This year’s Singles’ Day (also known as Double 11) was another record-breaker, with Alibaba reporting $38.4 billion in gross merchandise volume (GMV)—up 26% from last year. For Alibaba, New Retail was a theme this year, and, in this report, we look at the development of “New Retail”—which integrates online, offline and logistics across a single value chain, powered by data and technology—for Singles’ Day 2019.  New Retail as the Ongoing Theme for 2019 11.11 Global Shopping Festival “New Retail” was coined by Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma in 2016, and refers to a model that integrates online, offline and logistics across a single value chain, powered by data and technology. The aim is to upgrade and transform production and sales operations and improve the customer experience. We identified four New Retail strategies that were prominent in this year’s Singles’ Day: [caption id="attachment_100031" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption]   1. Adopting Alibaba’s Tmall Flagship Store 2.0 For this year’s Singles’ day, Tmall launched its Flagship Store 2.0, which the company says facilitates a more seamless shopping experience. Tmall Flagship Store 2.0 enables brands to customize store design layouts to tailor the shopping experience and help drive foot traffic to offline stores. These are some of the new features:

• Integrated suggestions based on user activity and interests.
• Interactive content relevant to the individual visitor.
• Ability to showcase the offline presence.
• Upgraded Weitao (Taobao’s in-platform version of Twitter).

Brands leveraged the newly launched Tmall Flagship Store 2.0 to offer New Retail experiences to consumers. Estée Lauder enhanced its shopping experience with an AR filter so shoppers could virtually “try on” different lipstick shades using an app to find the right color. Diamond brand CRD launched a special section for custom-made jewelry in which shoppers could customize the cut, carat, color and clarity of the diamond. Victoria’s Secret introduced bra recommendations. [caption id="attachment_99995" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Shoppers can use AR filters to virtually “try on” lipstick shades (left), or customize a diamond’s properties in app (right)
Source: Alizila[/caption]   According to President of Tmall Fan Jiang, Alibaba hopes to help more than 10,000 brands upgrade to Flagship Store 2.0: Only a few stores made the transition before this year’s Singles’ Day, but Tmall hopes to bring in more brands over time. 2. Connecting via Social Media Social media’s prevalence makes it a good space to reach out China’s shoppers, and we saw more brands connect promotions with social media channels and online stores during Singles’ Day 2019. Lancôme launched a “clear the shopping cart for you this Singles’ Day” campaign on Weibo and redirected its Weibo audience to its Tmall store. The campaign ran from October 8 to October 20, during which Lancôme picked a customer from a lucky draw at 11:11 a.m. every day and paid for all the Lancôme products he or she had placed in their shopping cart on Tmall. [caption id="attachment_99996" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Lancôme’s “Clear the shopping cart for you this Singles’ Day” campaign
Source: Weibo[/caption]   Lancôme featured young Chinese celebrities Zhou Dongyu and Kris Wu to promote products on Weibo, directing users from Weibo to the brand’s Tmall store. L'Occitane employed popular Chinese actor Zhu Yilong as its brand ambassador and featured a video of him introducing a Tmall-exclusive hand cream set. [caption id="attachment_99997" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Zhou Dongyu (above, left) and Kris Wu (above, right) promoting Lancôme products on Weibo
Source: Weibo[/caption]   [caption id="attachment_99998" align="aligncenter" width="450"] Zhu Yilong video introduces L'Occitane’s Tmall-exclusive hand cream sets
Source: Weibo[/caption]   Dyson promoted its products via a WeChat public account: Consumers could connect to the mini app for discounts and see live streaming of its Double 11 promotion. [caption id="attachment_99999" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Dyson promoted products on its WeChat public account, linked to a mini app where users could buy the products shown in the video.
