture features AliExpress, the leading Russian Internet company Mail.ru Group, the Russian mobile telecommunications operator MegaFon and the sovereign wealth fund Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF).
After the federal anti-monopoly service of Russia authorized the JV to move forward last June, now AliExpress Russia JV is owned by the majority of Russian shareholders, with a board of directors composed of RDIF executives, Alibaba Group, MegaFon and Mail.ru Group. Group CEO Mail.ru Boris Dobrodeev is the chairman of the board, while AliExpress Russia’s chief Liu Wei and the first deputy general manager of the group Mail.ru Dmitry Sergeev will serve as co-CEO of the JV.
Alibaba remains focused on fulfilling its basic mission
“Alibaba remains focused on fulfilling the mission ‘to make it easy to do business anywhere.’ “AliExpress Russia JV is an important part of Alibaba’s globalization strategy and a key step towards our long-term goal to help 10 million small businesses achieve profitability and serve 2 billion customers worldwide,” he said. Daniel Zhang, Executive Chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group.
“Together with Mail.ru Group, RDIF and MegaFon, we are committed to accelerating the development of the digital economy of consumers in Russia and the CIS countries, allowing regional brands and SMEs to reach and serve their target consumers through our unique and innovative shopping experience, “said Zhang.
The JV group and Mail.ru will conclude a strategic cooperation agreement related, among other things, to traffic and product initiatives. The JV will also promote its services on the Mail.ru Group platforms through exclusive solutions for product integration and marketing.
Mail.Ru Group has 100 million Internet users
Mail.Ru Group has 100 million Internet users through its social media properties, messaging, e-mail and online games, with 90% of all Internet users in Russia using at least one of its properties every month. The two largest Russian social media sites of Russia VKontakte and Odnoklassniki and its main email service are all owned by the Mail.ru Group.
In addition to combining social media and e-commerce, the joint venture will work to support the upgrade of consumption in Russia by offering a greater selection of high-quality products on the market. For Russian small and medium-sized enterprises it is an opportunity to tap into a new connected ecosystem in the domestic market, accessing over 600 million consumers using Alibaba platforms, including China, Southeast Asia, Turkey, Europe and India.
The joint venture also plans to participate in the acceleration of the Russian digital economy, exploiting the respective strengths of the parties in electronic commerce, social and digital media, logistics and the local market and helping to build the future commercial infrastructure in Russia and in the world.
Today it’s clear how Douyin is showcasing the future of social and e-commerce. Focus on Douyin if you want to win in China. Let’s see why
Chinese e-commerce sector is booming, having a higher e-commerce spend this year than the rest of the world combined. Last data show us, again, how China is such a big opportunity for brands. As we know, the Dragon, once known as less connected country in the world, has become the land of the e-commerce giants with Alibaba and JD amongst many others all dominating online spend right now. But other new players are growing behind the curtain. Pinduoduo, Meituan, Kuaishou, Little Red Book and Douyin some names.
That’s why is not wrong to say that the opportunity for brands isn’t in the Alibaba’s & JD’s. Whilst they account for over 50% of Chinese e-commerce, it’s more effective as a brand to go after the other portion that isn’t the lions share that is found through other e-commerce channels. Let’s see how Douyin is becoming month by month an important player in e-commerce sector. We’ve mentioned Douyin but also the “underbelly” of Chinese commerce, such as private communities, for example social sellers on WeChat.
Short-Form vertical video is going to be the dominant format over the next 5 years, and Douyin is the platform that will lead the way. We’ve always been confident on short-form video, and a large reason for that is the huge growth of Douyin, with over 500m monthly active users and rising, and over 50% of those using the app daily.
Today it’s clear that Douyin is showcasing the future of social and e-commerce, seamlessly integrating the two through content and future technologies.
Douyin’s latest feature is a true game-changer. You can now select a feature in a video, for example, a person or item of clothing, and search for other videos or images containing them or directly buy the products recommended. What’s the meaning? It’s what we’ve predicted will happen: Next generation of social media led by AI.
Could be a shock, but forget Tmall, Taobao and WeChat – focus on Douyin if you want to win. Let’s see why. Right now Douyin’s aims are to get as many users as possible and grow the platform, even outside China, and give exposure to great content, there is no ulterior motive like there is with other social platforms that are pay-to-win.
On Douyin, content wins, and that’s the best time for brands to build an audience. Digital experts always been bullish on short-form video and Douyin in particular, and this latest feature reinforces that and opens up a world of possibility for brands in connecting with their audience. Brands need to be working toward how they can leverage the direction that social is moving to, and they need to be doing that now – this is merely the tip of the iceberg. Are you going to start building an audience on Douyin?
China is a huge opportunity, but everyone should remember that it pays tenfold if you think outside the box, be bold and be creative. Think beyond the status quo platforms that everyone talks about and look at the opportunities everyone forgets. This is where the real arbitrage can be found, and Douyinis one the top player to interact with.
The new Indian rules for e-commerce companies could have to do with the fall in investments
E-commerce giant Amazon has invested $ 395 million dollars in its market unit in India this year, which is one-third of what it did in 2018 with $ 1.3 billion, according to local newspaper Economic Times. With only three months to go to the end of the year, it seems likely that this will be the first time since 2012 that Amazon’s annual investment in India has fallen.
Analysts tracing the history of Amazon India have mentioned that over the past seven years, its investments have steadily increased year by year with a phenomenal peak in 2018. This level could be attributed to Amazon’s entry into the food sector in India.
Amazon’s sharp decline in India has attracted the attention of Indian and US lawmakers
The news of Amazon‘s sharp decline in its investments in India has also attracted the attention of Indian and US legislators. During the Indian summit of the World Economic Forum held in New Delhi, Indian trade minister Piyush Goyal and US trade secretary Wilbur Ross had a long debate on this issue.
Ross asked Goyal for the new guidelines for e-commerce in India regarding its foreign direct investment (FDI) rules, which in the past had put a strain on foreign-funded e-tailers.
India, on the other hand, seems to have become a land of conquest for many Chinese investors. From Tencent to Alibaba, up to pass for Xiaomi.
The decision has also created controversy after local institutions and Amazon
“India is very clear on domestic and political compulsions. We welcome all e-commerce companies that want to work in India as agnostic platforms. We do not want to look at structures that fall within the scope of the law, but in a sense to break the spirit of the same. This is the clear position of the government and we have been clear for decades regarding the BJP” Goyal told Ross.
