E-Commerce Trends and Online Sales
There is no denying that e-commerce is now the norm. With it, shopping has never been made easier. You no longer have to wait in traffic, shop manually, or drive to different stores to get what you need. Instead, you can stay at home and browse through product selections, then have your order delivered right at your doorstep. Due to the popularity of e-commerce today, Internet giants like Amazon and Alibaba have become household names for billions of users who shop online.
Avid shoppers would be happy to know that the world of online shopping is full of large festivals where you can score some of the biggest deals. You can get major sales and promotions--the best you will find in a year. The three most popular ones include Amazon Prime Day, China’s Singles Day, and Black Friday.
Read about each one to learn more about their origins and how big the price drops are.
Amazon Prime Day
As one of the most well-known e-commerce sites, Amazon does not disappoint with its annual shopping festival known as Amazon Prime Day. Contrary to its name, the event runs for two days from October 13 to 14. During the two days, you can score some of the lowest deals in a year, including $50 off Apple Airpods Pro, up to 32% off in Adidas, 20% off in Ray-Ban, among others.
Amazon Prime Day is exclusively open for Amazon Prime subscribers, which comes with several other benefits. The membership costs $11.99 monthly or $119 annually. With it, you can shop during the big Prime Day, enjoy fast and free two-day shipping, stream videos and movies with Prime Video, listen to songs ad-free on Amazon Music, and get many other perks.
China’s Singles Day
China’s Singles Day, held on November 11 every year, is known for being the world’s largest shopping festival. The event’s name comes from the November 11 date, which is often abbreviated as 11.11 or double 11, as they resemble bare branches that can be likened to single or unattached people. Without a doubt, Singles Day is the most anticipated day for internet shoppers every year as they can get some of the biggest discounts from retailers like Alibaba and Pinduoduo.
In 2019, the 24-hour shopping festival resulted in 1.9 billion orders and over $35.8 billion in sales. This year, Alibaba extended the event by including November 1 to 3 to build up the excitement. For Chinese shoppers, Singles Day is undoubtedly the biggest shopping event, though the festival has yet to capture a fully global audience. This year, some of the best deals included up to 40% off in Nordstrom and Bed Bath & Beyond, 70% off selected goods in AliExpress, and 22% off in Levi’s.
Black Friday
Another one of the busiest shopping times in the year is Black Friday, an informal name given to the day after Thanksgiving. The day is often known to be the official start of the holiday season, so it has become common practice for retailers to offer massive discounts on this day. Since accountants use the colour black to mark profits in book entries, the day became known as Black Friday. Last year, some of the top sales included up to 50% off in Target, 60% off in Lenovo, 40% off in Amazon appliances, and many more.
The National Retail Federation (NRF) reported 84.2 million shoppers on Black Friday in 2019, signifying the magnitude of the shopping event. Though Black Friday itself is the day with the biggest discounts and sales, the event typically begins earlier and can extend through the weekend. Through the years, Black Friday has become such a tradition for retailers that the day accounts for almost 20% of annual sales for many of them.
Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is another popular shopping festival celebrated on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. It is often referred to as an extension to Black Friday, and its name came from the fact that people continued to shop online after going back to work from the holidays. While Black Friday has long been considered the biggest shopping event in the US, Cyber Monday has slowly started to take its position.
Some of the early Cyber Monday deals include 35% off Lenovo’s gaming laptop, up to 33% off Nintendo games, 12% off the 2020 Macbook Pro, and many others. Noticeably, this event is typically loaded with tech sales, making it the perfect time to shop for gadgets.
Diwali
Diwali is a major five-day festival celebrated in India in November. Over the years, the event has evolved to become a shopping season for people, thus boosting online sales during this time. You can score up to 90% off in Amazon Diwali deals, 80% off in Flipkart, and get so many other discounts to save a ton of money.