What’s the Story?

Singles’ Day 2021 is upon us. The second official sales period for e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com is being held on November 11, 2021, marking the culmination of the world’s biggest online shopping festival, which began with the first pre-sale period on October 20 this year.

We present key details about Singles’ Day 2021 from Alibaba, covering the company’s initiatives across luxury, livestreaming and international brands. We include insights from Alibaba’s breakfast briefing with brand partners that the Coresight Research team attended on November 10, 2021, in New York City.

A Singles’ Day Primer: Coresight Research Analysis

According to Alibaba, its 11.11 Global Shopping Festival involves more than 290,000 merchants and brands, 200 luxury brands and 900 million consumers this year. 1. Luxury

This Singles’ Day, Alibaba has redoubled its investments into its Tmall Luxury Pavilion platform to develop a “discovery-driven, seamless, omnichannel” shopping experience, according to the company. Alibaba has focused on light luxury brands, forming partnerships with brands such as Farfetch and Mansur Gavriel.

Tmall Luxury Pavilion also launched new NFT products (non-fungible tokens—digital assets that ascribe ownership of a digital or physical item) in the lead-up to Singles’ Day this year, through its first-ever “Double 11 Metaverse Art Exhibition.” The digital gallery of NFTs features AR (augmented reality) to enable consumers to interact with the products. Luxury brand Burberry launched a limited NFT collection through the exhibition, alongside retail players in other sectors, such as sportswear brand NIKE.

2. Livestreaming

Livestreaming is once again a key marketing tool during the 11.11 festival. According to Alibaba, the popularity of livestreaming is due to its ability to produce a sustainable and high return on investment for brands, which can control their brand messaging, even with a small audience or without the help of influencers. Livestreaming enables brands to create communities of engaged consumers, driving potential to increase consumer trust and loyalty (as well as attract new customers), which are especially important for luxury brands.

Alibaba is building A/B testing tools into livestreaming through its Tmall Innovation Center (TMIC) this year, allowing brands to receive automatic reactions to products still in development. Livestreaming is also being spurred on by developments in gaming, inspiring brands to incorporate virtual reality (VR) technologies into their streams to better engage with consumers and create an exciting shopping experience.

3. International Brands

Over 200 new and emerging B2C (business-to-consumer) international brands have partnered with Alibaba for Singles’ Day 2021. We present some examples of such brands below.

• Prestige skincare brand Supergoop! launched during the pandemic in 2020 but was able to generate massive revenues through a combination of e-commerce and livestreaming. Supergoop! is hosting big promotions during this year’s Singles’ Day and is using Tmall’s livestreaming features to drive revenue.
• During the 11.11 festival, Dickies has used livestreaming to better market to Gen Z consumers and change its brand image from a more traditional apparel retailer to a fashionable and youthful one.
• Luxury label Diane Von Furstenberg (DVF) has been impressed by the attention it has garnered through livestreaming in China in the past 18 months and has found the channel to be an effective way to quickly amass consumer feedback. The brand is using livestreaming to market its products during Singles’ Day 2021.
• Nuria Beauty is bringing Singles’ Day to the US this year, helping to expand the scope and influence of the festival.

Alibaba’s Go Global 11.11 Pitch Fest gave US brands the opportunity to fast-track their entrance to the Chinese market, with the seven winning brands approved to launch their products on Tmall Global from the first official Singles’ Day sales window on November 1, 2021.

• Read about the winning brands from the 11.11 Pitch Fest in our separate report.