New growth engines of the China–U.S. ecommerce economy: Research on the Double 11 Shopping Festival and Cyber Monday

The Double 11 Shopping Festival is a Chinese online shopping holiday celebrated each year on November 11. The Alibaba Group first held Double 11 in 2009 on Taobao.com (Tmall.com), with 27 ecommerce brands offering a 50% discount on their products. Over the past 11 years, the Double 11 Shopping Festival has gained traction at home […]

Jennifer Zhang
Jennifer Zhang
General Manager, Greater China

The Double 11 Shopping Festival is a Chinese online shopping holiday celebrated each year on November 11. The Alibaba Group first held Double 11 in 2009 on Taobao.com (Tmall.com), with 27 ecommerce brands offering a 50% discount on their products.

Over the past 11 years, the Double 11 Shopping Festival has gained traction at home and abroad, both online and offline. It now encompasses all kinds of consumption — from food and beverage to entertainment. It’s  a highly anticipated annual event for global consumers and the ecommerce industry.

This year, Double 11 has been upgraded from a shopping day to a shopping season. It will last for 31 days  and has attracted the participation of a number of mainstream ecommerce platforms in China. It is estimated that 14 million products from 5 million merchants will be for sale on Tmall alone, and that more than 800 million consumers will shop the festival. This year’s Double 11 is expected to be the largest shopping festival in ecommerce history. The event’s 11 years of continuous growth in trade volume — from 52 million yuan in 2009 to 268.4 billion yuan in 2019 — shows the rapid growth of the digital economy. It also represents the reform of the growth model, with the partnership economy taking an increasingly important role.

A key factor in growth: The partnership economy

According to AliResearch, the fastest growing ecommerce demand comes from younger consumers, and focuses on long-tail niche and specialty products. This demand is generated and boosted by social media platforms such as short videos, live streaming, and social ecommerce.

The process of “zhongcao” (or “planting grass”) finds consumers being influenced to long for a particular product by a key channel or someone they trust. This could be an influencer in makeup testing, popular science, or shopping; an internet celebrity; a familiar app or platform; a touching corporate social responsibility (CSR) or charity project; eye-catching news; or a fellow consumer who likes to share. Alliances based on trust and cooperation boost customer growth and contribute to  the partnership economy.

The partnership economy can be thought of as the hardworking, behind-the-scenes employee that is breaking records in the ecommerce industry. The C-beauty brand Florasis is a great example. Founded in 2017, Florasis, Huaxizi hosts a 100 million yuan campaign in the Double 11 Shopping Festival. The partnership economy has helped Florasis stand out in the beauty industry after only three years.

Officially partnering with Jiaqi Li — a top live stream ecommerce influencer — Florasis has built a partnership based on consumer trust. Its presold event at this year’s Double 11 is helping the brand build cross-border cooperation with Chinese-style IP and pop stars to attract Gen Z. The event is spreading the news about its products through macro-, mid-tier, and micro-influencers. Product testing influencers also help the brand maintain consumer trust. All these steps help Florasis convert website traffic into sales, and keep it at the top of Tmall’s trade volume list.

The partnership economy also is reconstructing traditional marketing strategy based on target advertising. By combining marketing elements, the partnership economy drives brands to break through and increase conversions. It also transforms one-way advertising into interactions between brands and consumers.

Early start of Cyber Monday 2020: How to boost demand

In western countries, Cyber Monday is similar to the Double 11 Shopping Festival. In mid-October, Amazon fired off the first shot of this year’s Cyber Monday shopping season with Amazon Prime Day, a deal event exclusively for its Prime members.

Unlike Double 11 — an ecommerce shopping spree since its inception — Cyber Monday originated offline. The event mainly featured live visits to shopping malls, a tradition that continues to this day.

Although the proportion of Amazon online shopping gradually is growing, offline shopping remains the most important component of the Cyber Monday campaign. People still prefer to rush to Walmart, Costco, Best Buy, and other brick-and-mortar stores to snap up goods. Adobe data showed that only 29% of Cyber Monday consumers placed orders through mobile phones. Tmall data, in the meantime, showed that 60.3% of Double 11 Shopping Festival users paid through facial recognition and fingerprint.

