The results each year for Alibaba’s Singles’ Day online discount day continue to rise. Last year results on Taobao and Tmall hit an all-time high with sales reaching 1.47 billion USD, up 25% from the previous year. Any brand interested the Chinese market cannot ignore the impact 11.11 can have on their sales as well as brand awareness. Up to 30% of a brand’s yearly sales can come from Singles’ Day. So how can a brand prepare itself to maximize its profits on 11.11? There are a few things that can be done months before 11.11 even arrives.
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First, incorporate 11.11 into your business plan. Doing this will allow your company to keep a perspective on how it will approach the year. Which products to put online, what price restrictions, new product launches, and so forth. There needs to be a price strategy according to the price restrictions of Tmall. For example, new products can only be launched in March for Summer/Spring. To increase traffic to your Tmall site you need to introduce new products/arrivals to get more traffic. Introduce new products on a certain day each week. On 11.11 the more products that go online the better, but they cannot be new arrivals to protect brand image. Planning a good pace for introducing new arrivals and clearing old inventory is essential for brands to maximize the 11.11 opportunity while maintaining good product value. Another key thing is to evaluate your discounts carefully. Although 11.11 is known for its discount policy and works wonderfully in Chinese market, brands need to keep in mind that consumers might not want to spend a higher price in the future if they are discounted too much. Keeping a clear long-term business strategy in place is key. Now that your sales strategy is in place, what is the next step?
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Prepare your communication strategy. It is important for each brand to figure out what key product will create a “buzz”. A social media campaign can use this product or products to draw people in to buy their products. The goal of social media is to increase brand awareness. The right strategy is a combination of content, media and pricing. The best tools for social media in China are WeChat and Weibo. In addition, sports brands can also use the Joyrun app. One of the first steps is to create good content that people will want to read and react to. Also adding a social component to the campaign that will encourage followers to forward content to their friends. A coupon is a great way to encourage social followers to share information on their WeChat moments. Advertising on WeChat is also a great option since it will show up in the persons feed based on demographic data and reading behaviors. If you have an adequate budget, investing in extra media-buy is a great option if you have KOLs that can talk about your products.
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Now that you have an overall strategy and social media presence you need to make sure that everything works together. Most importantly, that the order management system (OMS) will work on 11.11! The delivery services wait outside the warehouses on 11.11 to get the products to deliver them as soon as possible. If the system can’t handle the orders, then that can impact the warehouse and then lead to late shipping. Full Jet makes sure to pre-test all operations to see if the system can handle the traffic of the expected sales volume. Full Jet will talk to the customer and TP team and make sure that everything is operational weeks before 11.11. The OMS includes the crucial parts to operations including inventory, orders info, sales/cancelling orders and warehouse.
This is why the pre-sale time before 11.11 can help determine if any adjustments need to be made. Worst case scenario if on 11.11 the OMS can’t handle it, there is always the possibility to enter the sales manually.
Being prepared is key to your company’s success on 11.11. Following these three key things will help guide your brand. 11.11 is a great opportunity for branding opportunity and to maximize sales. Get ready now. 11.11 is almost here!