In his response to Goyal, Ross claimed that Amazon would have spent much more in India if it had not experienced a decline in growth due to e-commerce policies. “It is more important to obtain the most efficient form of retail trade. The demand for a country like India must balance those economic benefits for the population as a whole, even going against the special interests of the retail segment or competitors. nationals, “the US trade secretary said.
Pinduoduo is not the new kid on the block anymore. From lower-tier cities, it has made its way to the largest centers so much so that today, it is officially a viable competitor in China’s e-commerce arena
There is a Chinese app that embraces many of China’s contemporary trends and at the same time, faces the market’s modern challenges with extraordinary success. It is Pinduoduo, the e-commerce platform for group-buying deals, which is threatening Alibaba and JD.com’s duopoly in the Middle Kingdom.
Pinduoduo has been China’s third most popular shopping app since July 2017 but its daily active users have outnumbered JD.com’s for at least the past 12 months, turning it into China’s second-biggest e-commerce company by the number of users.
Its origins can be traced back to the US Silicon Valley where Pinduoduo’s founder, Colin Huang, started his career as a Google engineer. Mr. Huang, indeed, belongs to that group of Chinese entrepreneurs who, after a working experience abroad, have returned home to launch those hi-tech companies, which are making history today.
In particular, Colin Huang has managed to combine Chinese love for bargaining with the force of recommendation among friends while also targeting and unlocking the most neglected market, that of low-income households. The mission is clear: “The future of the Chinese digital economy is not to give a Shanghai resident the life of a Parisian. The future is to provide handkerchiefs and fresh fruits to those living in the province,” said Huang.
However, Pinduoduo’s history does not stop in the province. The company’s new challenge is to compete with the big ones on the same battlefield. Therefore, the next step is to develop an in-house logistics network and shipping information technology.
Currently, Pinduoduo is the second most used e-commerce platform and the fastest growing app in the history of the Chinese internet. Although it is mostly associated with lower-tier and lower-income buyers, last June, orders from Tier 1 and 2 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hangzhou accounted for almost half of the platform’s total order value.
The startup, whose name is roughly translated as “buy more together”, was launched in Shanghai in 2015. It turned into a Unicorn after just 21 months, reaching $1.5 billion gross market value much faster than its older peers like JD.com and Alibaba’s Taobao.
The explosive growth of Pinduoduo is essentially due to two main factors. The first factor is the significant number of funds received, such as that of Tencent and IDG, which allocated an investment of $110 million in 2016. The second factor is the app’s ability to take hold in smaller cities.
Today, 483.2 million buyers use Pinduoduo for their online purchases and 135 million of them use the app daily. Numerous international brands such as Huawei and Apple have their flagship stores on the platform and the overlap in users between Taobao and Huang’s app has now reached the figure of 109 million people.
In June, Pinduoduo’s average monthly active users were 366 million, an increase of 88% from 195 million in the same quarter of 2018. It represents almost half of monthly active users of the total Alibaba ecosystem.
However, compared to its peers, Pinduoduo works differently, allowing users to participate in group buying deals. More than a simple digital shopping platform, it is a social commerce app, which uses a “team purchase” model and leverages social sharing on Chinese social networks.
The consumer can buy an item at full price or get a discount if he invites other people to join the purchase. This is a model that applies perfectly to the Chinese cashless society as about 583 million people used mobile payment last year. But above all, it makes the most of the sharing-with-friends potential, creating a viral environment.
Therefore, Colin Huang’s experience in the digital landscape together with a forward-looking approach made him build a completely different kind of marketplace, whose appeal is the satisfaction of taking advantage of a great deal instead of the lower price of products. This explains its virality and addiction primarily in lower-tier cities where salaries are still lower compared to first-tier ones.
Nevertheless, although the competition with China’s e-commerce giants is strong in higher-tier cities, the app is moving away from the frame of a second-level platform for lower-income buyers to finally make its way in the Chinese high-end market. Here, China’s internet titans, Taobao and JD.com, dominate the market, keeping off potential rivals.
To reach its goals and be a viable competitor in the market, the Shanghai-based company thus plans to develop its own logistics network and, therefore, speed up its deliveries. According to Pinduoduo, with the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and big data technologies, new services will include route planning, parcel sorting, and the improvement of fresh produce deliveries.
Pinduoduo aims to answer the demand for fast and reliable delivery, especially since these two claims have overtaken the demand for competitive prices and a wide selection of products.
The plan is, therefore, to invest in advanced technologies like AI-powered routing in order to develop and then improve its logistics network.
The Vice President of Strategy at Pinduoduo, David Liu, said that the decision to implement the orders’ fulfillment has come after the company received customer complaints about the deliveries. He also explained that many merchants on the platform were using the competitor’s logistics network. Therefore, the app had no control over these shipments.
Since its launch, the app relied on Alibaba’s logistics arm Cainiao to track and handle about $70 billion of its annual shipments. Over these years, the rival Alibaba has, therefore, had access to Pinduoduo’s activity and its customers’ shopping habits. But this is all about to change, especially since the platform launched its own shipping information technology early this year.
Since the launch of Pinduoduo’s waybill system, an average of 40 million orders per day has already migrated to the new system, which are almost all orders generated on the platform.
David Liu revealed he is well aware that there are many established logistics services in China that Pinduoduo can leverage. He thus pointed out that the Shanghai app will not try to copy its larger rivals. Indeed, contrary to Cainiao and JD.com, Pinduoduo has no plans to operate warehouses or build its own delivery fleet.
Pinduoduo aims, instead, to help sellers participating in the supply chain. Being one of China’s largest online retail platforms for fresh products, farmers will thus leverage the platform’s big data analysis to syncronize the harvest and shipments and avoid food waste.
Once again, this young company focuses on its users to enhance the platform. It started as a group-buying app for lower-income households and then spread in higher-tier cities through its social nature and a check-out system that allows automatic payment.
Today, Pinduoduo targets the sellers. Although the company has already allocated an over $505-million-investment to help farmers selling their perishable agricultural goods on the platform, it now aims to help all the merchants improve their understanding and participation in the retail supply chain. And by entering the higher-tier market and the logistics sector, it has now officially entered into direct competition with China’s e-commerce giants.
But its strength is still the focus on both the customers and the sellers, which is increasingly developing around the fresh produce market. This is not about “provide handkerchiefs to those living in the province” anymore. Now, it is about building a direct line between farmers in rural areas and consumers in bigger cities.
The next battlefield for e-commerce dominance will probably be the fresh food e-commerce and Pinduoduo is already in the front line.
