The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 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 day back in 2009 and now calls it the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. Held annually on November 11, the once small Alibaba-invented shopping holiday has ballooned quickly to become the world’s largest shopping festival. Only 27 brands participated then, generating total GMV of $7.8 million. Last year, total GMV on Alibaba’s various platforms hit $30.8 billion, up 27% from the prior year and a whopping 252% CAGR over the past nine years. Over 200,000 brands are participating on Alibaba’s Taobao, Tmall and Tmall Global platforms this year. Singles’ Day is turning into a battlefield for Chinese e-commerce giants: Major retailers have already started pre-sale events, leveraging the pre-sale period that runs until November 10. Consumers can preview promotions that will be offered on November 11, and put down deposits before completing their orders (and finalizing payments) on November 11. Brands typically offer exclusive discounts during the pre-sale period to lock in sales, which are on top of the cash vouchers and discounts from Alibaba and brands for customers to apply only on November 11. Consumers are also accumulating coupons and cash vouchers by participating in a variety of online activities. Here are some of the most exciting new innovations we’re seeing in 2019 that online retailers around the world can learn from. Taobao and Tmall Alibaba kicked off its 11.11 event on October 21, with a focus on “new consumption and new business.” Alibaba plans to distribute more than ¥2 billion ($282 million) worth of cash vouchers to consumers and collaborate with key opinion leaders (KOLs) to livestream events designed to drive consumer engagement and sales. The company expects more than 500 million consumers to shop on its platforms on Singles’ Day this year. Alibaba says it will unveil one million new products on these platforms in the lead up to 11.11. Few details have been released on the kind of new product launches that will contribute to this huge total, but Alibaba did say new products will include 240 exclusive 11.11-themed products from international brands such as Givenchy, Shiseido and SK-II to tap into young consumer demand for new brands and products. Alibaba launched its Tmall Flagship Store 2.0 in June 2019. Using Tmall’s data analytics and consumer profiles, the new version enables brands to create customized content and promotions for different customers to improve engagement. Alibaba says thousands of brands, including Tom Ford, MAC and Victoria’s Secret, plan to upgrade their storefronts to Tmall Flagship Store 2.0 before the event to provide more personalized shopping experiences. With more than 70% of new active users on Taobao coming from lower-tier cities in fiscal 2019, Alibaba is focusing on consumers and small businesses in these less-developed markets. The company has helped over 1,000 factories digitalize operations, optimize analytics and add Internet of Things technology to better serve consumers in the lower-tier cities. Taobao’s group-buying platform Juhuasuan is launching consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M)  products. Alibaba’s data analytics generate consumer profiles in lower-tier markets, which it shares with manufacturers to help them make products adapted to those consumers. [caption id="attachment_98587" align="aligncenter" width="700"] 11.11 Promotion on Taobao app and livestreaming from KOL Li jiaqi’s store
Source: Taobao[/caption]  

Tmall Global

Alibaba’s cross-border online marketplace Tmall Global will feature more than 22,000 international brands from 78 countries participating in the 11.11 shopping festival. Tmall Global aims to continue incubating emerging product categories such as beauty supplements, men’s personal care, hair growth devices, oral care, baby’s skin care, pet health supplies and imported furniture. Tmall Global will also launch over 3,500 new products before 11.11, of which 3,000 are exclusive to Tmall Global.

JD.com

JD.com launched its Singles’ Day campaign on October 18 and has highlighted its focus on lower-tier cities and supply chain upgrades. JD.com expects to sell 1.2 billion products during 11.11, including 200 million C2M products developed on consumer insight analytics. JD.com is also working with celebrities and KOLs to livestream promotions, mainly in electronics, apparel, makeup and skincare.

Like Alibaba, JD.com is accelerating its expansion to lower-tier markets. To better cater to residents in lower-tier cities who are more price sensitive, JD.com introduced Jingxi (formerly JD Pingou) in September, a new online group-buying marketplace similar to Pinduoduo. Jingxi has its own app and has integrated with WeChat as mini program. Jingxi’s factory-to-consumer model enables direct delivery of products at attractive price points. The company hopes to reach over 500 million consumers in this emerging market during 11.11.

JD.com has upgraded its logistics to include half-day delivery in major cities, one-day delivery in lower-tier cities, cold chain logistics, smart logistics and other steps to ensure smooth delivery during the busy shopping festival.

[caption id="attachment_98588" align="aligncenter" width="700"] Jingxi mini program on Wechat
Source: Wechat[/caption]  

Suning

Suning kicked off its Singles’ Day event on October 21 with a new “one-hour solutions under all contexts” concept, aiming to solve consumer pain points under different conditions within an hour. Superior service and the shopping experience are becoming just as important to consumers as price.

Suning operates its own e-commerce platform, Suning.com, as well as a wide range of offline stores that include supermarkets, convenience stores, and electronics stores. By leveraging these physical stores, Suning can deliver products within 30 minutes within a one-kilometer (about 0.6 mile) radius of any store and provide services such as appliance repair within an hour. Suning also offers a price match guarantee, giving customers back money equal to the price difference if they find the same product cheaper somewhere else.

For merchandise, Suning emphasizes creating “S+ products” with brands, which means designating one or two hot-selling products in each category. Suning will support these products in terms of funding and logistics. To target consumers in lower tier cities, Suning also partnered with brands to launch 32 types of C2M air conditioners and continues to leverage its group-buying platform, Dajuhui, which has proven popular in lower tier cities. During 11.11, Suning plans to use Tik Tok and Kuaishou livestreaming promotions.

Key Insights

Chinese e-commerce giants have already kicked off their Singles’ Day campaigns. This year, all major online retailers are focusing on lower-tier cities. Alibaba, JD.com and Suning have already moved into lower tier cities through group-buying platforms and C2M products. Livestreaming by KOLs has also become must-have to engage with consumers – and drive sales.

Alibaba, JD.com and Suning are also going beyond coupons and discounts to focus more on enhancing the overall customer shopping experience, including storefront revamps and supply chain upgrades.