Every year, the 11/ 11 Singles Day e-commerce festival offers the most generous discounts and steals of the season. Launched by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba to commemorate Singles’ Day in China, this shopping festival has quickly become a major success. Pre-sales kick off October late and reach a fever pitch on November 11th with massive savings across all types of products. During this massive shopping festival, most businesses generate an impressive portion of their yearly revenue within just days.
Now that the grandeur of the 11/ 11 e-commerce festival has come to an end, it is time for companies and brands to assess the freshest trends and uncover potential growth opportunities. Let’s delve deeper into discovering marketing strategies used by businesses to ensure maximum success during China’s most significant buying period of the year.
Highlights of 11/11 e-commerce festival 2022
Tmall: The winner of 11/11 2022
Tmall and Taobao were the top favored platforms for the 11/ 11 e-commerce festival in 2022. With this year’s festival, once again, Tmall has proved that it stands out as the leader when it comes to launching new products.
Unsurprisingly double 11 on Tmall was bigger than ever before, boasting more than 290,000 brands and astounding millions of products.
This year’s festival witnessed a record-breaking turnout, with over one thousand brands new to the event participating through Tmall Global – Alibaba Group’s overseas cross-border e-commerce platform for sales.
Moncler, Messika, Jil Sander, and Bvlgari joined the ranks of other luxurious labels that featured in the Tmalls’ double 11 events for the first time.
Social media platforms were under the spotlight
That being said, although Tmall and Taobao are still the preferred platforms for brands during China’s 11.11 festival, social media platforms are gaining huge momentum due to the wide reach and marketing potential they offer.
To stay competitive in the current Chinese market, companies are continually looking for new marketing and distribution venues. Douyin, Weibo, and RED have established e-commerce portals that offer exactly what these brands need – diversification! This is why we’ve seen an increasing number of social media platforms introducing e-commerce features to join this booming industry.
Games that are exclusively made for the 11/11 shopping festival are here to stay
By utilizing gamification, T-mall has galvanized consumer engagement in the past double 11 festivals. Through friends and family invites, potential customers were enticed to join the shopping channel. This is a process that proved wildly successful.
One game was called the Meow Tree challenge where two teams played against each other, with the one making the tallest tree winning a red envelope on 11.11. Team members can level up their trees by more people joining in on their sides through their invitations. By doing so, Tmall was able to not only expand its consumer base but also incentivize the public with red envelopes as a reward for participating in their game.
The winning products of this year’s doubled 11 were pet products and outdoor gear
The pet industry has seen immense success in pre-sale performances this year. Zoetis for instance made more sales within one and half hours than its total double eleven income from last year. Similarly, Pidan had achieved 10 million RMB of pre-sales in just sixty minutes!
Camping gear and outdoor equipment as well as outdoor clothing have experienced a surge in popularity over the last few years due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to data from Tmall, sales of outdoor apparel and camping gear grew by an astounding 45%, 115%, and 62%, respectively within one hour of the pre-sale launch.
Luxury brands utilized Double 11 as an avenue to provide unique experiences and top-notch goods.
Offering discounted products was not the luxury brand’s main campaign this year. Rather, they were determined to make the luxury experience exclusive. Tmall released an astonishing 100,000 new items that catered exactly to exclusivity while JD leveraged modern technologies such as virtual/augmented reality to build a more emotional bonding with customers across multiple channels.
More senior Chinese consumers participated in this year’s 11/11
With 12% of Chinese netizens above the age of sixty, and the internet penetration rate reaching 45%, e-commerce giants seized this opportunity to capitalize on a rapidly growing market. For instance, in preparation for the 11.11 event, Taobao upgraded its “senior mode” features by establishing a specialized customer service team specifically designed to meet the needs of senior users and also included grocery shopping functions.
Meanwhile, JD.com launched its “Silver consumers” campaign to target more than 60 million senior customers with discounts and coupons. Consequently, more senior Chinese consumers participated in this year’s double 11 shopping festival compared to previous years.
The latest 11/ 11 has been a buzz with excitement over recent online business models like live streaming sales.
According to the data released, compared to the same period last year, daily views of live-streaming selling events on Taobao skyrocketed by a whopping 561 percent! Undoubtedly, this new trend has had a tremendous impact on the double 11 festivals, boosting market sales and once again demonstrating that when creativity and innovation are at their pinnacle, success follows.
Overall, this year’s 11/11 e-commerce festival was a huge success, with an estimated $54.4 billion spent during the first 24 hours of sales alone! This impressive number is a 20% increase compared to last year and indicates that the 11/11 e-commerce festival is becoming even more popular in China.
By introducing fresh business models such as virtual influencers, specialized customer support for seniors, live streaming, and other creative elements, companies have unlocked the door to success.
We can prepare a special 11/11 Singles Day campaign for your brand
Are you interested in broadening your business to the Chinese market? If so, allow us – a team of specialized marketing professionals based in China – to help make it happen! Our knowledge and expertise are just what you need to take that next step toward realizing your ultimate growth potential.
Our team of highly trained local and international professionals will help you make the most out of your business in China. We create customized campaigns to boost your sales and brand recognition, helping you maximize profits during the 11/11 e-commerce festivals and throughout the year.
Contact us today to start planning for next year’s double 11- the biggest shopping event in China! Together we can give your business the boost it needs to succeed in the competitive Chinese market.
