Singles’ Day (also termed 11.11 Global Shopping Festival by Alibaba) is held annually on November 11 and is the largest global online shopping festival. In the lead-up to this year’s event, our Brand Journeys to Singles’ Day 2020 series profiles 11 brands that are participating in Singles’ Day. In this report, we spotlight Caraa, a US sports bag and accessory brand.

Caraa: Brand Background

Created by Carmen Chen Wu and Aaron Luo in 2015, Caraa produces sports bags and accessories “designed for modern life.” Leveraging the founders’ experience in design, the brand aims to offer products that blend style and functionality, from backpacks and convertible handbags tototes, masks and other accessories. Caraa owns the factories that manufacture its products and sells online through its website, which offers international delivery to China. The brand also sells through retail partnerships, and its products feature on global e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Lyst, Nisolo, Nordstrom and ShopShop. To cater to the high level of demand expected in China during the upcoming Singles’ Day, Caraa has ensured that stock for its bestselling products is available for its local retail partners to sell on their Tmall and Taobao stores, reducing delivery times.  

Brand Spotlight

Caraa claims that its high-quality and functional designer bags are the optimal combination for Chinese consumers looking for practical but stylish designer accessories. Among high-end apparel, handbags are the most popular purchase among young consumers in China, according to McKinsey. Identifying that functionality was missing from many popular brands, Caraa aims to fill the gap with its transitional and practical offerings. The brand therefore selected two main product families within the “Handbag” category for its retail partners to sell on Tmall in China: the hands-freebag collection, and the premium Studio Bag collection. Caraa expects the Studio Bag collection to appeal to Chinese consumers as an investment, given the high retail prices—ranging from $350 to $800. The brand highlights the appeal of being able to convert each product from a tote to a backpack to a crossbody bag. Engaging with Chinese Consumers  This year, Singles’ Day serves as an important growth driver for domestic and international merchants that are looking to boost sales following the disruption of Covid-19. Chinese consumers have shown their pent-up spending power, with a significant sales rebound seen during the 6.18 Shopping Festival and Golden Week. Livestreaming has gained huge traction in China in the past year and is now one of the most popular and effective channels to boost sales and engage with consumers. This year’s Singles’ Day has already seen livestreaming attract millions of consumers. According to a recent Singles’ Day survey by AlixPartners consultancy firm, the main consumer appeals of livestream e-commerce include discounts and finding out more information about a brand’s products. Caraa continues to work with local retail partners to develop strategies to leverage livestreaming, promotions and the influence of key opinion leaders (KOLs) among Chinese shoppers. As well as selling through third-party e-commerce platforms, Caraa partnered with local niche retailer Reshape to tap into its existing audience of fitness lovers in China. [caption id="attachment_119017" align="aligncenter" width="700"] A promotion of Caraa’s Studio Bag collection in partnership with local retailer Reshape
Source: Reshape’s Taobao store [/caption]   Reshape is one of the retail partners managing Caraa’s e-commerce platform sales for Chinese consumers, and it also runs marketing promotions for the brand through Taobao Live and social media. To prepare for Singles’ Day 2020, the brand launched a digital campaign on Weibo using the hashtag “#ReshapeCaraa,” which received over 13,000 views as of November 5, 2020. Some viewers further spread the post on other social channels, such as Little Red Book. This campaign brought attention to the brand’s upcoming Singles’ Day discounts, which is one of the shopping festival’s key appeals. As most shoppers seek out deep discounts during the event, Caraa has prepared promotions such 80% discounts on orders of three items or more, which is available exclusively to Chinese shoppers. Such a localized and flexible social media approach to building brand awareness enables international designer brands such as Caraa to fully capitalize on China’s highly developed e-commerce opportunities.