This is how shopping festivals are transforming eCommerce in Southeast Asia

Since Alibaba's initial Singles' Day in 2009, the festival has evolved into a weeks-long retail bonanza across many platforms. It is becoming a must-see event for marketers to obtain a peek of retail tech breakthroughs and shopping trends. It is also known as Double 11 or 11.11. Its meteoric success has prompted local competitors like as JD.com and ByteDance-owned Douyin to start their own shopping events.

These festivals are becoming more popular outside of China. In Southeast Asia, Lazada and Shopee, both funded by Alibaba and Tencent, hold monthly sales festivals on the same dates, such as Shopee's 9.9 Super Shopping Day on September 9. Discounts of up to 90% are possible during events, as well as additional bonuses such as free delivery and product gifts. The year-end sales festivals are set to take place on October 10 (10.10), November 11 (the original Singles' Day), and December 12. (12.12).

Here's one way these events are affecting Southeast Asia's ecommerce.

Ecommerce adoption is being pushed. These events are assisting in the development of first-time digital purchasers, particularly as COVID-19 restrictions restrict in-person buying and as young people grow up with sales festivals as a part of everyday life.

According to an April 2021 GlobalWebIndex poll commissioned by Facebook and Bain & Company, 86 percent of internet users in Southeast Asia aged 16 and older claimed they have purchased things online during a double-digit shopping festival, such as 6.6 or 7.7. 43 percent of these respondents were first-time digital shoppers. Thailand and Vietnam had the highest percentages of new digital buyers in the poll, followed by the rest of Southeast Asia.

In a separate research, Facebook and Bain & Company anticipated that the number of digital purchasers in Southeast Asia aged 15 and above (defined as those having purchased a product online in the previous 12 months) will reach 317 million in 2020, an increase of 37 million from the previous year.