What’s the Story?

Singles’ Day, also known as the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, is a 23-day-long event this year. In this report, we discuss the event’s key dates and highlight the marketing strategies, promotions and member benefits that we are seeing from participating platforms, as well as their sustainability strategies.

Why It Matters

Singles’ Day is the world’s largest shopping festival, providing a significant opportunity for brands and retailers to boost sales, with Chinese consumers flocking to e-commerce sites to take advantage of deals and promotions. Alibaba has revealed that its Tmall platform will host a record 290,000 brands and offer a collective 14 million deals during Singles’ Day, according to Alibaba’s news arm, Alizila.

We are also seeing an emphasis on sustainable practices and social inclusivity, aligning with heightened consumer interest in these trends in retail. We cover initiatives from select e-commerce players as they relate to Singles’ Day in this report.

Singles’ Day 2021 Preview: Coresight Research Analysis

Key Dates

This year, Singles’ Day is a 23-day long shopping festival, with two pre-sale periods and two official sales periods enabling consumers to make the most of the discounts and promotions offered by thousands of brands. At the time of publication, the first official sales period has just begun (November 1) on both Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com, following the first pre-sale period from October 20 at 2.00 p.m. (Beijing Time) to 8.00 p.m. on October 31.

We present the event’s key dates on Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com in Figure 1 and discuss three themes to watch out for in subsequent sections.

Figure 1: Alibaba’s Tmall and JD.com: Singles’ Day 2021 Timeline

Alibaba has rolled out new features on its platforms to make the shopping journey more social and inclusive.

• Alibaba has released a new “shopping trolleys” feature that allows consumers to share products they are interested in with friends and family.
• In line with its goals of inclusivity, Alibaba’s shopping platform Taobao has introduced “senior mode” to its app to make it more accessible for the elderly.
• Alibaba will also be doubling down on its livestreaming marketing strategy, with over 700 influencers, celebrities and brand executives scheduled to appear and offer promotions on its Taobao Live platform through the duration of the festival. Alibaba Group’s Chief Marketing Officer Chris Tung stated on October 27, 2021, that Taobao Live launched a range of new livestreaming features ahead of this year’s 11.11, including content marketing resources and brand channel membership programs. (Read more about the livestreaming opportunity in China this Singles’ Day in our separate report.)

JD.com is focused on increasing delivery speed through its new on-demand retail and delivery service “Nearby”, which allows customers to receive their orders within an hour of checkout, with delivery from stores in a three- to five-kilometer vicinity. Currently, there are 100,000 all-category physical stores that are connected to this feature, according to the company.

2. Membership Privileges and Discounts

Special membership privileges will also be available during Singles’ Day to provide entertainment and build user engagement, which helps increase the rate of returning customers following the 11.11 event.

JD.com is offering price guarantees for over 90% of its popular products, as well as additional brand benefits for “super shopping card” holders of its JD Plus membership program,  who can claim exclusive subsidies on goods of all categories. The company is also promoting China’s digital currency “e-CNY” during Singles’ Day 2021 by giving consumers who search the term on the JD.com app the chance to receive red envelopes (gift packets containing money), coupons and discounts in the digital currency. This new currency is part of The People’s Bank of China’s trial initiatives to use digital yuan in place of cash and coins.

Alibaba will be similarly rewarding members of brand loyalty programs with special privileges such as limited-edition offerings as well as member-only vouchers for after-sales product maintenance for top customers, according to the company. NIKE, an Alibaba brand partner, launched a program on Tmall that allows members to customize avatars and join sports challenges to unlock special perks during the shopping festival.

3. Sustainability

Chinese e-commerce companies are focused on sustainability, finding ways to reduce their environmental footprint and incentivize consumers to make more environmentally friendly purchases.

During JD Logistics’ Global Smart Supply Chain Summit on October 18, 2021, JD.com committed ¥1 billion ($157 million) to support its green supply chain project, the “Green Stream Initiative,” and improve its carbon efficiency by 35% in five years. Already, JD.com is already planning to use its green infrastructure and technological innovation this Singles’ Day to generate renewable energy that will help power its supply chain, warehousing and packaging processes. JD.com will continue to use reduced-width adhesive tape as part of efforts to cut down on packaging materials.

Alibaba is also committing to sustainable development and hopes to slash order-related carbon emissions by 30% year over year during 11.11, through technological advancements; its sorting algorithm matches products with the right parcel size to cut package waste by 15%, according to the company. To encourage sustainable practices among consumers, Alibaba’s logistics arm, Cainiao, plans to implement recycling services at 60,000 package-pickup stations from November 1, 2021, and Alibaba Group will provide ¥100 million ($15.6 million) “green-shopping vouchers” to spotlight eco-friendly brands and products during the Singles’ Day festival.

What We Think

Both Alibaba and JD.com are emphasizing sustainability during Singles’ Day 2021, and social shopping and inclusivity have also emerged as key themes. This year’s festival will be a testing ground for China’s new digital yuan.