What’s the Biggest Global Shopping Day?

Posted on November 14, 2016 by bermanevansretail
Last year, we wrote about the phenomenally successful 2015 online Chinese Singles’ Day, an annual event scheduled for November 11 that dwarfs Cyber Monday, which occurs on the first Monday after Thanksgiving each year. As reported by The Street: “Singles’ Day is the biggest retail event in the year, beating Cyber Monday and Black Friday.”
What is Single’s Day? As recently described by Lauren Davidson, Emily Allen, and  Ashley Armstrong for the Telegraph:
“Singles Day started as an obscure ‘anti-Valentine’s’ celebration for single people in China back in the 1990s, but it has spawned into the world’s biggest online shopping day. Astute readers will notice that November 11 is written 11.11, or one-one-one-one. Known in China as ‘bare sticks holiday’ because of how it looks numerically, Singles Day began as an anti-Valentine’s Day in the 1990s when students at Nanjing University started celebrating their singledom. It was then adopted by E-commerce giant Alibaba (China’s Amazon equivalent) in 2009; and it is now a day when everyone, regardless of their single status buys themselves gifts.”
“Alibaba chiefs spotted the commercial opportunity in Singles Day back in 2009 and began launching ‘Double 11’ deals just as online shopping was starting to explode. It was also seen as a chance to boost sales in the lull between China’s Golden Week national holiday in October and the Christmas season. When sales almost quadrupled the following year, Alibaba trademarked Singles’ Day. Some of the featured sales center around singledom, such as boyfriend pillows and single travel tickets, but the day has now widened to an all-inclusive shopping holiday.”
Angela Doland, writing for Advertising Age about the 2016 Singles’ Day, notes that:
“Alibaba’s annual online shopping festival started with just 27 merchants taking part. It has grown into the world’s biggest shopping day, and has just smashed its own record, with sellers on its platforms logging nearly $17.8 billion in transactions in 24 hours. Over 11,000 foreign brands joined in [from more than 25 countries], including first-timers Apple, Sephora, Target, Victoria’s Secret, and Maserati.”
“The Chinese Internet giant has created a whole entertainment offering around its shopfest, including a 4-hour live-streamed variety show that drew stars like Scarlett Johansson, Kobe Bryant, and David and Victoria Beckham. That’s a surprising departure from its small-scale start in 2009, when Alibaba latched on to the fact that some Chinese college students were celebrating Nov. 11 as a day for singles, an anti-Valentine’s day. Other E-commerce firms have joined in, including Alibaba’s chief rival JD.com, and much of China shops on Nov. 11. It’s not just for singles anymore.”
How well did the 2016 Single’s Day just do? It has crushed last year’s revenues — going from $14.3 billion in 2015 to $17.8 billion in 2016. Here are a sales curve (reported by BBC News) since online giant Alibaba first embraced Single’s Day in 2009 and a 2016 video from CCTV News.

 
singles-day_-alibaba-breaks-record-sales-total-bbc-news
 

 

Posted in Global Retailing, Online Retailing, Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 2: Ownership, Strategy Mix, Online, Nontraditional, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Video Clips (non-career) | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

2016 Holiday Shopping Tips for Smart Consumers

Posted on November 9, 2016 by bermanevansretail

Every year, BE Retail offers a list of holiday shopping tips intended to help shoppers avoid overspending their budgets. Since the holiday season starts earlier and earlier each year, this post keeps getting moved up. In 2012, when the holiday shopping tips were first presented, they are were published on December 10. This year, the post is on November 9. Why? Many retailers have launched their holiday shopping campaigns. Virtually no large retailer is actually waiting for Thanksgiving or Black Friday to begin their marketing campaigns.

So, here are the 2016 shopping tips as a checklist [Click the list to see a larger version.]:
 
2016-shopping-tips
 

Posted in Part 1: Overview/Planning, Part 3: Targeting Customers and Gathering Information, Part 6: Merchandise Management and Pricing, Part 7: Communicating with the Customer, Social Media and Retailing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

GREAT Tools to Assist You in a Job Search

Posted on November 7, 2016 by bermanevansretail
Two weeks ago, the following information was posted. If you are in a job search, these tools are VERY useful for you. In case you missed it, we are publishing the post again.
_________________________________________________________________
When searching for a job, are you effective? There are many excellent digital tools that can assist you in undertaking a better job search.
As Maria Onzain writes for Tech.co: “Do you feel your job hunt efforts are inefficient? Do you want to jump-start your career but not sure how to do it? Using the right technology will help you build up a winning resume faster. Each of these digital tools will help you in the different phases of your job hunt.”
  • With Uptowork, “choose one of 20 templates in 400 colors and let this resume generator guide you. Once you have filled out all the sections, you will be able to edit and personalize it before getting a URL to share. From the dashboard, you can to track your resume’s performance and check how many times it has been seen and downloaded by recruiters.”
  • Use Grammarly to “make make sure your resume and cover letter are error-free. Copy and paste your resume in this platform, and you will instantly see if you have made any grammar mistakes.”
  • Through Jobscan, you can “check if your resume is tailored to the job description. Jobscan optimizes your resume keywords against the job description. All you need to do is paste your resume and the job description, and it will scan it for you.”
  • With GlassDoor, you can “get to know companies inside out. You can search for hundreds of companies all over the world and find precious information including, but not limited to, first-hand employees reviews, salary expectations, and details about the enterprise’s specific recruiting process.”
  • JobHero can “help you manage the whole job searching process. With the smart browser extension, you can save job opportunities from across the Web and you can access a personal dashboard to track the application process.”
Click the image to read more.

 

Posted in Career Useful Information, Careers in Retailing, Part 5: Managing a Retail Business | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment