“Nov 11 - Skechers Over 100M in 20 mins!” (Skechers hit over 100 million RMB in sales within 20 minutes on Double 11!)
While posting this message in their social media moments at midnight, the Skechers team also shared a short video showing nearly 15 senior executives clapping and cheering as the sales figures ticked up.
In the early hours at Anta’s Xiamen operations center, President Zheng Jie stared intently at the computer screen, closely monitoring the changes in sales data. In the brightly lit operations and design office, a motivational slogan hung: “Operations shouts, Design yells, Marketing roars — Double 11, you can count on us!”In just 8 minutes, the Anta Group (including all its brands) reached 100 million RMB in sales. At 45 minutes, a poster featuring Klay Thompson with the text “200 million again, going crazy!” started circulating. By 2:45 AM, Anta Sports’ official WeChat account posted a banner reading “310 million, and still counting,” and announced that the “final battle report” would be revealed 21 hours later at midnight.The poster, and an announcement that the "final results" would be revealed at midnight in 21 hours.
Since 2009, Alibaba has turned November 11 into a shopping festival, giving birth to “Double 11” as a new peak of consumer celebration. Indeed, Double 11 has become a battlefield. Every year, Alibaba and major brands have no trouble breaking their own transaction records.
Brands that have tasted success generally start planning for Double 11 as early as mid-year.
At Anta’s mid-year report press conference in August this year, when asked about e-commerce growth, Board Chairman Ding Shizhong, after responding that “Anta’s e-commerce grew over 60% in the first half of 2017,” added proactively, “This year we aim for over 80% growth compared to the same period last Double 11.” In July, Nike officially stated that it would continue to strengthen its strategic cooperation with Alibaba and collaborate with Tmall to promote new retail.
This year, Tmall changed its slogan from “Just go to Tmall, that’s enough” to “Ideal life starts on Tmall,” but the complex mix of deposit inflation, cross-store discounts, store coupons, shopping allowances, torch red packets, group battles, and stacked red packets made it harder than ever for users to secure the ideal lowest price, sparking a wave of complaints.
But the annual complaints haven’t affected people’s buying spree or Alibaba’s commercial success. According to Forbes, Alibaba’s one-day Double 11 sales exceed Brazil’s total annual e-commerce revenue. Last year, Alibaba’s Double 11 sales hit 120.7 billion RMB, and without surprise, that figure is set to be shattered again today — at 13:09:49 on November 11, 2017, Tmall’s total Double 11 sales surpassed last year’s full-day total.
▲ Tmall Double 11 Sales Data (2009–2016)
Sports and outdoor is a major highlighted category for Tmall during the sales. By 8 AM on the 11th, among the overall brand rankings on Tmall, Nike ranked fifth and Adidas eighth. By 6 PM, Nike’s official flagship store was ranked fifth in Tmall’s total store sales ranking, just behind Apple, Xiaomi, Honor, and Haier — four mobile phone or appliance brands. Adidas’ official flagship store ranked ninth, while the official stores of NEW BALANCE, Anta, and Li-Ning all made it into the top 50.
In the 2016 Double 11 presale rankings across the apparel industry, the top four spots were taken by the sports brands Nike, NEW BALANCE, Skechers, and Adidas, surpassing mass-market fashion brands like Uniqlo, Semir, Bosideng, and Eland. According to reports from TIANXIA.com, in 2016 Nike secured the top spot in the entire apparel category with over 600 million RMB in sales on Double 11, overtaking the previously leading fast fashion giant Uniqlo, and ranking fifth overall across all categories.
▲ Screenshot of homepage of 10 sports brand flagship stores at noon on the 11th
This is a carnival for Alibaba and consumers, but also the pinnacle of brands’ annual e-commerce efforts.Through the efforts brands put into Double 11, one can see their strength, strategy, and investment level in e-commerce.This year, how are various sports brands approaching this important battlefield? What different strategies are they employing? And what new tricks are they using? We believe that as pioneers in sports consumption, the sales strategies of sports brands on Double 11 offer valuable insights for the broader development of retail business in the sports consumption market.
Behind the Discounts — Different Strategies of Domestic and International Brands
Overall, international brands led by Nike and Adidas form one camp, while domestic brands such as Anta, Li-Ning, Xtep, and 361° offer similar discount ranges.
On best-selling items, Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour basically do not offer discounts, with only up to 13% off (12/15 ≈ 0.87) achievable through certain coupons. In contrast, domestic brands typically offer discounts between 40% to 50% off.
