Singles’ Day 2022 Top 3 Marketplace Trends for Brands to Succeed

As the biggest online shopping festival in the world, Singles’ Day (or Double 11) is a global ecommerce treasure chest when it comes to identifying and capitalizing on new trends, record-breaking sales, and increasing revenue. At Pattern, we’ve kept our eye on three trends leading to record-breaking sales during 2022 Singles’ Day. Here is some of what we’ve learned:

1. Consumer Trends to Focus Traffic

According to insights from the TMall Global partner conference in October, here are some of the key customer groups to look out for this Singles’ Day:

• Those born between 1990 and 1999
• Females
• High net worth individuals

New shopping trends that have appeared in the months leading up to Singles’ Day, are sure to increase during this ecommerce holiday:

• “Morning coffee, evening wine”: targeting urbanites, who need coffee in the morning to wake up, and alcohol in the evening to relax. Hot sellers in this category might include coffee and wine products such as glassware, openers, decanters, etc.
• Glamping: in addition to families and friends, more young females are joining together for glamping. Hot sellers in this category might include camping cooking equipment, car trunk tents, car refrigerators, portable projectors, and insect repellents.
• Home Entertainment: Gen-Z is enjoying having more entertainment at home. Hot sellers include game consoles, e-sport equipment, vinyl players, Hi-Fi, essential oils, elegant homewares, etc.

2. Conversion Trends

Similar to previous Singles’ Day, and a huge sales driver on Tmall and other Chinese marketplaces, livestreaming is the top conversion tool brands are implementing this year. During the first wave of Singles’ Day, livestreaming was accounting for roughly 20% of total platform GMV. And it does not take a large roster of influencers to move product.

Austin Li, Tmall’s number one livestreamer, sold 2.9 billion USD GMV on October 24, during the first day of Presales. Some other conversion trends used in the past and to be expected in 2022 are gamification and adding new app or site features as a way to drive consumer engagement on Tmall. When adding new features to the app or site, Alibaba has been known to build up excitement for the shopping event by not showing the features until the grand reveal on Singles’ Day itself.

3. Pricing Preparation Trends

They say that timing is everything, and this is certainly true when considering your annual promotional calendar on Tmall in China. For the majority of brands selling on Tmall, the biggest trading peak will occur around the Singles’ Day and brands can expect to make 30% of the total yearly revenue in the month leading up to November 11th. The graph shows a trading cadence sample across the year for international brands on Tmall.  Each peak gets larger in the run-up to Double 11. The other important promotional trading periods, such as June 18, should be used to test promotions and establish credibility with customers and Tmall.

Plan Your Singles’ Day Success for 2023

The amount of sales momentum leading up and tied to Singles’ Day 2022 prove that China continues to be a lucrative opportunity for brands who have invested to develop a strong brand awareness and localized proposition across global marketplaces. And, in order to succeed, there are key trends a brand should focus on leading up to and throughout Singles’ Day. As a Tmall 5-star Trade Partner, Pattern provides full-service support from market entry strategy, Tmall Flagship Store set-up and the ongoing operation, to the marketing and trading of your Tmall Store. We are also capable of helping your brand across online marketplaces worldwide. For more information on how we can help your brand succeed on all digital marketplaces in Asia or to learn more about how to drive your greatest sales on Singles’ Day, get in touch today.