Single’s Day, the massively popular one-day online sales event in China, is coming on 11/11 and Alibaba has plans to be bigger than ever before. International retailers are participating this year in a myriad of ways, and they are using Alibaba’s extensive technology and resources to tap into the singles market. Alibaba has targeted additional retailers to join the extravaganza, but not all retailers got the invite (Amazon most certainly didn’t get invited, and in what appears to be a counter move to Single’s Day, has now rolled out Amazon Prime to customers in China).
Not every retailer has Amazonian resources, and some may feel they are powerless to compete or take advantage of Single’s Day momentum. Instead of sitting back and letting the day pass by, the best piece of advice we can offer is to embrace Single’s Day as an extra day of revenue and brand awareness by leveraging the hype that Alibaba has already created.
To truly stand out, retailers need to take additional steps at providing a relevant and convenient shopping experience, and they can achieve this by focusing on a few key items.
Individualization. Typically a retailer might want to segment their single customers, but that is no longer enough. Don’t simply put items on sale that might appeal to singles. Capitalize on the hype of Single’s Day, but make your offer more meaningful to the individual by taking into account their unique habits and preferences. If individualization isn’t in your technology arsenal, then send out personalized promotions to target the singles segment.
Omnichannel fulfillment. Shoppers want to receive their items in a way that is most convenient to them. A busy single may want to swing by a store on their way home to pick up an item. Or maybe they are working late and would like the item shipped to their office. Either way, retailers need to make these options available and can prominently include them in Single’s Day promotions.
SEO/SEM. Feature Single’s Day in SEM promotions in the days leading up to and day of the event. Retailers can improve traffic conversion by changing page attributes, including title and meta data that are reflected in SERPs. Optimize the verbiage to highlight your Single’s Day offers.
Bonus tip: Single’s Day can serve as excellent ground for a test run before the traditional holiday onslaught begins. Use it to provide valuable insight into systems and practices that are working well and highlight things that could be improved.
Single’s Day can be an unexpected bump to your critical Q4 sales. It has a lot of potential for retailers and they should do everything they can to capitalize on it.
How do you plan to promote Single’s Day?
