DIpil Das
One Month to Go
Singles’ Day, held annually on November 11, began as a festival of young Chinese people celebrating their pride in being single. Alibaba started promoting the day as a shopping festival in 2009 and officially named it the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. Last year, the festival recorded GMV of $30.8 billion on Alibaba’s platforms. This event is so important that merchants on Tmall, Alibaba’s B2C e-commerce platform, can sell as much in one day as they normally would in a month. We examined the scale of growth in 2018 on Tmall and Tmall Global in two separate reports.
In this report, we look at the rules for merchants for this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival: Merchants can now apply to join Singles’ Day promotion on Tmall, Tmall Global and Taobao. In addition, we discuss what merchants need to know to leverage Alibaba’s ecosystem to sell more not only on Singles’ Day but during other Alibaba events.
Applications for 11.11 Global Shopping Festival Now Open
On September 12, Alibaba unveiled rules for merchants for this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival and opened merchant applications its platforms. Key highlights are as follows:
Source: Tmall[/caption]
It is equally important to leverage Alibaba’s business units and external partners to drive traffic. Apart from offering in-channel tools such as Databank and Weitao for merchants to analyze sales and engage followers, Alibaba is working to connect with customers via other channels to tap opportunities when customers are watching online entertainment, buying tickets and browsing on social media platforms.
[caption id="attachment_97806" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Source: Coresight Research[/caption]
External platforms such as Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging site equivalent to Twitter, are important as Chinese Internet users are used to browsing on social media platforms as the starting point of their shopping journey. For foreign brands and retailers entering the China market for the first time, marketing campaigns on social media is the common way to gain brand awareness.
But launching a social media campaign does not help much unless you have a way to direct traffic back to the merchants’ store. So, merchants must highlight related search words in their campaigns and prompt customers to buy from their stores on Tmall or Taobao. For example, if a merchant promotes its snack products on Weibo, it can encourage Weibo users to type a keyword to search for its products on Tmall or Taobao. Precise keyword search is important to increase merchant exposure in the crowded Tmall and Taobao marketplaces.
[caption id="attachment_97808" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Source: Coresight Research[/caption]
Blending Social Elements into E-Commerce
What happens in social media matters a lot in China, so Alibaba has been blending social elements into its search-based e-commerce platforms. In September, Alibaba launched a hot-topic live ranking feature, similar to the hot-topic ranking on Weibo, that shows what topics are trending online in real time.
For example, the number one topic in picture below says “where granny-chic hipsters gather,” Taobao users just click on the topic to be taken to a list of granny-chic fashion items for sale on the next page.
[caption id="attachment_97810" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Hot-topic live ranking feature on Taobao (left) and the following page showing a list of granny-chic fashion items (right)
Source: Taobao app [/caption] As social media increasingly interconnects with e-commerce in China, the importance of facilitating traffic from non-e-commerce channels to merchants’ stores to elevate brand awareness and sales increases. Turning Customers into Store Members When customers follow someone else who is following a store, they also become store followers. Existing store customers will be shown the store’s products again on Taobao and Tmall when they shop similar products. However, to further enhance customer stickiness, merchants can encourage customers and store followers to become members of the store. Customers can bookmark stores to become a store follower when they browse Taobao, Tmall or Tmall Global, but they may not opt to become store members that shows greater loyalty. Some common ways to convert customers into store members include cooperating with KOLs to promote membership benefits, offering coupons and gifts to new members and rewarding existing members if they introduce new members to the store. Retailers seek to drive store membership ahead of Singles’ Day to maximize returns on member-exclusive discounts. Engage Store Members via Store Members Day, Tmall Super Brand Day and 88 Members Day Merchants can maintain store member loyalty through tactics such as hosting a store-wide members’ day, especially important after large promotion events such as Singles’ Day. Brands have seen improved repurchase rates and higher average spend after the store-wide members’ day. In fact, Tmall supports ongoing customer engagement through other regularly scheduled shopping festivals, such as Tmall Super Brand Day and 88 Members Day. Dubbed as the exclusive Double 11 for brands, Tmall Super Brand Day is a brand-specific promotion day to help brands grow sales and acquire new customers. The date of the event is not fixed and depends on brands’ needs. For example, some brands hosted their Tmall Super Brand Day on the one-year anniversary of their Tmall flagship store. Tmall’s official Weibo and WeChat accounts will push notifications to followers on what brands will be holding their Super Brand Day events in the month. Tmall Super Brand Day aims to help brands create an emotional bond with customers through a combination of creative content, games and perks. International brands such as Nike, Estée Lauder, Lego, Oreo, Dyson and Starbucks have partnered with Tmall to launch their own Tmall Super Brand Day and there has been no lack of creative campaigns to generate interest. For example, Oreo launched an Oreo Music Box where people can put biscuits on the record player to play music during one of its Tmall Super Brand Day events. [caption id="attachment_97813" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Oreo Music Box: Putting an Oreo biscuit on the record player to play music
Source: Youku [/caption] Alibaba has held the 88 Members Day on August 8 every year since 2017, when Alibaba merged its Tmall and Taobao loyalty programs into a unified membership club. On this day, 88 loyalty program members are given a series of discounts when they shop, travel, eat and order services within Alibaba’s ecosystem. Tmall even invites high-tier members to a live concert featuring Chinese pop stars. International brands can consider launching their own Tmall Super Brand Day and merchants can join the 88 Members Day promotion to further engage their customers. Key Insights Singles’ Day 2019 is just one month away. Merchants can leverage the many marketing and customer analysis tools Alibaba offers. More importantly, merchants should leverage Alibaba’s full ecosystem to drive traffic to their stores and build brand awareness. They should also work to convert customers into store members and keep engaging them through their own members’ day, Tmall Super Brand Day or 88 Members Day.
