Singles Day, really Singles Nearly Fortnight (to borrow a British term) running from Nov. 1-11, was hit by headwinds from an anemic economy, the pandemic, Chinese crackdowns and supply issues, increasing 8.5% to $84.54 billion for originator Alibaba, the lowest jump since its inception in 2009.
Driven by a pandemic-fueled lack of travel and more disposable income, the China luxury goods market grew 48% in 2020, doubling the country’s overall share, according to Bain & Company. The upward trend is expected to give China a leading share of 45% of the global luxury market by 2025, outpacing Europe and North America.
We’re at a tipping point where automation is about to be a mainstream focus of ecommerce fulfillment centers. But while automation may be a sensible investment for bigger players like Amazon, that doesn’t mean it will scale effectively to smaller operations. So, are fully automated facilities really the future, and if so, what will it look like?
With the meteoric rise in ecommerce, consumer scrutiny on ecommerce sites is at an all-time high. Before, the only job of an ecommerce merchandiser was to show consumers what they came for and inspire them to buy. Now, that role is incrementally more complex. Here are a few suggestions to keep in mind for this holiday season.
Boding well for the holiday spend here, the U.S. was the top seller of goods during Alibaba’s Singles Day 2020, which raked in $116 billion combined on Alibaba and JD.com. Alibaba itself reported $75.28 billion yuan in GMV, while JD.com said its Singles Day GMV was $40.72 billion. Sales from U.S. retailers topped $5 billion.
Amazon is taking a serious run at counterfeit sellers on its marketplace, with the creation of a Counterfeit Crimes Unit that includes former federal prosecutors, investigators and data analysts. The company said it has limited counterfeit complaints to 0.1% of items listed, but legislators and media investigations have still taken it to task.
With Amazon largely credited for the 115% spike in third quarter 2019 ecommerce ad spend, it’s no surprise that Feedvisor’s annual brand report shows 75% of brands selling on Amazon also advertise there. Feedvisor found 83% of brands advertising on Amazon saw a 4x return on ad spend, with half seeing 7x.
The U.S. Trade Representative’s office is considering adding Amazon sites in the UK, Canada, Germany, India and France to the Notorious Markets list due to alleged growth in sale of counterfeit goods, based on a request from an apparel trade group, according to WSJ. Chinese marketplaces Taobao and Pinduoduo are on the 2019 list.
Alibaba set another Singles Day record this year on 11/11/19, recording $38.4 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV) during the 24-hour promotion created as a reverse spin on Valentine’s Day 10 years ago, up 25% from last year. By comparison, Adobe is forecasting $29 billion in total ecommerce sales for Cyber Weekend 2019.
Amazon and Walmart will continue to slug it out atop the world of global e-grocery food sales, with the ecommerce giant projected to pass the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer by 2024 with revenues of $15 billion, compared to $14 billion, according to a new report from research firm Edge by Ascential. The projected CAGR through 2024 is 13%.