Singles Day, all the ones – 11.11 or the 11th of November originated in China as an anti-Valentines day in the 1990s. It’s a day for singletons to embrace the bonus of not having a partner and spoil themselves. Today it’s become a massive sales event in China since Alibaba adopted it in 2009 and that means that this year is even more special as it’s the 11th 11.11.
Last year Alibaba saw $30.50 billion in sales on Singles Day and by forecasts Singles Day 2019 will be even bigger.
While Singles Day is often ignored by Western retailers as a Chinese phenomenon, in recent years it’s become increasingly relevant as Chinese ex-pats and those with a Chinese heritage but who grew up in the West are increasingly adopting the event. That coupled with the Brand Britain much beloved in China, the relatively weak pound and the growth in cross border trade means that goods from the UK have never been so popular as they are today. In recent years we’ve seen a massive spike in visitors from China to Western and UK websites, so check your Analytics from Singles Day 2018 to see if you are likely to see an increase this year and if so get ready to take full advantage.
Consider setting up a landing page for Singles Day 2019 and stock it full of British brands and products (if you sell them). Don’t be tempted to make your British products appeal to a Chinese audience by changing labelling – one of your key attractions is that you are a British Business selling British products so make the most of the special appeal of Brand Britain.
As well as optimising your keywords to highlight Singles Day 2019 deals, don’t forget to geotarget them by time of day. China is about 8 hours ahead of the UK so you’ll want to start promoting products from the stroke of midnight UK time to any visitors from China.
Finally reach out to your customers through email and social media to let them know that you’re running Singles Day promotions – whilst much of your customer base may not be Chinese, judging by previous years the general population are becoming more aware of Singles Day and it’s bound to be on the news. Your customers will only know you’re running deals if you tell them.
3 Responses
what about a normal buy something, anything you like day! today day !we need to pay our bills day !
What a load of nonsense. First it starts out as a “day” then it gets stretched out to a weekend, then a week, then a full blown month. I expect Black Friday to run for a whole month this year. And the fact is, if Wal-Mart hadn’t bought ASDA a few years back, we wouldn’t even have this Black Friday nonsense in the UK. It has nothing to do with us!
The bottom line: if all days are special, then no days are special
We got the Chinese sellers, now get getting the Chinese sales.
Next we might as well dump the £ and use CNY for online purchases.