What’s the Story?

We count down to the 10.10 Shopping Festival, focusing on data, trends and observations surrounding the festival. Coresight Research is spearheading the second 10.10 Shopping Festival in partnership with livestream shopping platforms Smartzer and CommentSold and live one-to-one selling platform Ghost Retail to bring a livestreaming focus to this year’s event. The festival was inspired by the success of Singles’ Day and 6.18, China’s two biggest shopping festivals. For more about the event, read our report on 10 Things To Know About the 10.10 Shopping Festival.

Why It Matters

Coresight Research launched the 10.10 Shopping Festival in 2020 to bring the excitement of shopping festivals to the US and to help retailers and shoppers address the disruption caused by Covid-19. The inaugural 10.10 Shopping Festival brought together a large group of retailers, brands, technology innovators and retail innovators that had not previously partnered together in a large-scale event. This year, the 10.10 Shopping Festival will continue to support the retail ecosystem. Retailers will benefit from increased traffic and pulling holiday shopping forward, as well as tapping the fasting-growing channel in US retail—livestreaming. Supporting partners will be able to assist retailers and donate to their preferred charities. Coresight Research is pleased to help partner charities boost their donations.

One Week Until 10.10: Counting Down to the 10.10 Shopping Festival

We highlight three key insights into the upcoming 10.10 Shopping Festival. 1. 28 Brands and Retailers and Seven Charities Are Participating The 10.10 Shopping Festival features 28 participating retailers and brands across accessories, apparel, baby products, beauty, electronics, footwear and home goods. Brands and retailers are offering special promotions and new products during the festival. The 10.10 Shopping Festival’s participating brands and retailers are as follows:

100% Pure	Gladys Tyler	Organic Apoteke
Adinas Jewels	Guess? Inc.	Purlisse Beauty Retail Pride
Astouri	High on Love	Shielded Beauty ShopHeart
Auda B. Bloomist	Longaberger	Skin Authority Sonage Skincare
Caswell-Massey	Macy’s	T3
CoFi	May11 Hair My Skin & Co	The Organic Candy Factory
DefineMe Fragrances	Naytra Couture	Vera Bradley
Fifth and Cherry	Neighborhood Goods

Charitable giving is a key theme in the 10.10 Shopping Festival, as Coresight Research aims to make supporting charities an easy and fun part of shopping. Retailers participating in the festival commit to donating up to 10% of sales to partner charities. Shoppers can also donate directly to partner charities. The 10.10 Shopping Festival’s partner charities are as follows:

• American Heart Association (Go Red For Women)
• Delivering Good
• National Breast Cancer Foundation
• PinkAid
• Retailers United
• St. Jude Children's Research Hospital
• Soles4Souls

2. US Consumers Expect To Spend Around the Same or More Than Last Year in the 2021 Holiday Shopping Season New US survey data suggests meaningful shopper interest in spending on the shopping holidays in 2021. Consumers are expecting to make purchases during upcoming shopping holidays, which will provide opportunities for the 10.10 Shopping Festival to spark an early vitalization of retail. Reflecting the potential of the shopping holidays in 2021, about 60% of US consumers expect to spend around the same or more during the shopping holiday this year, according to a Coresight Research survey. As seen in Figure 1, in our recent survey, 44.3% of US consumers responded that they expect to spend around the same compared to last year and 11.5% of US consumers responded that they expect to spend slightly more than last year. 3.5% of US consumers responded that they expect to spend a lot more than last year.

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Figure 1. All Respondents: Expectations for Holiday-Season Spending vs. Last Year (% of Respondents) [caption id="attachment_133758" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Base: US respondents aged 18+ survey on September 13, 2021
Source: Coresight Research[/caption]   3. The 10.10 Shopping Festival Will Be a 12-Hour Livestreamed Event The second annual 10.10 Shopping Festival will be a 12-hour livestreamed event on October 10, 2021, from 10.00 a.m. to 10.00 p.m. EDT. Coresight Research will host the 10.10 Shopping Festival in partnership with livestream shopping platforms Smartzer and CommentSold and live one-to-one selling platform Ghost Retail. Livestreaming is just beginning to take hold in the US and is a powerful way for brands to engage with consumers. Brands and retailers including Vera Bradley are trying out livestreaming at the 10.10 Shopping Festival, indicating their growing interest in offering innovative online experiences to connect with shoppers. Moreover, livestreaming can significantly reduce return rates compared to general e-commerce sales, providing retailers with opportunities to enhance profitability. According to a Coresight Research survey in March 2021, 39.7% of consumers who have watched livestream shopping shop through livestreams for a great deal, 38.2% to discover new products, 36.6% to learn more about new products, and lastly 30.7% because the way of buying is exciting.

What We Think

• The 10.10 Shopping Festival will herald the start of the holiday season for US retail, in place of the more traditional Thanksgiving and Black Friday. This event will help to pull forward holiday shopping, to alleviate supply chain pressures—especially in fulfilling online orders—against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The festival this year is focused on accelerating US consumer adoption of livestreaming. We believe livestreaming boasts superior consumer engagement and significantly reduced return rates versus e-commerce generally, providing retailers with opportunities to enhance profitability.
• Charities will benefit from the 10.10 Shopping Festival as they will be able to increase donations at a time when consumers need them most.
• As around 60% of US consumers expect to spend the same or more during the 2021 holiday season compared to last year, there are major opportunities for early shopping festivals to capture.