After Double11—China’s multi-billion online shopping event—comes another Alibaba shopping extravaganza: the Double 12 festival. Like Double 11 (Singles’ Day) Double12 offers massive discounts to customers but focuses on lesser-known brands, smaller businesses, and offline stores. Here’s what you need to know about China’s second busiest e-commerce and retail day of the year:
- Like its name suggests, Double 12 takes place on December 12, one month after Single’s Day and marks the end of China’s main shopping season.
- The event was created in 2016 by e-commerce giant Alibaba to help Chinese online retailers sell leftover stock from Singles’ Day.
- Whereas Double11 revolves around Tmall.com—Alibaba’s primary online retail platform—Double 12 happens on Taobao, Alibaba’s other e-commerce site focusing on smaller merchants and C2C sellers, as well as offline.
- Although Double12 is sponsored by Alibaba, other major Chinese e-commerce platforms like JD.com and Pinduoduo also take part in the event.
- Double12 is open to Chinese and international brands. In 2018, the festival featured over 100,000 overseas merchants.
- Double12 is an opportunity for brick-and-mortar stores and brands that didn’t get noticed as much during Singles’ Day to attract new customers through substantial discounts.
- Customers shopping Double12 deals will use Alipay before any other method of payment.
Taking part in Double12 can help your business reach more Chinese customers and increase its presence in this highly sought after market. But you will need more than just discounts if you want to stand out and engage with potential customers. Accepting Alipay is the mandatory first step, as well as being creative on Chinese social media and with your digital marketing strategy.
As a leading mobile payment provider and official marketing partner of Alipay in Canada, OTT Pay has all the tools and solutions to help you get ready for Double 12. As Singles’ Day continues to generate record-breaking revenues year after year, Double 12 is likely to follow in its wake. Don’t miss your chance to connect with more Chinese customers locally and in China. Get in touch with our Customer Support team today at 1-800-688-9838 or info@ottpay.com.