A Preview of China's Singles' Day in 2016: A Day to See the Power of Chinese Consumption

• Chinese e-shoppers said they would be less interested with and might less likely to participate Singles' Day in 2016, particularly with young people and those from lower tier cities
• Slow delivery of the Day and the overflow of promotions over the year are the top two reasons to drag down the e-shoppers' interest and participation
• The leaders' positions could be threatened by smaller e-commerce platforms. VIP.com is tightly chasing the big three (namely Taobao, Tmall, JD.com)

While the international media was using "What is China's Singles' Day?" as its headline on November 11, 2014, we all know by now it is supposed to be a chance to celebrate for the singletons, or "bare sticks" symbolized by the four number ones in the date of November 11. It was originally created by Alibaba for its e-commerce platform promotion in the low season of November, right after the golden week of National Day celebration with 7 consecutive days of holiday. In 2015, Alibaba said sales had reached 51.9 billion yuan (around USD7.7 billion with today's conversion rate), more than the total sum of the sales in the Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday of the same year in the United States.

China's Singles' Day was the world's biggest online shopping event in 2015. It is no longer just a topic within China. AdMaster, the leading marketing data technology firm in China, conducted a mobile survey with 1,730 netizens in mid-October to find out how 720-million Chinese netizens will respond to the 8th Singles' Day.

Chinese Netizens are Showing Less Interest and Less Desire to Participate the Coming Carnival

Unfortunately the report kicked off with a splash of cold water to the bubbling carnival, only 71% of the respondents claimed they would participate the coming Singles' Day while there was 84% last year, a drop of 13 points. And netizens did not like the Day as much as before. In 2014, 86% of the respondents said they liked the Day, soared a little bit to 88% in 2015 but dropped to 80% this year. People used to say this carnival belonged to the young people. However, this year, young people below 25 told AdMaster that they would not be as participative as last year, 20 points dropped from 2015's 84% to 2016's 64%, the biggest drop among all age groups. This phenomenon appeared on the likeliness too. 25-years old showed the lowest rate of likeliness (75%) and the biggest drop of 12 points among all age groups. The netizens from the third-tier cities and below also showed the lowest likeability of 78% in 2016 as compared to those in tier-one and tier-two cities, while this group of netizens from third-tier cities and below showed their highest likeability to the Carnival in 2015.

Slow logistics delivery has been always dragging on the desire of netizens (25%) from participating the carnival. However, it is interesting to see that 24% of the netizens said they would not participate because there have been so many promotions on e-commerce platforms, it was not necessary to join the carnival for the same reason.

The Smaller E-commerce Platforms are Stealing the Netizens' Attention from the Dominating Big Three

Though Singles' Day was initiated by Alibaba 8 years ago, it used to be dominated by the 3 main e-commerce platforms namely Taobao and Tmall, both owned by Alibaba, together with JD.com. Another surprise from the survey was the change of the momentum. These big three are losing the attention of the netizens. Instead, the rest smaller e-commerce platforms are gaining more attention than last year. In particular to VIP.com, it ranks fourth right after the big three, with 11 points of growth of attention from last year's 20% to 31% in 2016.

The Top Five Most Favorable Categories Have Been Remained Unchanged for Three Years

"Apparel & accessories", "skin care & cosmetics", "food & beverage", "personal care" and "mobile phones & digital products" have been always the top 5 most favorable categories for the past 2 years and netizens said these were still the most preferred categories. "Apparel & accessories" was the champion category last year and will keep the championship this year while "mobile phones & digital products" category have been moving from 2014's third place to 2015's fourth place and fifth place this year.

Instead of Apple Pay, Alipay of Alibaba and WeChat Payment are the mostly used payment methods in China. AdMaster's data revealed that Alipay is losing this domain to WeChat Payment while 87% of the respondents said they would pay through Alipay last year, but it is reduced to 80% this year. On the other hand, only 32% of the respondents said they would choose WeChat Payment in 2015, it increases by 10 points to 42% this year. Tencent is entering into the domain of Ali.

Last but not least, while Alibaba said more than 27 million purchases came via mobile devices in the first hour of last Singles' Day, e-shoppers told AdMaster that smart phone was still their most favorite device for the Singles' Day shopping in 2016.

Maggie Wang, AdMaster Commercial and Innovation Vice President, commented that, "This is the eighth Singles' Day. The data showed that it was moving into a new stage, which represents a different game of Singles' Day and a different attitude of e-shoppers in China. Singles' Day is losing its dominant status in terms of consumer's attention or key players' presence. And Chinese e-shoppers are spoiled by continuous promotions and immediate delivery. They are also more sophisticated and rational who require more customization and good reason-to-buy. As we always advise marketers that Singles' Day should not be seen just as a retail promotion on e-commerce platform, it is about the consumer engagement with the brand. With the decrease desire of consumer interest, I highly recommend brands to move on with innovative initiatives on online/offline integration and may prepare for the reducing output from this year's Singles' Day."

About AdMaster:

AdMaster is the leading data solution provider specialized in data collection, analysis and management. By using cutting-edge proprietary technology, we create value for businesses by turning big data into smart data and delivering it to them through our software-as-a-service platform, enabling them to make more informed decisions and gain a competitive edge.

Our core services include third party digital advertising verification, social media and e-commerce measurement, and data management – including data obtained from personal computers and mobile devices. http://www.admaster.com.cn/en

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SOURCE AdMaster