Reasons why singles-day broke the records again!

This year, TMall only took 10mins to break last year’s GMV (CNY$204bn). Being the first online sales festival in Q4, this sets the tone of the upcoming Black-Friday, Cyber Monday, and Christmas sales scenes around the world.

The result surely did not disappoint but sets a very high bar at the same time.

Singles’ day is not a single event anymore

In previous years, singles-day is a one-day sale event starting from 00:00 on 11th Nov. This year, the festival has started on 1st Nov, extending the normally 1–3-day event to an 11-day event. Therefore, the total GMV is across 11 days.

This help merchants to plan a more comprehensive strategy around the event, especially collaborations with TOP Livestream hosts, which became a huge phenomenon, that will make or break the sales.

Consumers know what they are buying

On JD, the “Silent-checkout” ratio is 83%, meaning consumers purchase an item without any consultations. With the explosion of KOL on different platforms giving an in-depth review, e-commerce platforms are no longer a place for product discovery and consideration. The winning formula is around purchasing and after-sales.

Logistics is a hard nut to crack, but worth craking.

Winning the GMV is only the beginning. You can imagine the logistical nightmare merchants and logistic companies have to face if the whole of China orders at the same time. Orders on TMall reached 2.25bn, which is the yearly total of 2010. The million-dollar question is “how to solve the last 500m?”.

JD.com has reported they can deliver within 24hrs to 83% of the more remote locations, drastically shortened from 2–3 day window. How? I need to find out more!

Leave a comment on topics that you want me to dig deeper into!