It’s not just entertainment. Live-streaming is the Chinese answer to consumer’s need for transparency. And now even WeChat enters China’s live-streaming squad, providing live broadcasts within its Mini Program platform
Live-streaming is not only the ultimate entertainment format but it is also the internet’s next form of digital communication. It is coming from China to reshape the whole e-commerce industry one stream after the other. After having pioneered social-commerce, the Dragon is now setting the model for video-driven e-commerce both at home and abroad.
According to statistics, more than 100 million viewers watch a live online video event every month while nearly 32% of users buy products through live-streaming videos. It is the “entertain-merce” era where commerce is inextricably linked to entertainment.
After Taobao revealed that goods sold via live-streaming in 2018 were worth a total of $14.9 billion, now even Tencent has accelerated the integration of live-streaming features into its WeChat Mini Program platform. The aim is clear: boosting e-commerce through real-time content.
WeChat is going to open up new e-commerce options by providing live-streaming features. According to a WeChat public account called Tencent Live Streaming Assistant, China’s internet giant, already started to test the live-broadcasting function with content managing companies and a limited number of e-commerce players in March.
The sources have revealed that the firm is working to provide a smooth transition between watching broadcasts and buying online. Apparently, the user would be allowed to click the products listed on the live-streamed video and then, would be directed to the merchant’s Mini Program to finalize the transaction.
Streaming on WeChat was already possible before, but sellers had to link up with the Tencent Live app, which operates as a separate platform. Now, with the new features, merchants with official accounts will be able to live-stream their goods through an H5 marketing page – interactive pages written in HTML5 language, usually for mobile websites – embedded in their Mini Programs.
One of the best ways to gain instant reactions and engagement from the audience is to leverage live-streaming. After Taobao and JD.com, this function is finally available even on WeChat.
In addition to Alibaba’s Taobao and JD.com, Chinese vendors now have a brand-new channel to generate revenues, which among other things leverages WeChat’s enormous volume of users. With 1.1 billion monthly active users, WeChat ecosystem is, therefore, enriched by features that could turn the app into the next bigger player in e-commerce. It will become an even more powerful platform that satisfies all kinds of needs of the online community.
Nevertheless, live-streaming and e-commerce have been a winning combination in China for some time now. In late 2016, only a few hundred of Chinese mobile apps had live-broadcasting features. But today, there are an estimated more than 900 real-time video platforms and over 10 million active hosts in the country. So much so that today, experts claim that this market in China is going to be worth $8 billion in 2019.
The popularity of this new format derives from two particular features: the chance for everyone to be seen by an audience and the complete transparency of the content as it is filmed live with no post-production. Therefore, from education to entertainment, from online gaming to live shopping, real-time videos now represent the ultimate form of communication for Chinese millennials. Indeed, of the over 800 million people with internet connections in China, nearly half of them use real-time video apps.
Live-streaming’s interactive nature makes it suitable for many audiences with different purposes. And for what concerns education, real-time videos are making a life-changing difference in China’s rural areas.
CCTalk is part of a growing number of live-broadcasting services in China’s education industry. Similar to entertainment and e-commerce applications of live-streaming, educational live-streams open a real-time channel between a host and an audience, or a teacher and students. Today, over 10,000 individuals and organizations are teaching classes on CCTalk so that even larger players such as Tencent and YY now have their own live education platform as well.
However, before being China’s top form of communication, live-streaming is above all a form of entertainment. With the rising popularity of short-video apps, real-time content has quickly started to gain interest among viewers. With 59.7 million registered users, Yizhibo is one of the biggest live-streaming platforms in China, whose strength is to be fully integrated into the social network Weibo.
Even the online gaming industry is leveraging the live-streaming trend so much so that currently, the PRC is the second-largest eSports – electronic sports – market behind the United States. The two dominant players in China are Douyu and Huya where users can share and engage with videos of any sort including real-time gaming.
Live-streaming is not only booming but it is also fueling Chinese e-commerce with nearly 32% of customers now buying products directly on real-time video platforms.
Nevertheless, while many companies adapted their platforms to respond to the demand for entertainment and real-time content, live-streaming is now revolutionizing the entire e-commerce sector. As about 95% of e-commerce activity in China is made through mobile devices, live-streaming has indeed become a powerful tool for the online retail industry.
Even farmers from rural China have now become real live-streaming stars. Today, 1.15 million rural users sell local products on Kuaishou through both short videos and live-streaming. Their videos show the origin of food on sale and thus respond to the consumers’ need for transparency.
Broadcasting in the PRC, therefore, started as a non-commercial trend with young people sharing their lives and talents. However, today, e-commerce penetrates the majority of live-streams whether through fashion show broadcasts or via internet celebrities reviewing the latest cosmetic product, enabling consumers to buy what they see on the screen in real-time.
The biggest player in the business has always been Alibaba. Tencent has been trying to catch up after its own social features like WeChat public accounts and Moments started seeing declining numbers of views. Moreover, short video sites such as ByteDance’s Douyin – known as TikTok outside China – and Kuaishou, have both leveraged on live-streaming as a way to boost e-commerce.
Live-streaming is working so well for e-commerce because very often, the result of instant interaction is impulse shopping. According to Jing Daily, the return rate from real-time content could range from 15% to 50%, with strong evidence that the higher the prices are, the higher the return rate is. This is because young luxury shoppers demand transparency. Therefore, live-streaming is the perfect channel for brands to give consumers what they demand while also being creative and entertaining.
Broadcasting allows room for spontaneity, giving the illusion of bringing the host and the audience closer through real-time interactions. In a country where the customer gives extraordinary importance to building relationships and sharing interests, live-streaming is certainly a powerful tool.
The real-time video trend has shown how in the Middle Kingdom, entertainment goes hand in hand with digital commerce. Live-broadcasts provide people with entertainment and a glimpse into the lives and experiences of others, attracting both viewers and consumers.
According to a report published by the China Internet Network Information Center, at the end of 2018, China hosted 397 million users on multiple live-stream websites while demonstrating also tremendous purchasing power. Therefore, the PRC is not only the first and largest live-streaming market in the world but its netizens’ purchasing experience is getting more fun, more efficient, and thus more productive year after year.
Today, in China, it is almost impossible to separate entertainment from commerce, but live-streaming has so much potential that probably we have not seen it realized to the fullest yet.
September represents an important month for Alibaba. It does not only mark the company’s 20th anniversary and the end of Jack Ma’s era. Five years ago, in September, Alibaba also made its debut on Wall Street with what is still the largest IPO in history
On September 10, Alibaba turned 20 and on the same day, Jack Ma stepped down as chairman of the Chinese company, which in the same month, five years ago, went public on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). A debut that is still remembered as the biggest initial public offering (IPO) in history.
