The most awaited and exciting Shopping spree Singles Day 2019 hit the craving population on Monday, 11th of November. Ever since the clock ticked 12 at midnight, Alibaba’s staff were just not ready for what followed afterward.
What started just as the college-going lads celebrating their singledom, became the shopping frenzy in the whole of China spreading like an epidemic to the rest of the World.
However, this 11th term of Singles Day Sale was a bit different!
Single Day 2019 was the first-ever Sale without Jack-Ma, the founder himself.
The latest statistics of China reveals the economic growth at a turtle’s pace of 6.2% only. Settling this load, Singles Day sale has spurred the economy, breaking the unprecedented records of the U.S as well as Singles Day 2018.
What made Singles Day 2019 special?
- Shocking Facts and Figures
- Top countries Vs. Top Brands
- Past Year Comparison
- INFOGRAPHIC
- Alibaba Vs. Rest of the World.
- Take a Look Here.
There is altogether a fuss in the market as soon as the holiday season approaches, and looking at 11/11 Single Day; the spirit is just not going to settle down that easily.
You should move down the lane, to know what actually broke and made; past the most anticipated Sale of the Southeast Asia Region.
Facts & Figures — 11/11 Singles Day
Alibaba’s Singles Day broke all the previous records yet again. The Southeast Asia Marketplaces with tempting offers and discounts have been alluring customers since late October.
Even a single second counts!
Taylor Swift, at the Shanghai concert, kickstarted the 11.11 Countdown Gala opening the way to 1,000 brands of Alibaba.
The live streaming concept put forward by Alibaba has emerged as a significant success. Most of the famous celebrity endorsing brands and their products were seen on Singles Day Sale.
On the count of the first 68 seconds of Singles Day 2019, people around the world have bargained the deals of $1 Billion.
Kim Kardashian, while promoting her beauty line KKW, sold 15,000 bottles of perfume in just one second.
At one point, Aliyun — Alibaba’s cloud computing system processed 5,40,000 transactions per second.
Does 60 sec make a Minute?
Soon after the primary records met, Singles day fury was nowhere to stop. Every single minute pushed the GMV to another level.
Alibaba’s GMV raised to about $2 Billion in just 2 Minutes.
Singles day record touched about $10 Billion in just 29min and 45 sec. What a number!
Hour is Ours!
Alibaba Singles Day Sale saw no hurdles in the path. Not just the founder but several popular Southeast Asian marketplaces too were in the race to break their most recent records.
Lazada received a record of over 3 Million orders within the first 60 minutes.
On the other hand, Shopee raised more than three times the order in the first hour of Singles Day as compared to last year’s sales.
ShopBack (a cashback platform) saw 250% more unique users in the first hour of the day compared with last year.
On Qoo10, orders and sales in the first hour were five times more as compared to 2018.
At the stroke of the first hour, the consumers had already spent $14.3Billion, surpassing half the total of Thanksgiving 2018.
Mind-boggling Facts you should know!
Several small merchants also cashed-up this lucrative opportunity by cutting their prices and selling more of their products.
Three Squirrels, a forest nuts selling company, sold 800,000 packets of nuts by slashing the price from $7 to $4.
Nanjiren, a clothing & accessory online retailer, sold 166,119 four-packs of men’s underwear offering at half the original price.
Merchants like you can still catch up to these exciting deals in this Festive season since 12.12 is on the way.
A bottle of Hibiki (30yrs old Whiskey) was the most expensive item sold at $8,999 on Lazada.
Jessie Foo, a house-wife, continuously checked Shopee for best deals on baby products. She ended up spending $400 on toys and diapers staying up until 3 am.
Top Countries Vs. Top Brands
As the world was super-active this Singles Day 2019, the battle between different marketplaces, participating brands, and competitive product categories were on a roll.
Singles Day records ended up making Xiaomi, Midea, Haier, MIJIA, and Bosideng the top 5 brands sold on the day. Consumers around the world were curious to catch the best hourly deals on AliExpress, Tmall, Taobao, Lazada, and Shopee.
Alibaba features more than 22,000 international brands from 78 different countries, thus widening the cross-border trade and selling.
