Alibaba’s Singles Day success was about creating a perception, according to Rupam Borthakur, managing director at Millward Brown Hong Kong and Taiwan, adding that the company was able to offer a strong value proposition of the ultimate deal for a very short period of time.
"They were able to create the sense of 'you have to buy now' and the real-time updating of sales created an even stronger perception of 'I shouldn’t miss out,'" Rupam comments.
This year, domestic Chinese shoppers were also invited to browse products online or visit participating retail stores prior to the event, using their smartphones to scan QR codes and add discounted items to Tmall or Taobao’s virtual shopping carts. Once they had done this, consumers were then able to click a "buy" button to trigger purchases of the merchandise in the carts once the sale began.

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