The Hangzhou-headquartered giant set many records during its 20-years-long life, some of which remain unbeaten. Alibaba’s raising at $25 billion in its New York IPO is one of them, a record that turned the company into one of Asia’s largest technology firms by valuation.
But many things have changed since Jack Ma founded China’s e-commerce behemoth and since it reached Wall Street.
The chairman’s step back from Alibaba marks the end of an era for the firm. After having founded the group twenty years ago and having transformed it into one of the most important online shopping companies in the world, Jack Ma hands over the reins to the CEO Daniel Zhang, following the plan announced a year ago.
In 1999, the visionary English teacher decided to leave his profession in Hangzhou to embark on a Silicon Valley-style adventure. Twenty years later, he is among the richest men in the world with assets of $39 billion, as reported by Forbes. In two decades, he was able to transform what was launched as a startup into a global giant with over $460 billion of market capitalization and about 100,000 staff worldwide, serving over 755 million shoppers.
In particular, the history of Alibaba took a noteworthy quality leap when the company reached Wall Street in 2014. At that time, the e-commerce giant listed the biggest initial public offering by a tech firm to date, which was larger than anything China has ever seen.
Although technology companies traditionally list on NASDAQ, the Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) went public at the New York Stock Exchange on September 19th, 2014. A few days after the debut, the company announced that underwriters had exercised an option to purchase additional shares at the IPO price, boosting the total amount raised by the Chinese giant and its selling shareholders from $21.8 billion to $25 billion.
On September 19th, 2014 history was made. Thanks to Alibaba, the largest IPO of all time opened on the New York Stock Exchange. “What we raised today is not money, it’s the trust. It’s the responsibilities that we have,” Jack Ma said of the listing day.
This made it the biggest IPO ever, a record that was previously held by VISA, which raised $19.8 billion in March 2008. In raising $25 billion, Alibaba’s IPO also surpassed the 2010 offering from the Agricultural Bank of China, which raised $22.1 billion in its debut on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
Alibaba’s share price opened at $92.7 on Friday, 38% above the $68 IPO price. Although this increase in stock price was lower than the 72.7% increase experienced by Twitter in November 2013, it was still bigger than the growth experienced by Amazon, Google, and Facebook.
The giant’s start at the NYSE was thus glorious. By Halloween, the company had a bigger market value than Walmart. In November, it racked up record sales on its biggest shopping day of the year, and the stock peaked at $120.
With its share price more than doubling in 2017, Alibaba became the first Asian company to reach the $400 billion market cap in August. In 2018, instead, it became the second Asian firm after Tencent to record a market cap of $500 billion. The Hangzhou company currently has a market capitalization of around $464.38 billion, which is more than double of what it was at its historic IPO.
But before Alibaba’s debut in the US, it already carried out an initial public offering in Hong Kong in 2007. At that time, the public listing raised 13.1 billion Hong Kong dollars (almost $1.6 billion) but five years later, the Chinese giant decided to take the company private through a de-listing.
The company paid $2.45 billion to buy the 27% of Alibaba held by the public. This equated to HK$13.50 a share, the same offering price for the IPO back in 2007. Jack Ma justified Alibaba’s withdrawal from the Hong Kong Stock Exchange saying that it will allow the company to make long-term decisions free from the pressures that come from having a publicly listed firm.
Nevertheless, some media have recently reported that Alibaba is likely to plan a new listing on the Hong Kong market, currently postponed due to tensions between the special administrative region and Beijing.
According to Bloomberg, after going public in New York, the Chinese e-commerce giant is considering a secondary listing with a potential plan to raise $20 billion in Hong Kong, which would be the city’s second-largest ever after AIA’s.
However, Reuters reported that two people with knowledge of the matter told that Alibaba’s delayed listing in Hong Kong would rise up to $15 billion. While no new timetable has been formally set, according to the sources, Alibaba could potentially launch the deal as early as October, still seeking to raise $10 billion-$15 billion.
Although the deal was initially set to launch in late August, Alibaba still has a number of reasons for sticking with its plan to list its shares in the country. Hypothetically, in the longer term, the Trump administration could become even tougher toward Chinese companies raising money in the United States. A fact that could put Alibaba’s New York listing in a difficult position.
On the contrary, going public in Hong Kong would mean coming back home for the Hangzhou company and, therefore, represent an example of China’s growing power. Asked about Alibaba’s potential listing, Hong Kong stock exchange CEO, Charles Li, said “I am confident that companies like that ultimately will find a home here because this is home and I think they will come. I don’t know when though.”
Nevertheless, Alibaba’s possible listing on the Hong Kong market is just one of the future challenges for the company and its new president. After twenty years of successes and records, the e-commerce firm is now ready to start a new era as a giant in the global space.
For what concerns Jack Ma, instead, the founder will continue to remain in the company as a lifetime member of the Alibaba Partnership – the group of 36 people who elect the majority of the board of directors. Moreover, the former chairman also holds 6.2% of the company’s shares and, therefore, still has strong decision-making power.
When he announced his retirement one year ago, Ma also expressed his intention to return to education and philanthropy. Indeed, in the same year that the e-commerce giant went public on the NYSE, Alibaba’s former president also founded the Jack Ma Foundation, an organization dedicated to the dissemination and promotion of educational systems in rural China.
Jack Ma, who started Alibaba in his one-bedroom apartment in Hangzhou, had the dream to make his company “bigger than Walmart” and thus be able to change the world through it.
Alibaba has shifted from an e-commerce company into an entire digital economy, with businesses and affiliates covering every aspect of the user’s daily life from online shopping, payments, and logistics to entertainment, local services, and brick-and-mortar retail. And with innovations such as New Retail, Jack Ma’s company is truly changing the way people shop, not just in China but around the world as the company continues to globalize.
Therefore, not only Alibaba’s IPO on the NYSE remains unbeaten but its history will be always remembered as extraordinary.
Wondering how to get started marketing and China and considering launching a WeChat marketing campaign? If you are running out of ideas or simply don’t know what works best, look no further! Read on to draw inspiration from these 7 WeChat marketing cases we’ve handpicked for you!
WeChat Marketing for A Luxury Brand – Burberry
Wondering how to utilize digital marketing channels to drive foot traffic to a brick-and-mortar store? or boost in-store purchases? Every luxury brand grapples with this question, yet Burberry seems to have found the answer.
In its 2016 CNY WeChat marketing campaign, Burberry sent a photo of a decent cylinder-shaped gift box to its WeChat followers through the app. Fans had to follow the instructions – “Shake, tap and swipe to try and open the gift” to find out what was inside. This fun little interaction was unique and helped it stand out from its competitors.
