Singles’ Day (November 11) is likely one of the hottest new buying holidays to hit US shores. After exploding in reputation in China, folks around the globe are hyped to occasion, search for new relationships, and, in fact, buy groceries.
Retailers, in fact, are answering the rising demand with new Singles’ Day gross sales and occasions. However each new occasion wants a while to take off—and good PR. A stable advertising and marketing technique will aid you get the phrase out and excite customers for this up-and-coming celebration.
On this article, we’ve rounded up eleven ideas that can assist you make your Singles’ Day a hit, from prepping to after the occasion:
Perceive your viewers
Put together your logistics
Arrange unique offers
Evaluate your customer support
Leverage social media
Optimize your on-line retailer for cellular
Use information to trace traits
Gamify the buying expertise
Spotlight limited-time provides
Collaborate with different companies
Have interaction clients post-purchase
50 Simple Vacation Advertising Concepts For Retailers
Your entire yr has been main as much as this second—how are you going to make an affect?
What’s Singles’ Day?
Singles’ Day began in China within the Nineties as a technique to rejoice being single and counteract different holidays targeted totally on folks already in relationships. In 2009, on-line retailer Alibaba used the day for a 24-hour buying occasion and turned it into one of many greatest spending days of the yr.
Gross sales figures in China are steadily rising, with one of many main Singles’ Day retailers, JD.com, claiming recording-breaking income in 2022.
As companies and customers around the globe have taken discover of the day’s success in China, Singles Day has began to unfold outdoors of the nation.
Whereas some analysts have been skeptical concerning the timing of the vacation, US customers appear to be getting on board. Singles’ Day within the US in 2019 noticed a 38% improve in gross sales over the yr earlier than. With increasingly US retailers placing on gross sales, numbers are more likely to continue to grow.
Methods to market your small business for Singles’ Day
Need to get in on the Singles’ Day motion? You’ll want to arrange your stock and your gross sales associates, prepare to teach your clients and provides them offers to get excited for.
Right here’s our recommendations on getting began.
1. Perceive your viewers
First issues first: it is advisable work out who’s going to be eager about your Singles’ Day gross sales.
The first demographic for Singles’ Day is 20-something who aren’t in a relationship. To market to them, tailor messages to resonate with celebrating the truth that they’re singles, emphasizing self-gifting and self-care.
Along with advertisements driving clients to your ecommerce website, contemplate creating and operating some hyper-local location-based Meta advertisements to achieve potential clients close to your bodily places. Whereas advertisements driving clients to your on-line retailer can emphasize your fast delivery, advertisements to your bodily places can level out your BOPIS choices or your wonderful in-store service (or each).
2. Put together your logistics
Like every main gross sales occasion, holding cabinets stocked with out carrying extra stock is essential to success. A couple of month earlier than the large day, guarantee high-performing stock is ordered and logistics are in place for clean supply.
Think about using expertise to automate no less than a part of the buying course of. For instance, Lightspeed’s buy orders can run studies to mechanically advocate objects that want restocking based mostly in your current gross sales traits.
That sort of information will aid you hold your cabinets optimized as Singles’ Day provides technique to the vacation buying expertise.
3. Arrange unique offers and reductions
To entice clients to buy, supply particular promotions solely out there on Singles’ Day.
Take into account bundle offers or buy-one-get-one (BOGO) provides. BOGO offers appeal to probably the most consideration, being clearer than proportion reductions for a lot of customers. With a tiered low cost—the extra you purchase, the extra you get—may aid you filter out inventory in time for the vacations and encourage customers to spend.
Give your most loyal clients particular promotions to reward them—and to entice them to take a look at what Singles’ Day is all about.
In Lightspeed, you possibly can arrange promotions for particular buyer teams, so you possibly can goal these loyal regulars simply.
4. Evaluate your customer support
With Singles’ Day falling so near the vacation gross sales season, you possibly can prepare for each occasions directly and save a bit time.
Along with explaining the aim of the vacation, your managers will need to make certain coaching brushes up on:
Working your level of sale: be sure to have a system that’s intuitive to make use of. Touring retailer Think about Exhibitions depends on Lightspeed to get staff skilled quick; “Lightspeed as a device could be very complete,” says Think about Exhibitions Vice President of Retail Operations, Michael Slagle. “It’s very clean, very simple. Cashiers usually choose it up in 5 minutes.”
Returns: whether or not you may have a particular vacation returns coverage or it’s the identical all yr round, be certain your gross sales associates understand it out and in. Do they want a receipt, or can they appear up purchases in your POS? Do they should see an ID? How lengthy is your returns window? How do they difficulty a refund by way of your cost processor?
Ecommerce: are your gross sales associates liable for checking and getting ready on-line orders? Be sure that they know what packaging to make use of, when packages are picked up and tips on how to shut on-line orders.
Curbside pickup and BOPIS procedures: do your gross sales associates know the place to place curbside orders? Or tips on how to let clients know their BOPIS order is prepared for pickup? Go over your procedures and any contingencies you may have for selecting up orders when the shop is busy.
Your stock: your gross sales associates could make higher gross sales in the event that they’re consultants in your stock. Have managers be certain staff are brushed up in your high sellers, and equip them with a level of sale that makes trying up stock info simple.
Your promotions: they’ll solely be on for in the future solely, they usually’ll seemingly be completely different from the promotions you’re placing on for the vacations, so be certain gross sales associates on shift for Singles’ Day know precisely what clients are eligible for.
