Singapore e-commerce players report strong Singles’ Day sales

MAJOR e-commerce players in Singapore reported robust Singles’ Day sales this year, but most declined to say if performance had improved from 2023.

The annual online shopping event, marked by discounts, originated in China but has spread across Asia. Originally a one-day event on Nov 11, it may now span several days, depending on the retail platform.

Shopee Singapore had “great success” this Singles’ Day, said director Chua Kel Jin, though he declined to disclose overall sales volumes or year-on-year comparisons. Within the first 11 minutes, Shopee Singapore sold more than 100,000 items. In the first two hours of the sale, visits were also up six times from an average day across South-east Asia and Taiwan, with more than 136 million vouchers claimed. In Singapore, orders placed on Shopee Live – Shopee’s livestream platform – were 20 times that of an average day.

Lazada Singapore similarly declined to reveal sales volumes or year-on-year comparisons, but reported “double-digit growth” in orders and buyers from its Sep 9 campaign.

Lazada’s supermarket arm RedMart, however, did achieve higher grocery sales this Singles’ Day than in 2023. More customers also signed up for membership programme RedMart+ – launched this March – compared to Sep 9.

Amid dampened consumer demand, deals platform Fave chose not to hold a Singles’ Day campaign this year.

The platform is moving away from one-day flash sales towards “ongoing value-based incentives”, said general manager Varun Varma. “In general, we are noticing a bit of a pullback in discretionary spend,” he added. “Buyers in Singapore are a bit more intentional with their purchases, focusing on essentials and high-utility purchases rather than luxury or non-essential buys.” The platform has therefore moved “to emphasise savings on practical purchases, daily necessities and pampering treats at affordable prices”.

Instead of a Nov 11 campaign, Fave rolled out Rewards Rush, releasing offers thrice a day throughout November.

Healthy growth

In China, e-commerce giants were similarly coy about actual sales.

Alibaba Group said that the number of customer loyalty programme members placing orders during this year’s Singles’ Day season grew by more than 50 per cent.

Rival JD.com noted that shopper numbers rose more than 20 per cent year on year. But neither disclosed sales figures.

In a Reuters report, data provider Syntun estimated that gross merchandise value for China’s e-commerce platforms was 1.4 trillion yuan (S$260 billion) this Singles’ Day season. This was 26.6 per cent higher than the 2023 season – but the length of the season had also risen by about a third.

The 2024 season spanned 29 days, up from 19 in 2023.

Simon Torring, co-founder of e-commerce research firm Cube Asia, said that most merchants he spoke to had met their Nov 11 sales targets across Singapore and other South-east Asian markets.

While the event used to form a large share of November’s and the quarter’s total sales for retail brands, it has since become “less exciting” with more sales campaigns on the calendar, including more “double-day” campaigns such as Sep 9 and Oct 10, he explained.

The event also used to be “highly unpredictable” because merchants “never quite knew” what offers their competitors would push out during the campaign, he added. “But that is mostly history now because everyone has become so used to the planning cycle, and category managers from e-commerce platforms will indicate to brands if their offers are not as attractive as those fronted by their competitors.”

Going elsewhere

While the retail trend for Singles’ Day is unclear, spending did rise for travel-related goods and services. The overall gross merchandise value (GMV) for travel portal Trip.com Singapore nearly trebled on its first day of its Nov 11 sales season, compared to the same day in 2023. This was led by bookings for flights and attractions, with the GMV of both categories more than trebling.

GMV for hotel bookings more than doubled.

In particular, flight bookings more than trebled year on year for China and more than doubled for Japan and Australia, which have become “even more popular destinations”, said general manager Edmund Ong.

Similarly, rewards platform ShopBack Singapore’s user traffic to its travel category rose 25 per cent year on year for the Singles’ Day season.

Of all categories, travel distributed the largest volume of cashback during this year’s campaign, growing 40 per cent year on year, said general manager Fern Nannaphat.

The category includes partners such as online travel agencies and travel-related merchants.

She noted that travel spending was driven by “strong demand” for bookings during the year-end holiday season and the Chinese New Year season next January.

The growth in travel cashback came even though overall cashback distributed to ShopBack Singapore users – for the Nov 1 to 11 campaign – remained similar to 2023 at around S$2 million.

Consumers have become “increasingly intentional about maximising value” this year compared to 2023, added Nannaphat.

For instance, users have been linking credit cards to their ShopBack accounts to earn additional cashback and stack credit card rewards, and purchasing discounted vouchers to earn cashback and offset purchases.