Source: WeChat[/caption] Douyin, known as TikTok in international markets, is a popular short video app in China. The app launched its own 11.11 TikTok Product Discovery Festival in conjunction with Singles’ Day in which users took videos and shared ideas on what to buy, with a hashtag #11.11 TikTok Product Discovery Festival. Viewers could also browse videos under the hashtag for shopping ideas. [caption id="attachment_100000" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Douyin’s 11.11 TikTok Product Discovery Festival page and videos with the hashtag #1111 TikTok Product Discovery Festival
Source: Douyin[/caption]   Some users took videos showing products as shopping ideas with links to the online store to buy the products, on Taobao, JD.com or within Douyin. Users simply clicked on the bottom-right tag (in a small red box) to go directly to the online store. Some were ordinary users sharing their own purchase experiences, while some were promoters of certain e-commerce stores or their own stores. [caption id="attachment_100001" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Douyin[/caption]   3. Organizing Offline Events and Promotions Brands also held offline events to enhance awareness of their Singles’ Day campaigns. From October 15-20, L'Occitane hosted an event in a mall in Shanghai to promote its hero product Reset serum. Sulwhasoo hosted a “Timeless in the Bottle” pop-up store tour starting in October with events in Shenyang, Shanghai and Nanjing. [caption id="attachment_100002" align="aligncenter" width="700"] L'Occitane’s offline event in a mall in Shanghai (left); Sulwhasoo’s “Timeless in the Bottle” pop-up store tour (right)
Source: Weibo[/caption]   Multiple brands promoted their Singles’ Day sales in physical stores: At the Shanghai Huaihai Branch Store of Hong Kong New World Department Store, also known as Paris Spring, brands promoted products at the same price as online stores. Shoe brands Kadina and Stella Luna promoted their Singles’ Day sales in stores with products offered at the same prices as online stores. [caption id="attachment_100003" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption]   Home-appliance brand Dyson promoted Singles’ Day sales discounts in a pop-up store in Shanghai, in which shoppers could try the company’s products. [caption id="attachment_100004" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Source: Coresight Research[/caption]   4. Connecting Offline Stores to Digital Experiences Offline stores connected their physical assets to digital experiences. Furniture and home-furnishings brand HoLiKe has over 1,100 distributors and close to 1,800 distribution stores and used online videos and online platforms to drive shoppers to its stores, both online and offline. A video posted on popular sharing platform Youku profiled the furniture as being environmentally friendly, good value for money and aesthetically pleasing. The video offered a buy-one-get-one-free discount, then directed shoppers to its Tmall Flagship store. The online store offered discounts for consumers paying deposits online; it then directed them to the offline stores to get the furniture made and to complete the transactions in store. [caption id="attachment_100006" align="aligncenter" width="700"] HoLiKe promotion on Tmall (top); promotional video to direct shoppers to Tmall (above)
Source: Tmall/Youku/HoLiKe[/caption]   Personal-care retailer Watsons connected its offline stores with the online flagship store, which in turn directed shoppers to nearby physical stores to pick up online orders. Consumers could browse products in physical stores and enjoy the Double 11 promotions in the Tmall app, connecting online and offline experiences. [caption id="attachment_100007" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Watsons directs online shoppers to a physical store to pick up online purchases.
Source: Alizila[/caption]   Home retailers EasyHome and Red Star Macalline promoted their Singles’ Day sales both online and offline, ensuring prices were the same and offering live-streaming to promote their products, offer special discounts and explain product details to consumers in the EasyHome Taobao store or at the China Red Star Macalline Tmall store for those located in Beijing, Tianjin, Chongqing, Wuhan, Zhengzhou, Nanjing and Shanghai. Shoppers could buy online or in store. [caption id="attachment_100008" align="aligncenter" width="700"] EasyHome store promoting Singles’ Day (left); EasyHome Taobao store promoting Singles’ Day with coupons, live-streaming and the ability to connect consumers to offline stores to complete purchases (right).
Source: EasyHome/Juran Holdings/Taobao[/caption]   Key Insights This year’s Singles’ Day featured numerous New Retail initiatives. Online platform Tmall revamped its design to improve the online experience and better integrate with offline stores. Brands connected Singles’ Day promotions with social media platforms. Brands organized offline events to support online promotions while offline stores connected their offline assets to digital experiences.