Singles Day record breaks to 5x what Amazon made in the 48-hours Prime day in July
Early in the morning of 11th Nov, 5G version of Huawei’s Mate 30 Pro smartphone, as well as Apple’s iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, were the top-selling products of the Singles Day sale.
On Qoo10, one of the most popular online marketplaces of Southeast Asia region, Babycare, Electronics, and Beauty products were among the top-selling categories alluring massive customers.
Did 2019 make any Difference?
Alibaba Singles Day record broke the last year’s record GMV of $30.8 Billion to $38.4 Billion this year.
The State postal bureau has a whopping 2.8 Billion packages, to deliver the week following Singles Day surpassing by a quarter from last year’s. This also accounts for almost two packages per person in China.
With 11.11 Shopping Done, Alibaba’s ‘Green’ Logistics Begin. #Double11 https://t.co/xkha4ZFrfy pic.twitter.com/emAendcJqY
— Alibaba Group (@AlibabaGroup) 12 November 2019
Gross Merchandise Value of Alibaba stood at whacking 268.4 Billion yuan, a 26% rise from the figure posted last year.
What started as a promotional activity in 2008 has become a phenomenon now — Chris Tung, CMO Alibaba.
To celebrate this phenomenon, Alibaba’s employees were found sleeping during the daytime to stay up all night, twinning in red T-shirts with the typography “Make 11 Happen.”
In the first nine hours of 11/11 Singles Day, the sales reached 158.31 Billion Yuan ($22.6 Bn) surpassing last year’s figures by 25%
Let’s Picture things out!
Alibaba Vs. Rest of the World
Alibaba is the mammoth of Southeast Asia formerly China, but when it comes to other Asian Countries with an astounding population like India, the battle is still on.
Alibaba’s 24 hours shopping sale = Total Indian economic sales of 2019
Amazon and Walmart backed Flipkart is currently ruling the Indian eCommerce. The collective sales reached up to $3 Billion during the recent festive sales in India.
In the year 2019, both Amazon and Flipkart became the most significant collector, since about 42,500 amazon sellers received an order in 36 hours of festive sales.
Major Hurdles on the Path
The ever-increasing internet penetration with about 451 mn users, makes India only second to the vast market of China.
However, several prominent factors, if addressed, India is capable of coming in close competition with Alibaba in future years.
Slow Internet Penetration:
As compared to the internet penetration in China to about 750 Mn active users, India stills lags behind due to the lower literacy rate and varied social standards.
However, growing digitalization and a majority shift of population to the internet and online transaction may result in positive outcomes soon.
New to eCommerce Sales:
As compared to China’s eCommerce market, India hosted eCommerce a little late. It was the year 2003 when Alibaba emerged in China with Taobao and Tmall as its subsidiary; on the other hand, Flipkart rolled the eCommerce in India in 2007.
With new investments every now and then, several other players like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy is gaining momentum at a quicker pace.
Under-developed eCommerce Structure:
China has always been too soon in technology, and that is the reason it promotes inclusive growth, integrating offline and online stores. In contrast, Indian merchants still focus more on their brick & mortar stores rather than online selling.
An integration to go multi-channel and develop their presence online over marketplaces may prove to be a better way out.
While Alibaba Singles Day record is yet to break year after year, Amazon and Flipkart are slashing the market in festive sales, outpacing all their records.
The Indian eCommerce is expected to stand at $200 Bn by 2026. The focus now has been shifted to the Tier II & Tier III cities to reform the eCommerce market.
What is here for You?
So the air of Alibaba Singles Day sale is not going to settle down anytime soon. Rivals players like JD.com and Pinduoduo Inc, South Korea’s PrestoMall, and Singapore’s Qoo10 were also up with fascinating deals and offers all day.
The festive season has break-out, and you still grab a chance of integrating to market giants making your way through tremendous sales and orders.
Since “Shoppertainment” — an idea of selling through Live platforms is becoming a new way out on Sales day, sellers on Taobao, Lazada, and JD.com are growing exponentially.
Southeast Asia is blooming like a new flower of eCommerce, your chance to capture the fragrance it imparts is just a click away.
No matter what framework you are selling on, onboarding to the market leaders like Shopee, Lazada, and others is a wise man’s choice.
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