Weekly News Insights: Single Day (11.11)
All the Things You Need to Know About the Single Day Bonanza
You might imagine Single Day simply as an annual discount day on the 11th of November in China. It was the case for the first few years after the introduction by Alibaba in 2009.
Since then, though, it has developed into a month-long non-stop shopping festivity, which saw customers from around the world joining and many major e-commerce platforms bandwagoning the trend.
Humble Beginning, International Outlook
Rome was not built in a day. And neither is Single Day.
The Double Eleventh Day (11.11) first became a thing in China during the ’90s. The Chinese character for “1” consists just of a single horizontal line (一). Thus, the date 11th November, with a lot of 1s, became the “sacred” moment to celebrate singleness.
In 2009, the CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma, put a twist on the day. Instead of feeling discouraged, Ma urges single people to treat themselves by buying goods from Alibaba shelves during that day.
The rest is history. The annual event gets really popular, even among the people who are in a relationship. Brands and merchants alike start to acknowledge the huge prospects of Asian e-commerce and pay more attention to Single Day. In addition, Asian online shopping platforms aside from Alibaba join the buzz and thus spread the shopping fever all across Asia and the globe.
No wonder Single Day remains the biggest online shopping day in the world. During the 2019 Amazon Prime Day, Single Day’s closest competitor, Amazon successfully sold 175 million merchandise. Impressive as it was, it is still yet to match 1 billion of merchandise sold by Alibaba alone in the 2018 Single Day.
Building the Momentum
Online marketing has been the crux of Single Day promotional effort. Brands and e-commerce platforms alike started to build the momentum weeks before D-day.
The mother company of the event, Alibaba, utilizes its extensive network of Alibaba original platform, Taobao, Aliexpress, and Singapore-based Lazada, Alibaba launches countdowns that featured discounts and special offerings. It also created several online mini-games in its main platform which customers could play to earn additional discounts on their purchases.
One interesting pattern shared by platforms and brands, though, is the use of influencers for their campaign. In China, Alibaba hired influencers to live stream and sell products. Whereas in Southeast Asia, Lazada partnered with influencers to inform customers about their super discounts on the D-Day.
Besides the e-commerce platforms, brands also launched their own campaigns for the 11.11. Using their online platforms and social media, brands advertise their products on sale that day. And with the help of internet accessibility, they could promote it, not just in China, but also all over Asia.
Our Take
Single Day rise to prominence owes heavily to the successful internet marketing efforts. It showcased how carefully planned campaign could drive sales to an unprecedented level.
The event which started as a modest Alibaba’s sales day in China has evolved into a multi-platform, international event attracting shoppers from around the globe.
Influencers play a role in raising awareness about Single Day. As the main referral voices, they inform consumers and persuade them to purchase on that day.
For brands, the significance of influencers would only continue to increase. In the all-competing environment of Single Day, influencers could help brands to attract potential customers and stay afloat until the end of the day.
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