Important Upcoming Trends for 2020 Double 11 For Brands To Know

Double 11 is just right around the corner. The ChoZan team is excited to share some exciting updates of 2020 Double 11. Some trends have been present in the market for sometime while some are new and will be important in the future years to come.

What’s different for Double 11 in 2020?

1. Double 11 is a season, not just a date

Previous posters would show “Tmall Double 11 Global Shopping Festival” (天猫双11全球狂欢节), this year, it becomes “Tmall Double 11 Global Shopping Season” (天猫双11全球狂欢季). Double 11 is no longer just a one-day event, but will become a larger-scale, extended shopping festival. One biggest change for Double 11 this year is to separate the sales period in half, with 1st – 3rd Nov as the first wave and 11th Nov as the second wave. Consumers do not need to fight to make purchases in just one day. This year’s Double 11 is 3 days more than before, meaning consumers can pay for their products on 1 Nov and receive their products 10 days earlier.

2. 2020 is the year to cheer consumers on and show gratitude

Double 11 posters of Lay's and Apple
Screenshot of Double 11 posters of Lay’s and Apple incorporating their design elements into the iconic Tmall logo

The slogan for last year’s Tmall campaign was “Fulfill your wish 1 by 1” (愿望11实现) while the slogan this year is “Standing by you as you live your life to the fullest” (1起挺你 尽情生活). 2020 has been a hard year for everyone. This year’s Double 11 is special as it is the first that follows the pandemic and the rebound. Tmall is joining forces with brands to promote big discounts during Double 11 as well as to cheer consumers on after difficult times. The theme for this year is for brands to show gratitude for consumers’ support and encouraging people to live their best lives.

Important present and upcoming trends for Double 11

1. Live streaming is still killing it

This year, Taobao live streaming is set up to be the major arena for Double 11. In the first pre-sales campaign on 21 October, a total of 66.7 thousand bloggers live-streamed on Taobao and attracted 709 million viewers. The best-performing bloggers are returning champions Austin Li and Viya. Both of them started live streaming at around 6pm on 20 October until 2am the next day. During the 7-hour live streaming session, Austin Li introduced 126 products while Viya introduced 149 products. As of 2am on 21 October, Austin Li and Viya had 160 million and 140 million accumulated views respectively. Austin Li had a GMV of 3.32 billion RMB while Viya had a GMV of 3.22 billion RMB.

2. Gamification fights shopping fatigue

Users can participate in interactive games such as pet-raising or skyscraper building to receive red packets. The skyscraper building campaign in 2019 asked visitors to form teams to build up their skyscrapers to compete for a chance to share the 2 billion RMB red packet. There were different missions throughout the skyscraper building process, such as visiting different pages and staying on the page for over 30 seconds. Visitors can rank higher and build more levels to their building upon the accomplishment of different missions. Higher-ranking teams can build taller buildings and win a larger share of the 2 billion red packet.

Pet-raising games during Double 11
Screenshot of pet-raising games on Tmall

The pet-raising game is also very similar in that users are required to complete different missions to “feed” and “upgrade” the in-game kitten to receive more coupons and vouchers to be used during the Double 11 campaign.

3. Tmall HeyDrop (天猫小黑盒) will be the talk of the town

Tmall HeyDrop is an important online channel for showcasing and offering new products, and has achieved great success since its launch. It accumulated a group of high-quality users who are open-minded and eager to try out new products. With lots of young people eager to try out the new products, Tmall HeyDrop lotteries soon became one of their top preferences.

One previous example was the Porsche 911 Edition. It was available on Tmall HeyDrop on 15 October for limited pre-sales with a special price of RMB 91,100. As of 19 October, this special offer attracted nearly 37,400 sports car enthusiasts to enter the lottery that will determine whether they are one of the lucky few able to purchase this limited edition collection.

Tmall HeyDrop lottery during Double 11
Screenshot of the limited edition “Taetea Pu Erh Tea” on Tmall HeyDrop
Product offerings for Tmall HeyDrop
Screenshot of the range of product offerings on Tmall HeyDrop

This Double 11, Weibo and Tmall joined forces to promote the relatively-new product “Taetea Pu Erh Tea” (大益茶沧海普洱生茶). The limited offering of 3500 pieces at a price of RMB 23,800 attracted a record-breaking 1.4 million people to join the lottery in just a few days. Tmall is also emphasising the concept of “everything can be on the lottery” (“万物皆可抽”). Current product offerings include celebrity-endorsed gift boxes of makeup or skincare, cartoon figures, teas, wines, e-sports equipment, and even motorcycles.

The e-commerce marketplace is increasingly competitive and it’s never more important to cut through the noise and stand out from competition than now. China has one of the most active and fast-advancing e-commerce ecosystems in the world. We are excited to see how these trends would evolve and what the future holds for businesses in e-commerce. You are more than welcome to get in touch with our ChoZan team to discuss your business strategies on Chinese e-commerce platforms such as Tmall, JD, etc. Contact us as we would love to hear from you!


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