After opening the gift, users would receive a greeting letter from Burberry, which fans could then personalize to send greetings to their loved ones. This is an excellent example of using HTML5 to create unique user experiences and create a positive brand image with social media users.
Burberry’s interactive Chinese New Year WeChat marketing campaign
WeChat Marketing for A Hotel – THE LINQ
When we say WeChat marketing, you are probably thinking of using WeChat Moments & HTML5 like what Burberry did. But what other possibilities are out there? Are there other options that cater to different business models and different industries?
Well, WeChat Official Accounts offer plenty of ways for businesses to create a unique marketing strategy. As WeChat has evolved into a Super-App with a range of functions, the ways that businesses can interact with their customers has become essentially limitless.
Linq Hotel brought an amazing feature to WeChat users through its IoT connected room suites. By scanning the QR code inside their room, guests were linked to the hotel’s official account, through which they were able to control everything inside the room remotely with only a few taps. You can adjust lighting, air-con temperature and even the volume of the TV through the Hotel’s WeChat official account with ease.
Through this unique feature, the hotel was able to attract more followers to its official account (where they could further promote their offerings through targeted messaging, blogs, and updates). This function was able to help the hotel significantly grow its follower base for future marketing efforts.
The interface of the control panel
Apart from the basic functions, they even offer some installed set programs. For example, if you chose the “sleeping mode”, the lights would turn off, the curtains would close, and the doors would lock with just one tap! Imagine how easy it is for your brand to impress your clients with that! Overall this was an astounding effort in WeChat marketing, that utilized WeChat’s various functions in a truly unique way!
The LINQ hotel room with smart IoT system embedded in WeChat
WeChat Marketing for Health & Wellness Products – Mead Johnson
With the combination of the Sanlu milk powder scandal in 2008 and the abolition of China’s one-child policy, there’s more babies and even greater demand for reliable baby formula products. However, it is absolutely crucial for baby brands to build trust among worried consumers.
Mead Johnson’s WeChat marketing campaign really steps into the shoes of Chinese moms. The “360 supermum” campaign it launched was a brand new initiative to build up a team of brand ambassadors. Leveraging the testimonials of satisfied consumers, the brand was able to engage with mothers around China and assure them of the safety of their baby formula “Enfagrow.”
Mead Johnson’s 360 Supermom campaign calling on consumers to become its brand ambassadors
To truly build up a great brand image among consumers, boosting brand awareness is only a part of the game. A seamless user experience and easily accessible and detailed product information matters just as much. Mead Johnson’s WeChat official account offers an all-in-one platform – offering a loyalty program, brand, and product information, and constantly updated content. All of this served to drastically increase user engagement and bring its brand image to the next level.
Johnson Mead’s efforts in WeChat marketing are a clear example of understanding their target audience’s needs. Johnson Mead put all the resources that new mothers need together in one platform, helping mothers with their purchasing decisions and building trust in the brand.
The services Mead Johnson’s official account offers include 1) Tracking the product supply chain 2) Verifying product authenticity 3) Professional pediatrician Q&A 3) Product reviews from moms
WeChat Marketing for Wine – Fancy Cellar
Selling wine using E-Commerce on the WeChat platform can be challenging due to the counterfeiting issues present in China. According to sources, nearly 70% of all wine in China is fake. Chinese consumers are looking for quality foreign goods that they can trust, and are gradually turning to E-commerce to meet these demands.
Fancy Cellar earned the trust of its consumers by educating them on the nuances of wine and spirits. Fancy Cellar operates a successful WeChat shop that provides an easy and reliable platform for consumers to purchase legitimate brand name wines and spirits.
Through providing useful content that was highly shareable, they were able to build up trust in their brand, acquire new followers, and drive sales with a limited budget. This is a great example of using high-quality content to power your WeChat marketing strategy.
Fancy Cellar WeChat Shop
WeChat Marketing for Cosmetics – OLAY
There’s no shortage of WeChat marketing examples in this particular industry as cosmetics brands spend an enormous amount of money on social media in China. This is especially true during the holiday seasons. Chinese New Year has always been the best time for brands to drive user engagement as nearly everyone is active on social media during the holiday period. Offering a creative way to help users send out their blessings to their beloved ones can never go wrong, as can be seen in this example from Olay.
During the Chinese Year New Year, Olay launched a campaign that allows users to send electronic personalized greeting cards titled “Receive Red Envelopes on Horseback”.
“Receive Red Envelopes on Horseback” WeChat marketing campaign by OLAY
In order to get instructions for uploading pictures that contain specialized messages for the receiver, the users had to reply “HK” to Olay on WeChat. Once completed, it allowed the user to create customized cards that could be shared on any social media platforms for distribution to the users’ families and friends.
WeChat Marketing for Cultural Heritage – The Forbidden City
The key to promoting a historical theme to millennials is to break the stereotypical impression of something being “outdated and boring”. The Forbidden City achieved a good result by helping the younger generation relate to historical figures through humor and creativity.
Campaign co-launched by The Next Idea and Forbidden City
The Forbidden City, one of the most popular attractions in China’s capital city of Beijing, launched a WeChat marketing campaign to promote The Next Idea, a creative competition launched by its cooperative partner Tencent. The theme of the contest that year was to let the contestants design funny WeChat emojis using historical figures who had lived in the Forbidden City.
To infuse fun elements into the WeChat marketing campaign, The Forbidden City launched an H5 landing page featuring Emperor Zhu, the Ming Dynasty emperor who ordered the construction of the Forbidden City. In the webpage, the ancient emperor acts like a teenager singing rap, taking funny selfies, and posting on his WeChat Moments. The H5 WeChat page quickly went viral on the internet.
Screenshots from the WeChat H5 Landing Page Campaign
The Forbidden City’s WeChat marketing campaign targeted the right audience: young and creative users likely to sign up for the contest. It also has a clear call to action which takes the audience directly to the Next Idea website. The campaign gained massive traction and was wildly successful in attracting users.
WeChat Marketing for Beverage Chain – Starbucks
For beverage chains like Starbucks, driving consumers to physical stores is their ultimate business goal, and one of the most efficient ways to achieve that was to distribute store coupons. With WeChat Pay becoming one of the most popular payment methods in the country distributing coupons has never been easier!
During the Christmas Season, Starbucks launched a WeChat moments advertising campaign featuring its limited-edition Christmas themed red coffee mugs in a short video. Users were presented with a Starbucks Christmas special coupon after they clicked inside the ad. The coupon was automatically transferred into the users WeChat wallet for use instantaneously.
