Singles Day or 11/11 as it is known in China, has fast outstripped Cyber Monday and Black Friday to emerge as the world’s biggest online shopping event, raking in over $17 billion in 2016 - a 25% increase from 2015. Importantly, 82% of these transactions were driven by mobile in 2016. This explosion in popularity only means that the stage is set for yet another record shattering day of e-commerce and m-commerce in China.
And with more and more Chinese firms investing in the burgeoning digital economies of South East Asia (SEA), Singles Day sales are rapidly gaining in popularity in the region, with 2017 set to be the biggest year yet, especially in mobile-first markets such as Indonesia. 50% of survey respondents in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand reported that they made purchases using smartphones.This clearly demonstrates that SEA consumers are getting more comfortable using their smart devices to research, browse and purchase products, thus strengthening this channel of engagement between consumers and retailers
With Single’s Day around the corner, here are five tips that marketers can leverage when planning their mobile strategy in SEA:
1. Be savvy with mobile video:
Shoppers in SEA are increasingly relying on mobile video, with November 7th being the peak for mobile video ad views and engagement in the run up to Singles Day. Also, in the region, users begin their weekends early with some quality mobile video ad indulgence, consuming the most ad content on Thursday, followed by Saturday and Wednesday.
2. Know where your users are and go programmatic:
It’s intuitive for marketers to focus their advertising spends on shopping/m-commerce sites and social media. However, it’s also imperative to take advantage of other important inventory sources when planning for Singles Day. Ahead of the event, 42% of downloaded apps are gaming apps while travel and entertainment account for 23% and 19% respectively. For mobile marketers looking to optimize their spends for Singles Day, it’s key to not ignore these three heavily downloaded app categories. To ensure even more precision in delivering advertising messages, marketers must go the programmatic route to ensure that they are reaching premium and relevant audiences.
3. Focus on fashion:
In most other regions, electronics sales dominate online sales. In SEA, however, the story is very different, with fashion leading the way, contributing a whopping 85% of total sales. The beauty category tops the chart at 54% with apparel, shoes and handbags following at 31%.
4. Capitalize on late decision makers:
While retailers and brands focus on enabling users to make early purchase decisions 1-2 weeks prior to the sale, they often miss out on influencing users closer to the day of the sale. 23% of users make purchase decisions in the crucial 5 days before the day of the sale.
5. Invest in retargeting:
To drive increased sales, it’s important for retailers to leverage technologies such as dynamic retargeting and exact matching in order to deliver personalised and seamless consumer engagement across multiple platforms. With the right retargeting mechanism in place, advertisers can ensure increased sales not only from active users but also from first-time users and dormant users.
