China’s Double 11: The Only E-commerce Marketing Strategy You’ll Need

How international brands can sell their products in China on Alibaba’s Singles Day

Double 11, named after Singles’ Day (or Bachelor’s Day) in China on 11 November, is the biggest shopping festival of the year. The magic cannot happen in one day. To tap into the Chinese e-commerce market, it is essential to know the best marketing strategies for Double 11.

• China’s Double 11 is the single-biggest shopping holiday in the world.
• Consumers spent $58.56 billion on Double 11 in 2019.
• Double 11 is bigger than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. The 24-hour shopping event has also far surpassed Amazon’s Prime Day.

China’s overall e-commerce sales during the e-commerce extravaganza of Double 11 increased more than 30% year on year to RMB 410.1 billion ($58.56 billion) across platforms such as Tmall, JD, Suning, and Pinduoduo, according to reports citing data from China-based data services company Syntun.

E-commerce sellers can make over 50% of their entire years’ revenue in just one day. It’s a large opportunity for sellers to clear their inventory before the end of the year.

Shopping Coupons and Discounts

China is taking a new approach to boosting product sales, sowing digital coupons with consumers to encourage spending on everything from shopping grocery products to luxury goods.

It specially arranged an exclusive landing page for this promotion tactic making it very easy to be understood and adopted by online shoppers.

For example, during the Double 11 presale period, many e-commerce platforms, including Taobao, JD, Kuaishou, issued coupons, covering everything from takeaway food orders, grocery goods, luxury products to travel and stays in hotel. The coupons can only be used on the day of the Double 11 to ramp up the hype around the sales.

Another example is for brands to create Tmall’s promotion for Double 11 “20 RMB off 300 RMB purchase” to make itself a good option when lots of consumers’ total purchase order didn’t reach 300 RMB.

In terms of coupons, Tmall’s 10 billion coupons and consumer subsidies will maximize consumer enthusiasm for shopping. Many consumers now stock up on household goods in particular, buying a year’s worth of shampoo or toilet paper on November 11th, when online retailers offer discounts and coupons.

KOLs, Influencers, and Live Streaming in China

Online celebrities’ and KOL (Key Opinion Leaders) has become an important force for Double 11.

KOLs has helped gross merchandise volume grow by 150%. Part of this achievement can be attributed to the fact that Weibo, RED, WeChat, Douyin, Taobao Live has a dedicated portal for matching brands with video endorsements and livestream hosts like KOLs to promote products.

In China, there are around 900 million internet users and 91% of Chinese online users have a social media account, in comparison with the U.S. where around 67% of the online population has a social media account.

70% of Chinese users are purchasing products recommended by other social network users.

Internet user follows an average of eight brands and over 38% of Chinese netizens make purchasing choices based on recommendations that they find and read on social media platforms.

Working with a social media influencer agency can help to streamline the process of influencer marketing. That’s especially true if your brand is completely new to influencer marketing. Working with ChinaKOL can make it easy to get a sense of how the process works: https://www.chinakolexperts.com

Alibaba Taobao’s “Double 11 Partner”

Alibaba created new gameplay for social marketing, that’s Taobao “Double 11 Partner”. Alimama, Alibaba’s big data marketing platform, supported this with data and 3 million Taobaoke (affiliates). Under “Double 11 Partner” program, anyone could be a Taobaoke.

From October 20th to October 31st, as long as consumers set up the “Double 11 energy PK team” or was invited to one such team, what he need to do was to encourage others to like it. If his team wins, he will get a specific bonus. For instance, 100 energy points could exchange for 1 yuan.

Either inviting others or liking other teams, users connect to the gameplay of energy for red envelope. The gameplay is everywhere in Alibaba-affiliated apps and channels.

Red envelopes are gifts presented at social and family gatherings such as weddings or holidays such as Chinese New Year. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is a symbol to ward off evil spirits.

Users can generate energy points in all related apps, even in the offline Hema grocery/restaurant stores. All energy points made will become red envelope for shopping on the very day of Double 11.

Such gameplay not only brought traffic to Alibaba, more importantly, it also integrates all channels and makes them connected. In this way, Alibaba knows its consumers better.

So, if you’re still thinking about Singles Day or Double 11 as a massive sale and a chance to clear inventory, we’d love to work with you and our KOLs to get your e-commerce operations in China roaring to life.

Have any Questions? Comment below and we can answer your questions.

ChinaKOL is a company that helps companies increase their social media presence in China. Check out our website at: https://www.chinakolexperts.com