Clicking the ad (left) and you will receive a 10RMB Christmas special coupon
As a result, The Starbucks’ WeChat marketing campaign was so well-received that users played the video ad an average of 4.9 times each, and 50% of the coupons were redeemed!
Conclusion – Make Your Next WeChat Marketing Campaign a Winning One
All these successful cases show the many possibilities brands have available with WeChat marketing. If you decide to use WeChat for your next big China marketing campaign, you’ll need to be creative to achieve success. With a completely local Chinese social media like WeChat, deep knowledge of the local culture and the ability to differentiate yourself from your competitors is a must! We hope these cases gave you some inspiration for your future WeChat marketing efforts!
China has been leading the world in innovation for the E-commerce industry. One area that we’ve seen Chinese e-commerce take the lead in is the creation of Chinese E-Commerce Festivals. Single’s Day (Double 11), Chinese New Year, and 6.18 are just a few of the major shopping holidays that consistently break records for E-commerce sales in China.
Most of these holidays were created by the major E-commerce platforms to offer discounts and drive sales during these periods. The largest shopping holidays were created by Alibaba and JD.com, showcasing how powerful these companies truly are. While the West has similar holidays like Black Friday & Cyber Monday, these pale in comparison to the scale of the Chinese E-Commerce Festivals.
In this blog we’ll take a look at the largest Chinese E-Commerce Festival, Single’s Day (Double 11), to help businesses obtain a greater understanding of this holiday and make the preparations necessary to take advantage of it.
What is Single’s Day (Double 11)?
Single’s Day is the largest Chinese E-commerce Holiday by far. The event was started by a group of university students in the early 1990s at Nanjing University. With many Chinese university students unable to find romantic partners during their studies, the holiday was created to celebrate being single.
The date, Double 11 (11/11) was chosen as the number “1” looks like a person who is single or alone. The holiday quickly spread from Nanjing University to various locations around Mainland China. With the rise of social media, the holiday became even more well-known across the country.
Nanjing University, the rumored birthplace of Single’s Day
While businesses had begun celebrating the holiday with discounts and promotions to cater to these single consumers, the holiday’s significance changed significantly with the launch of Alibaba’s Single’s Day E-Commerce Festival in 2009.
While the initial event only included 27 brands on the Alibaba platform, T-Mall, the discounts and promotions soon spread to Alibaba’s other platforms like Taobao. Brands on Alibaba’s platforms often offer discounts of up to 80% during this period, giving singles a reason to splurge and treat themselves.
The first Double 11 shopping festival generated a measly USD 7.5 million in sales, but by 2017 sales had eclipsed both Cyber Monday and Black Friday combined with sales reaching USD $25.3 billion. While growth has finally started to slow for the holiday due to increased competition, the shopping holiday remains the largest worldwide in terms of total sales.
Why Has Single’s Day Been So Successful?
While new Chinese e-commerce holidays have appeared throughout the years a survey by Nielsen China revealed that 81% of respondents said Single’s Day is still the one they’d most like to participate in. For every company selling their products into China through E-commerce Double 11 should be an important part of your yearly marketing strategy and be featured prominently in your calendar.
Many attribute the reason for the success of Double 11 due to its inherently selfish nature. Double 11 is a celebration of being single and treating yourself, encouraging shoppers to buy things for themselves rather than for others as is custom with more traditional holidays like Chinese New Year.
Alibaba’s focused on the holiday in its early days by launching the slogan: “ Even if you don’t have a boyfriend or girlfriend, you can at least shop like crazy.” (就算没有男女朋友，至少我们可以疯狂购物).
However, there were a lot of factors that contributed to the astounding success of Double 11 including Alibaba’s logistics network and its investment in promotional activities.
The Evolution of Cainiao: Alibaba’s Logistics Arm
The rapid growth of Double 11 required Alibaba to develop a strong logistics network to handle the massive scale of the holiday. Alibaba’s logistics arm, known as Cainiao, has done a tremendous job in keeping pace with the holiday and ensuring that deliveries go out on time despite the massive amount of orders.
In 2015 alone, the number of orders processed through Alibaba’s platforms reached 467 million, representing a 65% increase in order volume over 2014. To cope with this large growth Cainiao utilized technology to forecast order volume, handle warehousing, and make the necessary preparations to handle this increased volume.
Through this experience, Cainiao has become one of the most efficient logistics providers in the world. Even with the number of orders increasing massively each year, Cainiao has continued to improve in terms of speed and efficiency. In 2018, the total number of Double 11 orders exceeded 1 billion, with the logistics provider completing deliveries for the first 100 million packages within just 2.6 days as compared to 9 days in 2013!
Cainiao also was able to offer same day/next-day delivery to customers living in China’s larger cities. One of the first orders placed on Double 11 in 2017 was fulfilled just 12 minutes after the launch of the Chinese E-Commerce festival.
Promoting Single’s Day: Galas, Movies, and Advertising
Alibaba realized they were onto something when they launched the Single’s Day shopping festival in 2009 and invested in a range of different marketing strategies to drive growth for the event.
After running the event twice, Alibaba began to take the focus off the original holiday Single’s Day and began promoting the idea of Double 11 as the ultimate shopping holiday, rather than a day to celebrate singleness.
While the event had seen tremendous growth due to marketing efforts and more brands joining on the holiday, Alibaba recognized that the event could be even bigger. In 2014 Alibaba finally went public raising an unprecedented 25 billion USD in the world’s largest IPO. With a now overflowing war chest, the company began to invest heavily in marketing for Double 11.
In 2015, Alibaba launched its first Double 11 Gala event broadcast live on national TV. During the gala, Alibaba invited celebrities from all over the world to participate in games, events, and challenges meant to entertain and further drive sales online. Due to the success in viewership for the first event, it has been repeated each year since 2015.
Daniel Craig was one of the many celebrities invited to attend the first Singles Day Gala
While the event is primarily for entertainment purposes, the guests, celebrities, and hosts always remind the audience to go online to check out the deals available for purchase.
This has made the event more than just a shopping festival and made it seem like a real holiday. In many ways, it is similar to the Spring Festival Gala, a star-studded event hosted during the Chinese New Year period, further strengthening the festival’s connection to true Chinese holidays.
Marketing for Single’s day has gotten a bit outlandish at times as well, such as in 2017 when the company released a 24-minute Kung Fu Movie on Double 11 featuring Alibaba CEO Jack Ma and Kung Fu Star Jet Li. You can check out the subtitled version of the trailer below if you want to see Jack Ma showing off his kung fu moves.
Alibaba’s Last Year in Review: More Records Shattered During Single’s Day 2018
Finally, onto the most mind-blowing part of Double 11, the sales.
