An analysis conducted by online shopping aggregator iPrice found that Viet Nam’s interest in November 11 Singles’ Day sales skyrocketed this year.

According to internet traffic data, the company discovered a huge jump of 210 per cent in the number of customers participating in the Singles Day sales in Viet Nam compared to the same time last year.

By analysing Vietnamese search trends on Google, iPrice found that keyword searches for “November 11” began growing steadily nearly two weeks prior to the date, three times higher in search interest compared to the same period last year.

In addition, Vietnamese consumers were now much more familiar with the November 11 tradition which originated from China, and excitedly look forward to it as an important annual promotion period.

For the event, big merchants offered different promotions with discounts being the most popular, together with vouchers, flash deals, payment method promotions, free shipping promotions, in-app games, web-based games and a TV game show.

The report said that merchants in Viet Nam were paying more attention to interacting and entertaining their customers rather than just attracting them with discounts.

According to an expert from advertising platform Criteo, the year-end months were the opportunity for merchants to boost e-commerce sales and November 11 Singles’ Day was still not the occasion offering the highest revenue.

Criteo statistics showed e-commerce websites in Viet Nam saw an increase of 238 per cent in revenue and 78 per cent in traffic on November 11 last year compared to normal days.

Criteo forecast that December 12 would also be a popular day for e-commerce websites.

Nguyen Huong Quynh, director of market research company Nielsen Viet Nam, said that e-commerce was a playground for merchants, adding that e-commerce platforms were offering a number of promotions to attract buyers on special occasions.

Quynh said Vietnamese shoppers were attracted to online promotions. She stressed that it was more important for e-commerce platforms to think about how to attract buyers after promotion programmes end.

The Singles’ Day sales hit another record of US$30.8 billion in China this year. — VNS