From condo to airline tickets, discounts galore as firms jump on Singles Day bandwagon

SINGAPORE — Ms Nur Rahmah waited two months for Singles’ Day to arrive before she finally stocked up on the pampers and wet wipes that she needed for her infant son.

Altogether the 27-year-old school counsellor spent about S$130 shopping for these items on e-commerce platforms Qoo10 and Shopee, which is half of what she would be paying without the discounts offered on the occasion of this online sales extravaganza, which falls on Nov 11 (Monday) every year.

“I think all the mummies do that. We have a group chat to share the best deals. Usually parents will use this time to bulk buy and load up for the next few months,” said Ms Rahmah.

Singles Day, with its origins in China, has arguably grown to be the biggest online shopping sales event in Singapore, based on online retail traffic and online retail sales, said Ms Pauline Lemaire, director of account strategy for South-east Asia at Criteo, an Internet advertising company.

On Singles’ Day last year, overall online retail sales jumped 368 per cent compared with an average day the week before, she added. The figures for 2019 sales are not yet available.

Singles’ Day may have started out a decade ago as a mega sales event for singles to shop on e-commerce website Taobao. But this event, started by China tech giant Alibaba, has gone well beyond that.

The name Singles’ Day is a play on the date, 11/11, or double 11 as the date is also known.

Ms Michelle Koh, who is 37 weeks’ pregnant, has used this opportunity to purchase products for her soon-to-be born son, spending over S$500 on infant products through online shopping platform Lazada.

The 32-year-old marketing executive started placing items in her online cart one month ago, before checking them out on Monday.

From property developers to airlines, companies in Singapore are also having their own Singles’ Day promotions, with some lengthening their discount period to beyond Nov 11 itself.

Retail experts observe that a greater number of merchants, even brick-and-mortar ones, are participating in the bonanza.

Companies that are not in the retail sector are also jumping onto the Singles’ Day bandwagon.

For example, budget airline Jetstar is offering 111,111 seats on discount on Monday.

Property developer Qingjian Realty is offering selected units at JadeScape, a condominium project located at Thomson, with “special prices for a limited period in conjunction with Singles’ Day”.

Singapore Polytechnic marketing lecturer Lucas Tok said that there has been enough data from previous Singles’ Day events to show that there are “enough consumers jumping on” to this sales campaign which gives more corporations the motivation to participate in it as well.

Given the increasing popularity of Singles’ Day among Singaporean consumers, it is associated with better value and more variety than compared with the Great Singapore Sale, said Professor Thompson Teo of the National University of Singapore’s Business School.

Some retail experts predict that in the future, smaller retailers may prefer to focus their promotional efforts more on Singles’ Day than on the Great Singapore Sale.

Given the hype around Singles’ Day, smaller retailers, with limited resources and budgets for marketing, do not need to promote the event itself, but merely need to announce the fact that they are participating in the campaign, said Mr Tok.

The Great Singapore Sale has seen a drop in its marketability over the years, he added.

Retail lecturer Michael Chiam from Ngee Ann Polytechnic said that retailers with limited resources and budgets would have to selectively pick sales events that would give them the most returns.

Although which event they choose would depend on the target audience of the products they are trying to promote, he said that Singles Day does tend to generate "better returns" for retailers serving the mass market.