Cyber Monday’s 2019 online sales volume reached $7.4 billion (about 52 billion yuan), the highest on record. But that figure only equaled 20% of Double 11’s past volume of sales. Going back to 2018, combined sales of all  Cyber Monday campaign channels added up to less than half of the Tmall’s Double 11 Shopping Festival  sales.

This year, the Covid-19 outbreak has changed consumption patterns and behaviors. Avoiding large gatherings and maintaining social distance are now considered rules of thumb. Depending on the severity of a local epidemic, regions continually adjust restrictions on offline entities and shopping centers. Cinemas, shopping malls, restaurants, and other venues accordingly place restrictions on the allowed number of patrons and operating hours.

Today’s new consumption and work scenarios, like the stay-at-home economy, the cloud office, and cloud education, have accelerated development of the digital economy and changed which channels reach users. This year, Cyber Monday consumption is expected to exceed previous years, and the proportion of shopping that is online will grow further.

Cyber Monday’s reliance on online ecommerce platforms triggers a corresponding new demand for digital brand marketing.

Impact cultivates a new growth engine: Automated partnerships

Double 11 is a vivid footnote to the new ecommerce growth engine. The shopping festival unleashes the purchasing power of the large domestic market by leveraging the partnership economy. By adapting to the growing consumption and communication environment, new brands and new forces use Double 11 to stimulate growth in quality and efficiency. This partnership-driven digital marketing also may become a Cyber Monday scenario in the post-epidemic era.

Impact’s deep involvement in the concept of the partnership economy has turned it into a driving force for growth for over 12 years. As a leader in partnership management, Impact provides solutions for partnerships in all industry verticals. It enables companies to quickly coordinate external marketing channels and partner resources, integrate internal and external data, and effectively prevent and manage risks in the process of cooperation.

Impact leverages its Partnership Cloudtm software as a service (SaaS) platform to help companies automate outreach, recruiting, contracting, anti-fraud, relationship optimization, payment, and other processes. When marketing professionals open Impact’s back-end pages, they are  treated to an infinitely replicable business hive that is swarming with new channels, insights, and partnership opportunities — all driven by digital strategy.

Imagine the partner discovery and the cemented alliances, the consumer and partner communication, the impressive recommendations and the traceable orders. Imagine the potential a large automated partnership economy can bring to Double 11 and Cyber Monday!

Reach out to a growth technologist today here.

[Original] 

“双11”购物狂欢节,是指每年11月11日的网络购物节,源于淘宝商城(天猫)2009年11月11日举办的,以“光棍节”名义联合27家店铺推出“五折促销”的电商营销活动。

历经11年发展,“双11”购物狂欢节的影响力已从国内到国外、线上到线下全面渗透,覆盖吃喝玩乐消费购物的全场景,成为全球电商行业和消费者的年度盛事。

今年,“双11”的规模仍在扩张,从一天购物狂欢延展为3+1天购物季,引发中国多个主流电商平台参与。仅天猫平台就预计有500万商家、1400万款商品和8亿国内消费者参与其中,将成为史上最大规模的“双11”。从2009年的5200万元,到2019年的2684亿元,持续十一年增长的背后,是数字经济不断加速发展的过程,也是合作伙伴经济成为愈加重要的新品销增长方式的原发动力。

愈加重要的关键增长赛道:合作伙伴经济

据阿里研究院对历年购物节的行研数据,电商平台上增长最快的需求是年轻一代的消费者对长尾,小众,特色商品的需求。很多时候,此类新增需求的产生是通过各种社媒渠道,短视频、直播和社交电商等,触达并激起每一位消费者的购物欲望。

这种过程被诙谐形象地称为”种草“,完成”播种购物兴趣“的这个动作的主体正是已经获得消费者信任的关键渠道或重要他人:测评/科普/购物达人、喜欢的网红、熟悉的app和已认可的平台、深感触动的某个CSR/慈善项目,甚至是乐于分享的普通消费者、随机映入眼帘的一条有趣的新闻…这种借助已有信任基础、通过联盟关系赢得新的客户增长机会即是合作伙伴关系赛道。

