Why didn’t we think of this? New holiday promotional idea.
Single’s day promotions held on 11/11 (November 11) in China claim to have driven Alibaba’s one-day e-commerce sales to a record setting $17,700,000,000*. Yes, that is correct, “billion” not million. “Singles’ day” promotions literally blew past popular e-commerce holiday’s, including “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday”. Sales were so strong they topped last year’s record of $14,3 billion at 3:20 pm, just 15 plus hours into the sale*.
A promotion began by a few Chinese young people, Alibaba – the e-commerce giant – has turned the day into a shopping “festival” with parties, celebrity performances and incredible discounts on products offered on Alibaba. One of the main driving factors pushing Alibaba to support Singles’ Day, was the need to overcome low sales during the early November period**.
A few Singles’ day facts***:
• Singles’ day sales are global with sales from 232 countries in 2015
• 5,000 international brands from 25 countries participated in the sale
• More than 30mm Chinese shoppers purchased imported products
• Alibaba used a VR shopping experience “Buy+” virtually transporting shoppers across the world for various brick and mortar
• Used a location based AR Game to help drive traffic online
• “See now, buy now” with an eight hour fashion show highlighting fashion items that could be pre-ordered.
• Alibaba featured a star studded cast of celebrities (Kobe Bryant, Scarlett Johansson,
David Beckham, Daniel Craig and others) to help drive excitement in its “retailtainment” approach to marketing.
Single’s day is a perfect example of a marketing campaign built on a simple idea that resonates with a large segment of the community. Mix in quality products, a fair price and good dose of fun and you have the recipe for a successful promotion and healthy sales.
Source: *
*Wall Street Journal: 11.11.16 http://ow.ly/EkTR306am3F
** International Business Times: 11.11.16: http://ow.ly/MykN306awzx
*** forbes.com: 11.10.16 http://ow.ly/rHhs306awpX
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