- Cutoff time for performance assessment: To qualify to participate in the annual shopping festival, merchants have to meet requirements set out in the “Sales Activities Standard Rules” and secure specific scores under various performance metrics. This year, merchants on Tmall and Tmall Global will be assessed by performance in the 30 to 180 days (varying by metric) prior to midnight on August 25.
- Event schedule: This year, the pre-sale period begins October 21 and runs to November 10, before the official event on November 11.
- Shopping subsidy: Participating merchants are required to join the platform-wide discount plan. This year, discounts are ¥50 off for every ¥400 purchase after individual discounts, to support of cross-store purchases.
- Delivery of orders: For orders made during November 11-15 on Tmall and Tmall Global, merchants have to start shipping them no later than 11:59 pm on November 18.
Source: Tmall[/caption]
It is equally important to leverage Alibaba’s business units and external partners to drive traffic. Apart from offering in-channel tools such as Databank and Weitao for merchants to analyze sales and engage followers, Alibaba is working to connect with customers via other channels to tap opportunities when customers are watching online entertainment, buying tickets and browsing on social media platforms.
[caption id="attachment_97806" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption]
External platforms such as Weibo, a Chinese micro-blogging site equivalent to Twitter, are important as Chinese Internet users are used to browsing on social media platforms as the starting point of their shopping journey. For foreign brands and retailers entering the China market for the first time, marketing campaigns on social media is the common way to gain brand awareness.
But launching a social media campaign does not help much unless you have a way to direct traffic back to the merchants’ store. So, merchants must highlight related search words in their campaigns and prompt customers to buy from their stores on Tmall or Taobao. For example, if a merchant promotes its snack products on Weibo, it can encourage Weibo users to type a keyword to search for its products on Tmall or Taobao. Precise keyword search is important to increase merchant exposure in the crowded Tmall and Taobao marketplaces.
[caption id="attachment_97808" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption]
Blending Social Elements into E-Commerce
What happens in social media matters a lot in China, so Alibaba has been blending social elements into its search-based e-commerce platforms. In September, Alibaba launched a hot-topic live ranking feature, similar to the hot-topic ranking on Weibo, that shows what topics are trending online in real time.
For example, the number one topic in picture below says “where granny-chic hipsters gather,” Taobao users just click on the topic to be taken to a list of granny-chic fashion items for sale on the next page.
[caption id="attachment_97810" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Hot-topic live ranking feature on Taobao (left) and the following page showing a list of granny-chic fashion items (right) Source: Taobao app [/caption] As social media increasingly interconnects with e-commerce in China, the importance of facilitating traffic from non-e-commerce channels to merchants’ stores to elevate brand awareness and sales increases. Turning Customers into Store Members When customers follow someone else who is following a store, they also become store followers. Existing store customers will be shown the store’s products again on Taobao and Tmall when they shop similar products. However, to further enhance customer stickiness, merchants can encourage customers and store followers to become members of the store. Customers can bookmark stores to become a store follower when they browse Taobao, Tmall or Tmall Global, but they may not opt to become store members that shows greater loyalty. Some common ways to convert customers into store members include cooperating with KOLs to promote membership benefits, offering coupons and gifts to new members and rewarding existing members if they introduce new members to the store. Retailers seek to drive store membership ahead of Singles’ Day to maximize returns on member-exclusive discounts. Engage Store Members via Store Members Day, Tmall Super Brand Day and 88 Members Day Merchants can maintain store member loyalty through tactics such as hosting a store-wide members’ day, especially important after large promotion events such as Singles’ Day. Brands have seen improved repurchase rates and higher average spend after the store-wide members’ day. In fact, Tmall supports ongoing customer engagement through other regularly scheduled shopping festivals, such as Tmall Super Brand Day and 88 Members Day. Dubbed as the exclusive Double 11 for brands, Tmall Super Brand Day is a brand-specific promotion day to help brands grow sales and acquire new customers. The date of the event is not fixed and depends on brands’ needs. For example, some brands hosted their Tmall Super Brand Day on the one-year anniversary of their Tmall flagship store. Tmall’s official Weibo and WeChat accounts will push notifications to followers on what brands will be holding their Super Brand Day events in the month. Tmall Super Brand Day aims to help brands create an emotional bond with customers through a combination of creative content, games and perks. International brands such as Nike, Estée Lauder, Lego, Oreo, Dyson and Starbucks have partnered with Tmall to launch their own Tmall Super Brand Day and there has been no lack of creative campaigns to generate interest. For example, Oreo launched an Oreo Music Box where people can put biscuits on the record player to play music during one of its Tmall Super Brand Day events. [caption id="attachment_97813" align="aligncenter" width="700"]
Oreo Music Box: Putting an Oreo biscuit on the record player to play music Source: Youku [/caption] Alibaba has held the 88 Members Day on August 8 every year since 2017, when Alibaba merged its Tmall and Taobao loyalty programs into a unified membership club. On this day, 88 loyalty program members are given a series of discounts when they shop, travel, eat and order services within Alibaba’s ecosystem. Tmall even invites high-tier members to a live concert featuring Chinese pop stars. International brands can consider launching their own Tmall Super Brand Day and merchants can join the 88 Members Day promotion to further engage their customers. Key Insights Singles’ Day 2019 is just one month away. Merchants can leverage the many marketing and customer analysis tools Alibaba offers. More importantly, merchants should leverage Alibaba’s full ecosystem to drive traffic to their stores and build brand awareness. They should also work to convert customers into store members and keep engaging them through their own members’ day, Tmall Super Brand Day or 88 Members Day.