After recording sales of RMB 35 billion yuan on the Double Eleven shopping day, Alibaba is betting on Double Twelve to “continue the shopping frenzy”. As you can see, Singles Day surpassed the US Cyber Monday within two years. Will the follow-up Double Twelve exceed Cyber Monday and Black Friday? This is not the key point.
The key is having more shopping festivals to spread the joys throughout the year. This will reduce the pain shoppers have to endure to get their parcels delivered and giving some relief to the delivery guys. The Singles Day event reminds me of the pain the Chinese people have to endure to get back to their families during Chinese New Year. Rather than having a giant shopping frenzy with everything concentrated within one day or few days, it is good to have other shopping festivals throughout the year targeting different consumer groups. This way, consumers will have a better shopping experience and company earnings will be more sustainable with less dependence on one or two major sales periods.