Alibaba had an absolutely incredible year in 2018, with sales reaching USD $30.7 billion throughout the course of the event, representing growth of 27% compared to the previous year. The first double 11 generated a mere USD 7.5 million dollars in sales. If we look at the growth from 2009 to 2018 this represents an approximately 40,000% increase in sales over the course of the 10 year period.
These numbers completely blow other shopping holidays out of the water. Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined weren’t even able to reach USD $15 billion in sales in 2018. This means that Alibaba alone had more than double the total sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. If we count the sales of other Chinese E-commerce platforms alongside Alibaba these two events look rather minuscule in comparison.
However, It’s not just the amount that’s amazing, but also the speed. Sales on T-Mall had reached 10 billion RMB just 2 minutes after the launch of the Chinese E-Commerce Festival.
In terms of deliveries, Alibaba received over 1 billion orders, representing a significant increase over the previous year when orders just barely broke 800 million.
Over 180,000 brands participated in the event in 2018 with 237 of them exceeding RMB 100 million in sales during the event. These 237 brands included some of the more popular international brands in China, like Apple, Dyson, Nestle, Nike, and Adidas.
While overall growth in sales has slowed down to 24%, the growth in sales of imported products was much greater reaching over 63% according to Syntun. Many newer brands to the market had spectacular years with brands like MartiDerm, Moony, and Schiff achieving positions among the top-sellers in China. According to Alibaba, over 40% of its customers made a purchase from an international brand during the 2018 double 11 event!
Other Chinese E-Commerce Platforms Cashing in on Double 11
While Double 11 was started by Alibaba, other Chinese E-Commerce platforms have been cashing in on the holiday as well. JD.com, VIP.com, Pinduoduo, and Suning, were some of the larger players participating in the event as well. Although Alibaba trademarked the name “Double 11” in 2014, preventing other platforms from using it in their advertising, plenty of other platforms try to get in on the action for this shopping extravaganza.
Spending on E-commerce during the 24-hour event reached a total of nearly USD $45 billion. As stated, before Alibaba captured the lion’s share of this spending but other players are beginning to take a larger slice as they also invest in promotions during the period.
JD.com was the closest competitor to Alibaba in 2018, with the total transaction volume on JD.com reaching RMB 159.8 billion (USD ~$23 Billion). Unlike Alibaba’s single day sales promotions, JD.com’s discounts are spread over an 11 day period. Although JD.com was only able to capture 17% of market share on Single’s day itself it’s total sales volumes from the event were truly impressive!
Nearly all of the E-commerce platforms recorded strong gains. Netease’s Kaola reported that its sales multiplied 2.4 times in 2018 while Pinduoduo saw its orders triple year on year.
This just goes to show that even if your brand isn’t on T-Mall you can still cash in on the Double 11 craze!
How To Get The Most Out of Alibaba’s Single’s Day
No matter what platform you’re selling on in China you’ll definitely want to take advantage of the Double 11 extravaganza.
Other than the traditional channels available to brands such as paid advertising and KOL promotion there are some extra steps you should take to ensure that you get the most out of the Chinese E-Commerce Festival.
We’re going to break this part down into two sections, Preparation and Promotion, to help brands at various stages take advantage of this holiday.
Preparation Strategies for Alibaba’s Single’s Day
Preparation for Single’s Day Tip #1. Reputation Management
Chinese consumers tend to do quite a lot of research before making a purchase online. In the months leading up to Double 11, you should ensure that your company has a positive brand image to foster trust among users.
A negative reputation on the Chinese internet can severely hinder your sales potential, so take the steps necessary to improve your ratings, reviews, and mentions across search, social media, and in the news. While a negative reputation is something that brands should try to fix immediately, brands with no reputation at all should also get to work on building social proof and building their brand to help Chinese customers make their decisions.
Simply putting out a few press releases or working with a few trustworthy KOLs can put your brand in a positive light and prevent any negative information from putting a damper on your sales. If there’s no information about your brand on the Chinese internet shooting off a press release or two can at least ensure that there’s some information about your brand in Baidu search results.
While this kind of marketing might not be the most exciting as it’s unlikely to directly drive sales on its own, it’s an important step to making sure that there are no barriers to purchasing for your target audience.
Preparation for Single’s Day Tip #2. Perfect Your Product Descriptions
If you’re familiar with Chinese E-Commerce you already likely know that product descriptions in China are incredibly long.
Chinese consumers are by nature very distrustful and typically spend long periods of time in the consideration stage of the buyer journey. Chinese consumers want to be sure they are getting value for their money and are not buying something that doesn’t live up to its promises.
It’s due to this reason that most brands create extremely detailed and thorough product descriptions on E-commerce marketplaces to ensure that the answer to every question a potential customer might have is readily available. Having it available at the point of purchase also results in an increased chance of conversion.
Even for something as simple as shoes, product descriptions on T-mall can be absolutely huge.
While you might think your product descriptions are adequate, make sure you check out your competition to ensure you’re not lagging behind. It seems in the world of Chinese E-commerce that there’s seriously no such thing as TOO much detail when it comes to product descriptions.
Preparation for Single’s Day Tip #3. Scout Out the Competition
This is probably the most crucial step for preparing for the Double 11 Festival. There were over 180,000 brands that participated in the festivities in 2018, so it’s very likely you’ll face some serious competition.
Don’t just do a cursory glance at the competition, analyze each and every aspect of their business and products to determine where your advantages and disadvantages lie.
Are the competitors’ product descriptions more compelling? Are popular KOLs recommending their products? What is their pricing strategy? What social media platforms are they leveraging?
All these are good questions to look into prior to the start of the event and honestly just for doing business in general. This might seem like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many companies don’t take the time to do an in-depth check on their rivals.
You can even just check on T-Mall to see some top-level information on how well your competitors’ products are selling, customer feedback, and more!
Once the countdown to the event gets started it’s a good idea to check out the promotions they start running in the lead-up to the event. Closely monitoring your competitor’s activities can give you the information you need to adjust and counter their strategies to ensure you stay on top!
How to Promote Your Brand and Drive Sales During Single’s Day
Single’s Day Promotion Tip #1. Show Off Those Discounts!
This is one of the most common strategies for promoting your deals during the Double 11 festival. Most brands begin showing off their deals for the holiday nearly a month in advance to build excitement and get customers thinking about purchasing. A survey by Nielsen China showed that this is the most enticing method of promotion for Chinese consumers.
While this tactic has been around for decades, it’s still one of the best ways to show the potential savings a user can receive if they purchase during the Double 11 holiday. Brands both big and small take advantage of this tactic to create urgency and show users how much the product normally sells for.
