The last quarter of the year is often the most bustling one for e-commerce companies with several planned events leading up to Christmas and New Year. The buzz started last week with Lazada and Shopee both operating their September 9 online sale: a 24-hour event that draws shoppers in with discounts and promotions. The two firms have announced the results for their respective operations.
For New York-listed Sea Group’s Shopee, this was the third time it was holding the September 9 sale, but for Lazada, it was the first.
This 24-hour shopping festival run by the two different companies began at midnight on September 9 and was available in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam for both firms, as well as Taiwan for Shopee.
Unlike Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba which would announce the total Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) reached during the sale, Lazada and Shopee only gave out details regarding the number of orders and other related statistics.
According to a report by Thai media outlet The Nation, Shopee had beat its records last year with more than 5.8 million orders recorded, more than 15 million items sold within 24 hours. There were more than seven million merchants and 10,000 brands on Shopee during the festival, according to the firm. Most of Shopee’s target audience are consumers shopping for health and beauty goods, so it was not surprising to see that category was one that garnered substantial results for the platform.
Shopee did not release GMV numbers for September 9 events in previous years.
Terence Pang, COO, Shopee, said that the company is aiming to roll out more “exciting initiatives” in coming months, including on Singles Day on November 11, popularised by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba.
As for Lazada, which is owned by Alibaba, it had more than 10 million shoppers take part in the 9/9 event, supported by “tens of thousands of merchants”, more than 20 warehouses, 12 sortation centres and over 100 managed logistics partners.
Jing Yin, Co-President Commercial at Lazada Group said in a statement that the firm will join “the rest of the Alibaba family” on November 11 before it kicks off its signature December 12 sale, which it will be holding for the seventh year since Lazada Group was started in 2012.
Alibaba’s Singles Day sale last year crossed US$25 billion in total GMV, which is a 39% increase from 2016 figures, in 1.48 billion transactions. Although Alibaba created and pioneered the 11/11 movement, others have, of course, jumped on the bandwagon. Its main competitor JD.com said last year that it hit US$19 billion in GMV on 11/11.
Other e-commerce enablers like Shopback, a cash back app platform that operates regionally, has also jumped on the bandwagon to take advantage of the hype around shopping festivals. We reported in late-August on the launch of Shopback’s Shopfest aggregator feature that would help people compare deals across brands and shops.
Editor: Ben Jiang
