After celebrating bigger sales revenues than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined for its 20th anniversary in 2019 — a whopping £29 billion — Singles’ Day is the biggest shopping event in the calendar. With Singles’ Day fast-approaching, now is the time for brands to optimise their product listings to take advantage of this bumper shopping bonanza!
1. What exactly is Singles’ Day?
Singles’ Day took off as a shopping event after China’s largest online marketplace, Alibaba, adopted it in 2009. It was originally the brainchild of a group of Chinese students who decided to create an anti-Valentines celebration of independence for fellow singletons on a date represented by four ‘ones’ (11/11). Presumably they didn’t anticipate just how big a commercial success it would become, both in China and around the globe!
2. Is Singles’ Day popular in the UK?
Whilst not currently as popular in the UK as online shopping events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Singles’ Day is gradually gathering pace. Given that it clashes with Remembrance Day, it seems unlikely to rival the levels of success in China, but the UK still boasts the highest Singles’ Day spending in Europe, with a forecasted total spend of £1.28 billion in 2019, up 13% percent from the previous year’s £1.11 billion.
3. M-commerce is king
With up to 90% of Singles’ Day purchases being made via mobile devices but increasing bounce rates of 42%, product listings that are optimised for mobile can help to make the most of Singles’ Day! Indeed, this is a growing trend across e-commerce, and unoptimised mobile sites are costing retailers money. For more insight into enhancing product listings for mobile devices, see our m-commerce blog!
4. Impressive stats
Singles’ Day 2019 saw an incredible £29 billion worth of sales in one day — an increase of around 26% on 2018 — making it the biggest ever single day’s sale in history!
The first $1 billon of sales was generated in just 68 seconds!
2019’s event saw the launch of one million new products with over 200,000 brands participating, including 22,000 brands from 78 countries!
The top-selling shopping categories include electronics, cosmetics and fashion.
5. Alibaba — China’s answer to Amazon
Alibaba was founded by China’s second richest man, Jack Ma, in 1999 and took Singles’ Day to the mass market in 2009. Alibaba Group is responsible for a reported 58% of all online retail sales in China! It is divided into three main businesses:
• Alibaba.com — a business-to-business website, providing the link between manufacturers and buyers from countries around the world.
• Tmall.com — a marketplace geared towards China’s wealthier shoppers, taking the lion’s share of Singles’ Day action. It focuses on large, multinational brands that you would expect to find in a shopping mall.
• Taobao.com — both an international business-to-consumer and consumer-to-consumer marketplace, similar to eBay or Amazon.
How can we help?
marketplace amp is an experienced e-commerce services agency with the expertise to create, set up and enhance high-impact product listings and ad campaigns. We’re proud to be working with national and international consumer brands!
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