HOW DID THE 9.9 AND 10.10 SALES PERFORM IN 2018?

JUST about a month ago, many brands and retailers across the globe finished the biggest sales event of the year – the 11.11 sales. This sales phenomenon is fast approaching, and the current landscape is cluttered with advertised markdowns and enticing promotions. This has helped many brands and retailers to ride on the same trend which is using the same date and month to entice more sales. For instance, the 9.9 and 10.10 sales. 

The success of Alibaba, the brand that started it all, naturally led other regions to try and recreate the same success. In SEA, the 9.9 and 10.10 sales are widely adopted by big names in the industry. The approach is similar to 11.11, whereby brands and retailers would give huge discounts on September 9th and October 10th respectively. Ahead of the 12.12 sale, let’s see how these brands performed.

The 9.9 Breakdown

The infographic above shows the online traffic of Shopee, Lazada and Zalora across Malaysia and Singapore. During the 9.9 sales, Zalora has increase total 28.08% of visitors and it’s the highest among the three brands. In Singapore, Shopee has the highest number which is 15.34%. 

   

Sellouts & Assortment

As shown in the image above, Lazada sellout rate is the highest among the three e-commerce companies during the sales.  While it would appear that Lazada triumphed with its record-high sellout rates for its categories, the numbers suggest a different perspective. 

For instance, a high sellout rate usually reflects high demand but could also indicate potential missed opportunities in sales. Furthermore, both sellouts and replenishments are equally important to the equation, as it supplies consumer demand.

Because Shopee’s core assortments are largely focused towards electronics, home appliances, and beauty products, the level of SKUs for fashion were lower, thus has a better chance of achieving sellout. 

So, you can notice that Shopee had a higher sellout range than Zalora. The latter’s lower percentage could be attributed to a shorter time period of sales – Shopee’s 9.9 sales lasted for 14 days, while Zalora’s duration was a week shorter – or the decrease in online traffic.

   

All three retailers had a similar bestselling assortment, albeit with a few key differences. For instance, tops were only present in Shopee and Lazada’s bestselling assortment, while Lazada sold more accessories like watches and sunglasses.

  

Pricing & Discount

Both Lazada and Zalora had the same sellout price range of SGD 25-50 (~MYR 75-150), while Shopee’s was a tier lower at SDG 0-25(~MYR 0-75). Shopee had the lowest average price, which is SDG 11.6 (~MYR 34.8), while Lazada had the highest which is SGD 187.9 (~MYR 563.7). 

The contributing categories were tops for Shopee, watches and timepieces for Lazada. For discounts, all three retailers had different most discounted categories, but with the same depth of discount. All three had the same common depth of discount range and bestselling discount range.

A similar outcome for 10.10

10.10, occurring a month after 9.9, follows the same format as its predecessor. The three marketplaces above participated in the sale as well – with similar results. In comparison with 9.9’s sale, the time frame was much shorter for this year’s 10.10 sales. 

All three retailers reduced the sales period considerably, which affected the sellout rate. Lazada, for example, only released a sale that lasted from 10 am to 10 pm on October 10th.

Pricing, discounting and assortment strategies also had minimal differences, which was expected, considering that the two sales were only a month apart.