E-commerce sites reap bumper harvests on Singles’ Day

Singapore-based Shopee said in a statement that the number of orders it had received in the first hour of its Singles’ Day promotional event was three times higher compared to 2018.

The platform sold a record 70 million products on the date, with the number of orders for the website’s most popular brands having surged 1,731 times compared to the average day, Shopee said.

Home-grown online marketplace Tiki also said the number of orders had surged four times compared to the average day, while total traffic rose three times. Compared to last year’s Singles’ Day, orders had increased 2.5 times, while the number of individual customers who bought items on the site doubled.

While it did not comment on total sales, Singapore-owned Lazada Vietnam said in a release it had sold enough diapers for one million babies, enough washing detergent for 1.5 million households, and enough milk for half a million adults, if they were all consumed in one day.

According to Lazada, the three categories of items that saw the biggest growth compared to the average day were mobile devices, mother and baby products, and household appliances. Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and southern Binh Duong Province were the three localities that had spent the most on this Singles’ Day, the company said.

A press release issued last month by Paris-headquartered internet advertising company Criteo said mid-range consumer goods will be the most popular products during sales events like Singles’ Day.

"Fashion, cosmetics and household products will see the biggest sales growth because their costs are not so big that consumers must consider, while brands provide many measures to stimulate sales," said Steven Tuan Nguyen, Criteo’s Senior Regional Manager for Southeast Asia.

After November 11, Vietnam awaits two more major promotional events, including Black Friday and December 12, a spin-off of Single’s Day.

Singles’ Day started as a trend in China, after Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba launched the first Singles’ Day shopping event on November 11, 2009, offering heavy discounts on its platform. Soon after, other retailers in the region latched onto this event, and the promotion day now also takes place in other economies including Singapore, Indonesia, Taiwan, Vietnam and Indonesia.