What are the Key Dates to Keep in Mind as 2015 Comes to an End?

The end of the year is approaching and e-commerce festivities are coming thick and fast. By adopting a cross-border strategy there are abundant opportunities for online shoppers to get good deals and for etailers to significantly increase their sales.

 If you currently distribute your products internationally, don’t miss out on events that will get you know around the world. Among the essential dates, not to be missed, are Singles’ Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Not to mention Christmas, one of the biggest shopping periods which will bring the year to a close before heading into the January sales.

“Singles’ Day”

Celebrated each year, on 11^th November, Singles’ Day is one of the biggest ecommerce events in China. Throughout the day, the 200 million Chinese singletons and potential customers are honored by being offered numerous promotions. Originally part of an anti-Valentine’s Day joke among students, the giant, Alibaba, gave the event a date in 2009, quickly making this day a real commercial phenomenon. Now considered one of the biggest online shopping days in the world, the Chinese benefit for numerous discounts and spend freely. China is among the top online shopping destinations and this is the opportunity for you to make your products visible on Chinese ecommerce platforms. Especially given that the Chinese are becoming increasingly interested in ordering foreign products.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday

American in origin, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are held every year at the end of November and refer to a period of major discounts, usually exceeding 50 %. While Black Friday traditionally falls directly after Thursday’s Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday refers to the following Monday and marks the end of this weekend of festivities and shopping frenzy. This moment also hails the beginning of the holiday season, a cue for the cyber shopping community to start their Christmas shopping and for you to start ramping up your end-of-year profits. The potential of these American shopping days is so great that more and more countries are being seduced by this concept. In 2010, Amazon launched Black Friday deals in the UK and in the years that followed the phenomenon became increasingly widespread and other retailers joined in. This year the event is expected to be the first £1 billion shopping day in Great Britain, so go ahead and give your products optimal visibility on the all the platforms your items are on by offering attractive promotions!

Christmas

An essential ecommerce period for most countries around the globe Christmas brings a close to the festivities to the delight of e-shoppers and merchants alike. It’s a great opportunity for you to adopt a cross-border strategy and make yourself known on an international scale. However, if this is your plan, don’t forget to adjust your offer according to each target market’s culture and develop tools to help reassure your customers about ordering overseas. By doing this, you are reducing purchase barriers, which are mostly related to online payment and delivery methods. The international dimension offered by the Christmas period is a source of delight for e-shoppers, who are always on the lookout for great deal and new products, and it will allow you to distribute your product catalogue on a larger scale.

If you’d like to know more about the key international ecommerce dates, feel free to download our Lengow calendar.

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