5. Leverage social media and influencers
Singles’ Day is a buying occasion with the potential for lots of on-line buzz. Placing collectively ‘gram-worthy shows and unboxing experiences provides customers a purpose to be excited. To reap the benefits of that power, have interaction with fashionable influencers to advertise your services or products on supply.
Select an influencer with a following related to your small business and strike a deal to advertise the vacation—don’t neglect to present the influencer a customized low cost only for their viewers. Take into account prioritizing working with influencers native to your retailer places; you possibly can invite one for a TikTok or YouTube video about their Singles’ Day buying spree.
Don’t neglect to promote the vacation by yourself socials as nicely. Create participating content material that encourages shares, likes and feedback. Use vibrant, inspiring images that make the viewers need to spoil themselves and promote your gross sales to seal the deal.
6. Optimize your on-line retailer for cellular buying
Do you know that as much as 60% of all ecommerce gross sales occur on a cell phone? And that 80% of Singles’ Day gross sales in China in 2020 had been made on a cell phone? For the perfect likelihood of Singles’ Day success for your small business, guarantee your web site is mobile-friendly.
Meaning you’ll want a mobile-only structure with:
An simply understood navigation: hyperlinks and buttons must be sufficiently big to simply faucet.
Fast loading occasions: you solely have seconds earlier than potential customers will go some place else.
Top quality photographs: be certain your product imagery seems to be as prime quality in your cellular structure because it does in your desktop website.
To avoid wasting time, use an ecommerce platform with adaptive design capabilities—the place the cellular structure is mechanically utilized per machine, and also you solely must make minimal, if any, tweaks.
Checking on a cellular website structure with Lightspeed eCom’s on the spot website creator.
To encourage buying on the go, contemplate providing mobile-exclusive offers or promotions.
You may as well reap the benefits of showrooming tendencies—the place clients go take a look at a product in a bodily retailer with the intention of shopping for it on-line—by selling your mobile-friendly website in your bodily places. Submit QR codes close to fashionable merchandise that result in their web page in your website so showroomers could make their buy instantly.
7. Use information to trace traits and personalize your messaging
Use information analytics to know shopper behaviors. Drill down into gross sales traits by product, class and model; has something been on the rise these days, and what bestsellers do you have to showcase in your window show?
After Singles’ Day is over, take a look at your information—do you see any new gross sales traits it is best to capitalize on for the vacations?
To your regulars, go even additional. Provide personalised product suggestions or unique offers based mostly on previous purchases. Use a advertising and marketing platform built-in along with your POS to avoid wasting time and goal extra successfully.
8. Gamify the buying expertise
Gamification is the apply of including widespread parts of video games—scores, play, probably groups—to the buying expertise. Gamification can improve buyer acquisitions by 700%.
Introduce video games or interactive content material in your web site or app to have interaction clients. You may supply prizes, reductions or loyalty factors as rewards for recreation participation. Take into account having among the prizes redeemable after Singles’ Day to encourage customers to return for his or her vacation buying.
9. Spotlight limited-time provides
Singles’ Day is a brief vacation, occurring on in the future earlier than one other buying season begins. You should utilize this restricted time occasion to create a way of urgency with flash gross sales or limited-stock objects.
Use countdown timers or notify clients of low inventory to drive quicker buying selections. Promote subsequent day supply companies, both by way of free native supply or quick delivery (or each). Maintain flash gross sales solely out there for an hour or so, and promote them in your social media accounts.
10. Collaborate with different manufacturers for a Singles’ Day occasion
Get new customers excited for Singles’ Day by making it price their time. Associate with complementary manufacturers to supply unique package deal offers. If you happen to’re a jewellery retailer, you possibly can strike a take care of a well being and wonder retailer to promote self-care kits.
You may as well contemplate participating in joint advertising and marketing efforts for broader attain. Work with an area influencer to advertise your retailer and close by shops to make taking the journey to your location definitely worth the effort.
11. Have interaction clients post-purchase after Singles’ Day
Hopefully, Singles’ Day provides you an opportunity to have interaction with new clients or re-engage with lapsed regulars. Now that you just’ve crossed that barrier, it is advisable persuade them to return again for future gross sales, like the vacation season and even, probably, Valentine’s Day.
Provide post-purchase reductions or loyalty factors to encourage repeat enterprise. Arrange an e-mail (or SMS—SMS messages have excessive open charges) marketing campaign to run for a day, sending it to each buyer who shopped with you on Singles’ Day.
You’ll additionally need to capitalize on their optimistic sentiment instantly. Have gross sales associates ask for opinions or suggestions, and have interaction with clients on social media. Embrace a name to evaluation you of their order affirmation emails. Asking for opinions instantly helps reinforce their optimistic opinions, and is efficient in spreading the phrase about your small business. If it’s authorized in your space, contemplate rewarding clients for opinions.
Get your small business prepared for Singles’ Day 2023
Singles’ Day is rising in reputation within the west, and has the potential to be a big additional income driver for your small business.
It’s time to begin planning your Singles’ Day gross sales technique and advertising and marketing playbook. Adapting to altering buyer conduct—like operating a brand new sale, providing cellular buying and selling BOPIS—will aid you keep forward of the competitors for this thrilling new buying vacation.
You may solely sustain with altering buyer conduct if in case you have a robust level of sale system. Lightspeed was constructed with the way forward for retail in thoughts—watch a demo and see what we imply.
