Singles' Day online sale sees huge growth here
The Singles' Day online sale event on Nov 11 is growing in dominance here, says marketing technology company Criteo.
Last year's event recorded a 344 per cent increase in online purchases by Singapore shoppers from the previous year.
In comparison, the Black Friday and Cyber Monday events showed an increase in online sales of 317 per cent and 194 per cent in Singapore respectively.
China's Alibaba Group launched the first Singles' Day sale - also known as 11.11 - in 2009. It raked in $25 billion last year.
"Singles' Day is slowly becoming a mainstream online shopping festival in Singapore," said research associate Chayadi Karim at market research firm Euromonitor International.
In previous years, Singaporeans usually shopped at Chinese websites such as Taobao, but there is now increased participation by local retailers such as Lazada, Zalora and Shopee, he said.
Singles' Day has been a winner for start-up ShopBack, which provides cashback for those who buy from its partner merchants through its website.
This year, the Singapore-headquartered firm expects to double last year's showing and deliver $3 million in sales to its 500 merchant partners here.
Mr Alexis Lanternier, chief executive of Lazada, said its month-long shopping extravaganza starting on Singles' Day is its "most important and successful sale", with a three-fold increase in orders last year.
Alibaba bought a controlling stake in Lazada last year.
The success of Singles' Day and other digital-only shopping events has led e-tailers to take their business offline as well. For example, Singapore-headquartered Qoo10, whose local portal raked in $3.5 million on Nov 11 last year, is dabbling in events such as a festival in Suntec City.
Last year, it tripled its 2015 sales for Nov 11. It expects to grow Singles' Day sales by 20 per cent this year.
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