Asia Pacific

Imagine a world where 40% of your consumer goods sales occur on one day every month. Well, that is exactly what is happening throughout Asian markets with e-commerce sales. Double Days are causing mass surge sales and redefining the retail landscape across Asia. The success of online promotional programs such as Black Friday and Double 11 has paved the way for Double Days every month. 

The major drivers of these changing purchasing behaviors are evident. When we surveyed Asian consumers on the top factors influencing their online purchases, pricing and promotions came out on top. In addition, we can see that availability, ratings, and delivery are also top of mind, challenging retailers and manufacturers across this ever-growing important channel to meet these consumer demands. With increasing inflationary pressures across countries, consumers are going to double down on their desire to find cheaper prices and promotions, which could mean the importance of Double Days will only grow.  

In 2021, we saw a +956% uplift in sales for facial cleansers on Double 11 in Singapore compared to the previous 3 weeks’ sales, while health supplements/ vitamins saw +494% uplift in sales in Thailand on 10.10. You can see how massive the influence of these Double Days is on sales, and we see this pattern across categories.

China

Singles Day, or Double 11, holds the title of the largest online and brick-and-mortar shopping day in China. Launched in 2009 by Alibaba, China’s top online retailer, the event offers online discounts and offline entertainment.  

In 2023, NielsenIQ ran a survey among Chinese consumers to find out what to expect from this year Double 11. Survey stated that a high majority of consumers in China is willing to participate in the upcoming Double 11 sale: willingness to participate is more pronounced in the 25-34 years old age group​​. The main driver for consumers shopping on Singles Day is “finding great deals” that also compels stocking up of non-perishables​.  

While there are initial signs of recovery, the skepticism still continues. A little more than a third (38%) of surveyed consumers are concerned about the inflation, while a 86% say that their spending would be curtailed to some extent. ​At the same time, more than 60% are likely to spend more than 1K in the upcoming sale. However, almost 2/5th are likely to spend lesser than last year.

Most Chinese shoppers are looking to buy cost effective products, followed by specific imported and famous brands​. In terms of categories, most shoppers plan to purchase FMCG categories (home care and PC). Apart from FMCG, other non FMCG categories like Apparel and Tech/ Electronics are also likely to gain from this sale​. As for prefered platforms, Chinese consumers are choosing ‘Redbook’, followed by Tmall and Tiktok​ for recommendations. For live streaming rooms for purchase, reliability seems to be a key: brand flagship store and top influencers are the main ones to choose for this purpose.

Mid-autumn Festival & National day Holiday in China

The beginning of October witnessed the first Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday after the post-pandamic worry of “re-infection” dissipated. Although consumers’ “revenge consumption” has begun to return to rationality, the vitality of the consumer market during the Golden Week has not diminished. Under the dual-holiday effect, the consumer market has warmed-up.

Download the free infographic on how these holidays went this year or get in touch with our expect for more insights.

Europe

Fall is a peak season for global online shopping events in Europe which are drawing lots of attention in the current inflationary environment.

Interestingly, despite inflationary concerns, last year Amazon organized a second edition of their Prime Day during the same year—for the very first time. Prime Day in 2022 took place July 12-13 in more than 20 countries—with “Early Access Prime Day” taking place on October 11-12 in 15 markets (exclusive to its Prime members).  

In Western Europe, data from Foxintelligence confirms that the exclusive flash sales of October 2022 did not exceed July’s Prime Day. Across the five major European markets (UK, DE, FR, IT, ES), Amazon gained indeed an average of six points in market shares*. While this is one of the best performances of Amazon this year, this remains lower than the Prime Day held in July 2022 (+14 points). 

This year Prime Days continued to generate enormous uplift in sales with Italy leading the way. Online value sales at 12:00 vs last 7 days for Italy showed +393% growth, followed by Germany (+330%) and Spain (+315%).

In its report based on the online purchases of more than 1M panelists in Europe, Foxintellingence has also spotted the main products purchased during those two days.