Showing the before and after price can be done in a number of different ways. Many brands choose to use digital advertisements to showcase their discounts while others simply keep it on their product descriptions. Depending on the price sensitivity of your target audience this can be an incredibly effective method for boosting sales during the Double 11 holiday.
Another reason this simple method is so effective is the tendency of Chinese consumers to make impulse purchases during the holiday. While Chinese are traditionally research-driven in their purchasing behavior, large discounts encourage users to make impulse decisions for trial purchases.
Single’s Day Promotion Tip #2. Offering Discounts in Exchange for Pre-Orders
Another method that’s become incredibly popular in recent years is a focus on pre-ordering. As mentioned previously, brands often begin displaying their discounts and promotions for the Double 11 holiday nearly a month in advance. For 2018, pre-orders on T-Mall became available on October 20th, giving users nearly 3 weeks to pre-order their desired items.
Since brands are already releasing this information quite early, it makes sense that they would begin to accept pre-orders. To further encourage this behavior many brands now provide additional discounts to customers who choose to pre-order before the arrival of Double 11.
If users deposit RMB 100 towards the purchase of this computer before the start of Double 11, they can receive RMB 300 off during the shopping festival. Users can also win a free gift!
This not only helps brands to lock in sales early, but it also helps them to forecast their sales volume and make preparations accordingly. According to Nielsen China, offering discounts in exchange for pre-orders is the 2nd most popular method for promotion during the Double 11 holiday.
One brand that took advantage of this strategy was L’Oreal. L’Oreal allowed users to deposit money in advance and receive coupons with greater value during the Double 11 event. For example, users who deposited 50 RMB were given 70 RMB to spend during the Double 11 event. Customers who had deposited money into this scheme were also given a chance to win free gifts through lucky draws, further encouraging users to deposit money in advance.
Single’s Day Promotion Tip #3. Coupons, Coupons, and More Coupons
Coupons are incredibly popular across all Chinese e-commerce channels; however, this is taken to an extreme during the Double 11 holiday. Nearly every brand issues coupons for use during the period, however, a few have been trying new tactics with some success in recent years.
One of the more recent trends in terms of coupons for the Double 11 holiday is brands not simply issuing coupons for free but selling them for later use. Many brands sell these coupons for an absurdly cheap price (e.g. RMB 0.5), as once users have taken the steps to purchase a coupon, they are more likely to actually use it and make a purchase.
Through selling coupons for use during Double 11, brands can make more accurate predictions and forecasts for their sales volume during the holiday allowing them to prepare and ensure that they have adequate stock to meet consumer demand.
Whether you offer coupons for free or sell them for small amounts, brands have recognized that this is an effective method for driving sales during Double 11. This is something that will likely continue to be used by brands during Single’s Day for years to come.
Single’s Day Promotion Tip #4. Leverage Social Media
In China’s fragmented internet market social media is king. Brands all across China leverage social media to build awareness, drive sales, and promote their offerings. However, many brands go into overdrive during the Double 11 season to drive traffic to their e-commerce stores.
Chinese E-Commerce platforms themselves even advertise their offerings through China’s social media platforms. For example, T-Mall ran a massive campaign leveraging WeChat and Weibo in 2018 to boost their red packet campaign in 2018. Through this campaign, Alibaba rewarded users with money for logging into Alibaba apps and visiting chosen brand stores.
There are many ways brands can leverage social media to drive traffic and boost sales during the Double 11 holiday. Brands can choose to collaborate with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) to gain greater exposure and build trust among consumers or work directly with platforms to access paid advertising.
The ultimate goal of using social media is to find your target customers where they are. Brands should promote their offerings across various social media platforms and forums to reach out to their target audience in a way that shows they understand their audience.
Single’s Day Promotion Tip #5. Release New or Exclusive Products
While this might be something more exclusive to larger brands, releasing exclusive products for the Double 11 holiday has proven to be incredibly effective for many different brands.
Dyson saw great success with this strategy last year with the release of its Airwrap hair-curler which launched exclusively on T-Mall during Double 11 2018. By advertising the product on social media and limiting purchasing exclusively to T-mall the brand was able to sell over 1,500 unites within just 3 minutes of the product launch.
Budweiser’s Special Edition Cans Released Exclusively for Double 11
Budweiser, the American beer brand, also launched exclusive packaging for the event. It was able to sell all 30,000 special edition packs that day! Both of these cases show how releasing exclusive or new products can result in a drastic spike in sales.
Conclusion
Double 11 is definitely a holiday that both shoppers and sellers need to pay attention to. However, taking advantage of the largest Chinese E-Commerce festival isn’t easy. Competition is fierce, and brands need to take the necessary steps to ensure that they are able to fully take advantage of it.
This guide should offer most brands a good place to start, but brands should conduct adequate research into their industry and competition to determine the best means of promotion during this period. We hope this guide helped and best of luck to all our readers for the Double 11 shopping festival in 2019!
Tapestry Inc. is bringing more of its brands – including Coach and Kate Spade – to Alibaba Group’s dedicated platform for luxury and premium goods, Tmall Luxury Pavilion.
Following the launch of its footwear label Stuart Weitzman last October, the New York-based luxury and lifestyle group said Thursday that Coach will officially open a flagship store on the Pavilion in December, followed by Kate Spade early next year.
Tapestry said the brands will adopt Tmall’s new “Flagship Store 2.0” format to “offer elevated, rich shopping experiences for customers,” such as more personalized content. They will be among the first to tap the newly upgraded layout.
“Tapestry is committed to the Chinese market,” Tapestry Chairman and CEO Jide Zeitlin said.
“Tmall is at the forefront of the fast-paced digital ecosystem in China, highlighted by their innovative approach and consumer-centric attitude,” Zeitlin said. “Given Tapestry’s focus on customer experience, creating innovative strategic partnerships with leaders such as Tmall helps us to connect our unique lifestyle brands with the important fashion- and digitally savvy Chinese consumer.”
The partnership would help Tapestry gain deeper insights into the China market, fueling its efforts to create seamless experiences for consumers both online and offline, the company said.
The announcement comes as Tapestry unveils its “2020 ChinaNext” digital innovation roadmap, which looks to drive engagement in the region and explore best practices it can also leverage globally. Noam Paransky, chief digital officer at Tapestry, said that partnering with Tmall, which allows them to connect with a broader audience, is a foundational part of this strategy.
“We are committed to offering a compelling experience for Chinese consumers wherever they choose to shop: our stores, direct brand and third-party websites or social platforms,” Paransky said.
ECommerce Nest 
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