UK consumers warming to Singles Day
UK consumers are embracing Singles Day, the China-led annual online shopping festival which takes place on 11 November. In 2014, Chinese online giant Aliexpress.com saw a 59% growth in one-day UK mobile traffic luring customers with deals, according to digital market intelligence agency SimilarWeb.
“UK consumers spent double the amount of time on the site on Singles Day last year (12 minutes), compared to a normal daily average of 6 minutes,” added SimilarWeb.
“Retailers sold 278 million items sold worldwide last year, worth $9.3 billion, and dwarfing Cyber Monday sales. The site has now emerged as a leading retailer in Russia, Brazil, and France, according to SimilarWeb data.”
Other UK retailers also got in on the act on 11 November last year, according to SimilarWeb’s analysis, with Debenhams seeing a 50% one-day rise in mobile traffic, New Look, 43% and Marks & Spencer, 21%.
But while Singles Day may occupy the global top spot, SimilarWeb found that in the UK market it still falls some way behind Black Friday, US, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day.
Pavel Tuchinsky, Digital Insights Manager at SimilarWeb, said: “While there is no established tradition for Singles Day in the UK, AliExpress have a solid platform to build upon following a sharp rise in engagement last year. Following phenomenal growth in Russia, Turkey, Brazil and France, it will be interesting to see how they look to crack the UK. Building Singles’ Day into a truly international event could be the next test for Alibaba’s momentum, while attractive, targeted, promotions, could deliver a timely boost to British retailers’ sales.”
As Post&Parcel reported earlier this morning, Alibaba and Royal Mail have announced – just in time for Singles Day – that they will be strengthening their strategic partnership, which will mean that Chinese exporters on Aliexpress.com can now use Royal Mail shipping solutions to supply their goods for UK delivery within two weeks.
