Which holiday reportedly generated $38 billion on Alibaba in 2019? Hint – it’s not Cyber Monday, Black Friday or even Christmas, but a hugely popular holiday in China called Singles Day. Started in 1993 by Chinese university students hosting parties celebrating single life on November 11, it wasn’t until Alibaba seized on the holiday’s potential in 2009 by launching a discount-filled mega shopping bonanza, that Singles Day transformed into the world’s most profitable online shopping event of the year.
Last year Singles Day in China more than doubled Black Friday and Cyber Monday’s combined sales in the US, which generated $7.4 billion and $9.4 billion respectively. Global retail brands have caught on to the massive opportunity this holiday presents in the past couple of years, and have started offering their own exclusive deals and discounts on 11:11. In Europe, many big-name retailers already run Singles Day advertising campaigns, with the U.K. showing a 13% increase in sales last year.
Are Singles Mingling with eCommerce Promotions Outside of China?
For insights into the efficacy of these annual promotions outside of China, we peered into our customer session data and compared daily traffic and online sales on Singles Day 2019 for industries in North America and Europe versus the average of the previous four Mondays leading up to the holiday. Not surprisingly, the numbers showed that a few industries saw major increases in traffic and conversions on 11:11. In North America, eCommerce retailers in the gifts and hobbies, and health and beauty categories saw especially significant spikes in online conversions on Singles Day, at 89.44% and 80.36% respectively. Online apparel and homeware stores both in North America and Europe also experienced notable jumps in traffic and conversions on this day.
These recent sales figures show that online brands outside of China have already started devoting efforts to cash in on the Singles Day opportunity – and we expect this trend to increase further each year. As competition grows on high traffic holidays like Singles Day, eCommerce retailers will need to work especially hard to optimize the customers’ journey in order to win their business — but they aren’t the only ones looking to convert online shoppers during the big spending event.
Traffic Hijackers Look to Crash the Singles Day Party
While brands and online retailers invest resources into building targeted sales promotion strategies to attract and convert shoppers, traffic hijackers place ad injections directly into consumer visitor sessions in order to siphon off traffic to competing promotions, thereby diverting online shoppers to rival brands and sites. The widespread problem of Customer Journey Hijacking cuts into conversion rates and revenue for enterprises year-round, affecting on average 20% of all site visitors. With such a high percentage of visitors impacted by ad injections, these disruptions are especially costly during peak eCommerce holidays like Singles Day that yield big increases in online traffic.
Unauthorized ad injections are bundled with free desktop software, browser extensions, and apps downloaded by consumers, thereby boosting traffic hijackers’ ad revenue and conversions. In general, hijacked visitors are more engaged online and more likely to unwittingly download free software embedded with ad injections, making them a lucrative target for traffic hijackers.
Blocking Customer Journey Disruptions Leads to Soaring Conversion Rates
What happens to conversion rates when you eliminate these customer journey disruptions?
Our consumer session data shows that once ad injections are blocked, online shoppers who had been impacted by Customer Journey Hijacking convert at a much higher rate than the rest of site visitors.
As with our data for other busy online shopping events, Singles Day conversion rates for recovered visitors (site visitors previously impacted by ad injections blocked by Namogoo) were dramatically higher in several industries in North America and Europe than for unaffected visitors (visitors not exposed by ad injections).
Don’t Compete with Injected Ads for Your Own Customers this Singles Day
There’s nothing more damaging to your KPIs than competitor ads appearing right on your website. Ad injections target similar products and offer cheaper prices. A recent survey we conducted on consumer behavior during Covid-19 showed that 51% of shoppers are highly price-sensitive, and 53% of consumers are likely to click on injected ads.
As you gear up for major shopping events like Singles Day this year, you want to ensure that your investment in an optimized customer journey pays off without disruptions and avoid losing revenue.
Ready to stop Customer Journey Hijacking from disrupting your customers before Singles Day? Prevent Customer Journey Hijacking and immediately lift your conversion rate.
