China Singles’ Day 2015 is set to be bigger than ever, surpassing stellar sales records set last year, KPMG forecasts.
November 11 is known in China as Singles’ Day, an annual one day event which sees online retailers slash prices of products, and China’s shoppers treat themselves to a wealth of discounted goods. Popularised by e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2009, Singles’ Day in China has now become the world’s biggest online retail sales day, eclipsing all other promotions days including Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Jessie Qian, Partner in charge, Consumer Markets, KPMG China, says: “We expect that China Singles’ Day spend this year will be bigger than ever, illustrating the buying power of the Chinese consumer and the increasing prominence of the date in the Chinese retail calendar.”
KPMG’s recent survey of 10,000 online Chinese luxury consumers - China’s Connected Consumers - also revealed that the maximum amount Chinese consumers felt comfortable paying online for a single item was RMB 4,200, more than double from RMB 1,900 found in 2014. It also found that Chinese luxury online shoppers are increasingly open to buying luxury products online. For most categories, from jewellery to cosmetics, and wine to leather goods, respondents reported a willingness of 75-95 percent to purchasing products online.
Qian adds: “Not only did we see a higher amount spent on average for popular categories such as bags, women’s apparel and cosmetics, but we also noted a significant increase in spending on watches and jewellery. All these illustrate that online luxury shopping is set to grow as Chinese consumers are growing increasingly more comfortable with online purchasing.”
Ecommerce plays an increasingly important role in consumer behavior and spending. And it is therefore crucial for companies to have a sustainable ecommerce strategy and greater emphasis on customer data analytics, in order to drive a long-term business objective.
Qian concludes: “With the speed of change around new channels in China, companies must develop the right strategies to survive and thrive in an increasingly disruptive environment. Formulating an effective online to offline (O2O) strategy will be essential for retailers to remain competitive in the digital age with the increasing smartphone technologies and the need to harness social media platform. Meanwhile, using analytics to turn the transactional data into insights to improve products and user experience, as well as to unlock new opportunities, will be crucial for e-retailers to stand out in the increasingly competitive market.”
(Henry Wei)
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