Black Friday and Cyber Monday had just past and Forbes has written an comprehensive article on the results comparing Single’s Day and Black Friday and Cyber Monday. I have chosen this article to comment about because it may provide useful business insights. Since Black Friday is on 24 Nov and Cyber Monday is on 27 Nov, which is close to each other, it would make sense to compare Black Friday and Cyber Monday (abbreviate as FM) vs Single’s Day. According to the report, it is interesting to note that the combined sales of FM is about half of Single’s Day in 2017. Also, within a span of 5 years (2008 to 2012) Single’s Day sales has overshot FM sales and growing fast thereafter.
E-Commerce shopping on mobile devices is on the raise among millennials. 90% of Single’s Day sales is done on mobile devices compare to 43% of FM sales. Mobile uptake rate for FM is slower.
Shopping behaviour varies for different age group. Gen X and millennials are more impulsive buyers than Baby Bloomers. However, Millennials tends wait awhile more to get better price than Gen X and Baby Bloomers. Thus, millennials has lower regret spending.
The article attributes the success of Single’s Day to streamlining process by removing cap on online shopping carts, an element of fanfare surrounding the purchase and social buying on Single’s Day (i.e you don’t shop alone). This means that the action of buying online may be to appease to one’s pride or under social pressure or crowd mentality.
Commentary by Maverick Chung
Image Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/worldeconomicforum/16159138128