South Korean consumer goods makers are in fierce competition to woo Chinese consumers on China’s “Singles Day” on Nov. 11, the Chinese version of Black Friday, the largest shopping day in the U.S.
They are aggressively offering special deals for Chinese consumers who seek Korean goods to buy on Singles Day on Chinese e-commerce websites, including Tmall Global, the online marketplace of Alibaba Group.
The website of Tmall Global, a direct-buying platform for Chinese consumers looking to buy foreign goods. (Tmall Global)
LG Household & Healthcare, Korea’s second-largest cosmetics maker, is one of the front-runners in the race. The company has opened a store on Tmall for the expected shopping madness among Chinese direct buyers this week.
“We hope to use Singles Day to help us gain a bigger presence in fast-growing China,” an LG spokesman said in a statement.
Stylenanda, a budget fashion brand, also plans to offer Chinese customers a 50 percent discount on its 4,000 clothing and cosmetics products through Tmall.
Tmall is a direct buying platform that helps Chinese consumers who prefer buying foreign brands online to visiting offline retail channels.
“It also aims to prevent counterfeit products rampant in China, which is why more Chinese shoppers are logging in to the website,” an LG official said.
Under such benefits, the number of Chinese shoppers directly buying foreign goods surpassed 18 million last year, creating a whopping $32 billion market.
Cafe 24, a leading e-commerce marketplace in South Korea, said many newcomers are getting into the Singles Day action this year, with more than 20 local apparel brands and other companies registered in the first half to take part in Alibaba’s sales event next week.
Singles Day, symbolized by the four lonely “1” digits of Nov. 11, began as a way for single college students to celebrate their bachelorhood.
“Guang Gun Jie (Singles Day) has become quite a shopping day for China’s young generation. We get rid of our stress by partying and trading gifts on this day,” Keven Peng, 28, an assistant sales manager at Conrad Hotels & Resorts in Beijing, told The Korea Herald.
It was Alibaba that turned this into a commercial craze in 2009, matching it with retailers’ deals.
On last year’s Singles Day, the group processed more than 35 billion yuan ($5.75 billion) through its online payment system, a record amount for a single day, breaking the record by the U.S.’ Cyber Monday by 250 percent.
This year should be even bigger, analysts said, surpassing 50 billion yuan. The number is equivalent to the annual sales figure of South Korean retail giant Homeplus.
“The explosive growth of the Chinese online market is going to be a tremendous opportunity for local businesses,” said Cafe 24 overseas business director Kim Sun-tae.
“Korean firms will see a bigger sales effect if they operate their own direct merchant website and use Alibaba’s open market at the same time.”
By Suk Gee-hyun (monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)