近年来,许多刷新商业奥林匹克记录的幕后功臣即是合作伙伴经济。以双十一销量过亿新成员–仅成立三年的国货花西子举例,独特的合作伙伴引流打法让其从竞争激烈的美妆领域脱颖而出。

从直播电商带货头部达人李佳琦成为其品牌推荐官开始,花西子即通过这一重要的合作伙伴建筑了与电商平台核心购买力的信任基础。在今年双十一的预热活动中,我们看到花西子通过选择与Z世代契合的热门国风 IP跨界联合,发起与品牌调性高度契合的明星代言,头腰尾部 KOL组合渗透品销信息,并以产品体验官 /新品试用员等身份维护消费者关系,完成从流量到销量的电商转化,继而持续领跑天猫预售榜。

也就是说,合作伙伴经济正在重构我们熟悉的投放式电商获客模式。它不仅是走出流量困境、助力转化的动力源,更是在品牌层面上重新组合营销要素,推动单一广告投放转变为双向传播互动的必需。

2020黑五提前枪响:如何引爆新增长

在西方,也有一个类似中国“双11”全年大促的狂欢购物季,那就是黑色星期五(Cyber Monday)。今年的黑五以十月中的亚马逊会员专属Prime Day为开端,早早地打响了2020购物季的第一炮。

与”双11”从一出生就瞄准在线电商不同,黑五起源于线下,以线下大卖场的为主要费场景,这也一直延续到今天。

近来虽然亚马逊线上购物的比例也在逐渐增长,线下依然是整个黑五Campaign中最重要的组成,人们还是喜欢去沃尔玛、Costco、百思买等门店抢购。Adobe数据显示,黑五仅有29%的消费者通过手机下单,而天猫数据显示有60.3%的用户通过刷脸和指纹支付进行双十一付款。

2019年,美国黑五的在线消费为74亿美元(约520亿元),创下历年消费之最,但仅为”双11”销售额的20%。而再往前看,2018年黑五全campaign窗口加起来不足天猫一家”双11”的一半。

今年突如其来的新冠疫情,改变了人们的消费方式和消费行为,避免人群大规模聚集、保持一定的社交距离成为人们在疫情期间的生存法则。各地区会根据当地疫情的严重程度,相应地调整线下实体及购物中心的运营限制,比如电影院、购物中心、餐厅等对人数和营业时间的限制等。

可以预测,今”宅经济”、”云办公”、”云教育”…新的消费和工作场景,加速了数字经济的发展,改变了用户触达的途径,年黑五的线上消费一定会超过往年,线上购物的比重将进一步扩大。

因此,随着黑五对线上电商平台的倚重,相应地对品牌数字化营销提出了新的增长需求。

新增长引擎的耕耘者:Impact,实现联盟合作伙伴关系自动化

近年来的双十一购物节,充分利用合作伙伴经济释放中国大市场的购买力正是对新增长引擎的生动注脚。一个个新品牌、新势力通过顺应消费与传播环境,以合作伙伴关系驱动品效合一式数字化营销, 借助购物节激发品效增长,这或许也将成为后疫情时代的”黑五”新景象。

如何让合作伙伴经济的概念转化成发展的动力,Impact在此深耕十二年之久。作为合作伙伴关系管理的领导者,Impact面向所有垂直行业的合作伙伴关系提供解决方案,能帮助企业快速协调外部的营销渠道和生态伙伴资源,将合作数据内外贯通,有效预防和管理合作过程中的风险。

Impact借助Partnership Cloud这 一 SaaS平台帮助企业拓展、招募、签约、反欺诈、关系优化、支付等流程实现自动化。当打开Impact后台页面时,营销专业人员就仿佛看到一栋无限复制的商业大厦,不断涌动着新渠道、新洞察、新合作机会,而这一切都在数字化的策略驱动中。想象一下,从发现合作伙伴到完成联盟合作、从消费者沟通到合作伙伴沟通、从高效种草到可追踪的下单……试想,大量的自动化合作伙伴经济将为”双11”、”黑五”带来多少更大的想象空间?

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