Singles' Day Strategies: A Smart Move for eCommerce Brands

What if we told you that Amazon’s Prime Day wasn’t the biggest eCommerce sales day in the world? This isn’t clickbait — it’s true! While Amazon Prime is definitely one of the largest, a Chinese holiday called Singles’ Day far surpasses its sales amounts.

We’re breaking down why Singles’ Day should be included in eCommerce brands’ marketing strategies and how you can prepare for this event to optimize sales.

What is Singles’ Day?

Singles’ Day is a sort of an anti-Valentine’s Day holiday created by Chinese university students in the 90s. It occurs on November 11 (11/11), with the numbers in the date symbolizing singleness!

But, in 2009, Chinese eCommerce behemoth Alibaba turned the holiday into a promotional event, offering special deals on their site for that single day (pun intended). Since then, Chineses consumers have taken advantage of deep discounts every year — and, in more recent years, the holiday has made its way to the Western world.

Singles’ Day Statistics

How big is Singles’ Day, really? According to Investopedia, in 2021, Alibaba reported $84.5 billion in sales on its platforms, which is nearly double their Singles’ Day sales in 2019.

For context, Prime Day 2023 was the largest sales day in Amazon’s history, coming in at $12.9 billion dollars, according to Statista.

In the US in 2019, consumers spent $2.7 billion on Singles’ Day, a 38% increase from the previous year (source: Investopedia). This could be an indication that Singles’ Day is making headway outside of China.

Importance for eCommerce Brands

After reading those data points, you may be  convinced that your brand should take advantage of Singles’ Day and build it into your promotional calendar! Even if your primary customers live in the US, the data is showing an increased interest in the holiday, so you could be on the cutting edge.

It’s important to keep the original heart of the holiday in mind when you think about whether this is right for your brand. Can you market your product specifically towards single people who are looking to treat themselves? For example, skincare products or clothing might sell well to women, while men might purchase technology or tools.

How to Prepare for Singles’ Day

Prepare Your Inventory

Before you begin promoting Singles’ Day, you need to ensure you have enough inventory in stock to handle an influx of sales. Be sure to check both your Amazon and DTC stock levels, and make adjustments if need be, and especially keeping Cyber in mind.

Additionally, ensure your fulfillment and logistic processes are optimized and running correctly. Hopefully after Prime Day, you’ve worked out all the kinks and can rely on your systems to run without a hitch.

Create Campaigns

Singles’ Day is a fun holiday to market, as you can really lean into the spirit of the original day. This is your brand’s opportunity to shoot fun, cheeky advertising creative, and write some quippy copy for your paid search and social ads. Have fun with it, and don’t take yourself too seriously!

Make sure that you have your abandoned cart retargeting ads and emails in place, and have a plan to keep engaging those new customers you gained during the promotion.

Keep Cyber Weekend in View

Lastly, we encourage all brands to remember that Cyber Weekend is closer than you think. If you don’t think you’ll have enough ad spend or inventory to cover the major shopping events, consider skipping Singles’ Day this year and focus on Prime Day and Cyber Weekend - just make sure to plan and revisit it next year as it becomes more and more popular.

If you feel comfortable doing both Singles’ Day and Cyber Weekend, make sure the promotional discounts aren’t too similar. Consumers expect the steepest discount on Cyber Weekend, so be sure to keep that in mind.

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Want an expert partner to manage your Singles’ Day ads? Reach out to Blue Wheel today!

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