Wonder what the results of October Prime day are?

Download the infographic now and supercharge your online sales.

Coming next: Double 11, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday 

Other major shopping events are coming soon, including Double 11, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday in November. According to NielsenIQ Foxintelligence, European countries including France, Germany, Spain, and the United Kingdom all saw a peak in online sales during Black Friday in 2022. Interested, how it will go this year? Join the webinar!  

Latin America

The biggest online event for most of countries in LatAm is Black Friday. According to NielsenIQ Ebit, Brazilian shoppers concentrated more than half of their purchases (57%) in online stores during Black Friday 2022, versus 22% in the offline market.  

The online consumption intention for 2023’s Black Friday is stable (79%) in Brazil, aligned with the previous year. And the pre-Black Friday actions gain relevance, showing an increase of +4.p.p previous year.

Durable goods categories, such as Electronics, Home Appliances and Computers, stand out in Brazilian online shoppers’ purchase intention for 2023’s BF. Possibly a reflection of the promotional actions around those higher-priced products during the shopping event.   

Price and Free Shipping tend to continue to be the main levers for the completion of online orders during Black Friday 2023.

Middle East and Africa

E-commerce is a rising star in the Middle East. For example, E-commerce’s accelerated growth in recent years in Türkiye is maintained in 2022. When we look at the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabian markets, which are still developing in terms of E-commerce, we see a very strong growth performance compared to offline. These 3 markets stand out globally. For those countries, the food categories stand out among the largest growing groups in E-commerce, meaning shoppers are gaining more omnichannel habits. 

Even though online events are not as big in Middle East Africa region as in other advanced markets, we can still see a big impact of these holiday events. According to the results of the NielsenIQ Türkiye E-Commerce Panel, E-commerce sales in Türkiye accelerated, especially during the seasonal and retail holidays of Valentine’s Day, Back-to-School, 11.11, and Black Friday. Correctly understanding these occasions is critical for retailers and manufacturers. 

Interestingly, each period has different category dynamics with the top 5 best-selling categories in 11.11, where the most substantial seasonality was experienced, were decorative cosmetics, Turkish coffee, hand dishwashing detergents, skin care products, and fabric detergents. 

North America

In 2022, we saw an instore sales comeback during pivotal seasonal moments while e-commerce growth stabilized in many markets. But this year, we could be headed for a resurgence in online shopping for holiday meals and celebrations. Flat or declining instore assortments and increased demand for deal shopping could reinvigorate online sales this season.

Here’s a breakdown of what holiday staples US consumers are buying across channels: 

2023 Deal Days  

Deal Days have emerged as significant shopping events for CPG products. Recent data reveals that Prime events from major online retailers can rival, and in some cases, surpass, the sales CPG figures seen during the Black Friday week. 

Most consumers are approaching Deal Days and the whole holiday season with savings in mind — 85% of US consumers surveyed are looking to spend less or the same amount as last year during Deal Days. With an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, consumers are highly motivated to cut costs and take advantage of deals — 23% of US consumers surveyed stated that they depend on deal days and sales because they are unable to pay full price for products.   

Here are interesting facts about 2023 holiday season spending:  

• The majority (73%) of Prime Big Deal Day shoppers surveyed spent under $200; with a most (70%) purchasing 6 items or less. 
• 55% of shoppers surveyed noted that they were repeat shoppers from July’s Prime event with 40% of consumers surveyed reporting that they spent less than they did in July. 
• 80% of consumers who shopped this week’s Prime Big Deal Day event noted that they have completed up to 25% of their holiday shopping 
• Consumers shopped this week’s Prime Big Deal Day to deal seek (close to 40%). While this is the unofficial kickoff to the holiday spending season, this fall event was equally seen as a time to stock up on everyday essentials AND to holiday shop (both 31%). 
• A majority (69%) of consumers surveyed still plan on shopping Black Friday.