▲ Discount details for bestselling products of various brands on Double 11
International brands, usually known for being “expensive and rarely discounted,” showed some sincerity this Double 11. Nike overall maintained last year’s level, with select categories at 50% off. Adidas increased both participation and sincerity compared to last year — although its flagship store had lower sales than Nike and NEW BALANCE last year, according to Tmall’s presale rankings this year, Adidas ranked second only to Nike. As for Under Armour, while it offered significant discounts on specific shoe models, since its bestsellers are apparel, the overall impression remained somewhat aloof.
For consumers, more new products on discount and deeper discounts are the best outcomes, reflecting brands’ sincerity on Double 11. This year, both Nike and Adidas promoted some 2017 new arrivals, and Anta also heavily pushed 2017 new products on Double 11, though without significant discounts.
361° notably set up a “Clearance Zone” in a prominent position on its homepage, showing a clearer intention to clear inventory. Anta’s “49 RMB for two clothing items” lucky bags were another form of inventory clearance. The rich variety of lucky draws, free-item offers, and giveaways from Xtep, 361°, Anta, and Li-Ning shows that domestic brands designed more diverse promotional tactics to differentiate themselves from international competitors on Double 11.
The “Product Push” Battle — How to Make the Most of Celebrity Endorsements?
In this era that values the power of “driving sales,” brands naturally aim to make the most of celebrity endorsements during Double 11.
Among the major sports brands,Xtep and 361° are the most active in leveraging their endorsers. Xtep’s spokespeople — Nicholas Tse, Zhao Liying, and Lin Gengxin — along with 361°’s — Sun Yang and Stephon Marbury — all appeared prominently on the brands’ official flagship store homepages. Xtep invited Zhao Liying, Lin Gengxin, and Jiro Wang, while 361° brought in Tian Liang and Huang Jianxiang to participate in livestreams to attract more attention and traffic..
Xtep launched crystal shoes designed with Zhao Liying during the Double 11 shopping festival, promoting them via livestreams. On its flagship store page, Zhao Liying, Lin Gengxin, and Jiro Wang were featured as “clothing racks,” styled in full outfits to emphasize the “same style as the stars.”
▲ Xtep maximized the impact of star "clothing racks" and models
Puma, Skechers, and Fila prominently featured their endorsers Yang Yang/Liu Haoran, Li Yifeng/Tang Yan, and Chen Kun respectively on the homepage of their official flagship stores, but provided less promotional support through other channels.
International brands such as Nike, Adidas, Under Armour (UA), and NEW BALANCE did not highlight any endorser elements on their Tmall flagship store pages. Among the four major domestic brands — Anta, Li-Ning, Xtep, and 361° — only Li-Ning did not emphasize any endorsers, instead highlighting “Li-Ning China. Originality.” on its homepage. Anta used a hand-drawn comic image of its endorser Klay Thompson alongside product photos, and launched the “Quote as You Go” campaign featuring Zhang Jike in November to attract attention and traffic.
Compared to these,Nike’s use of celebrities can be said to be at the very top of the pyramid. At the Double 11 Gala, the appearance of heavyweight guest Maria Sharapova helped Nike behind the scenes gain significant attention. Sharapova and Su Bingtian wore Nike sportswear to compete in a dominoes-running event set up on-site. Amid an evening filled with advertisements and perks, the iconic “swoosh” logos on their chests provided Nike with increased brand exposure. Last year, Kobe Bryant also appeared on stage wearing Nike gear, and this strategy has clearly paid off for the brand.
▲ Maria Sharapova and Su Bingtian appear in Nike gear at the Tmall Double 11 Gala
New Retail Upgrade – Integrating Offline Resources
This is the second year since Alibaba proposed the concept of “New Retail,” and also a year when the retail and e-commerce industries have frequently discussed this buzzword. The Double 11 festival serves as a key opportunity for Alibaba and various brands to experiment with New Retail, placing greater emphasis on extending into offline channels. Alibaba previously stated,this year over 1 million physical stores globally, 50 core business districts and pop-up stores, 4,000 Tmall convenience stores, and 30,000 Village Taobao service points will be integrated.
So far, among sports brands, Nike has been the most proactive in embracing offline integration for Double 11. On November 8, Nike announced that its strategic collaboration with Tmall’s New Retail initiative had achieved progress, with two smart stores jointly operated by both parties opening first to trial digital ordering and foot traffic systems.
In addition to 10 distribution centers (up from 6 last year), 50 Nike directly operated stores will also handle online orders with offline fulfillment during this year’s Double 11 to improve efficiency, enabling real-time inventory allocation and dispatch directly from stores.
▲ Nike maintains close collaboration with Alibaba.
On Double 11 day, Li-Ning launched its Gai Shi Wu Shuang collaborative high-top sock-style shoes at its offline stores in Chongqing, heavily promoting the event on its official Weibo and WeChat accounts.
Comprehensive Resource Allocation – Brand Power Competition on E-commerce
No one doubts the importance of traffic for Double 11.
When checking the Tmall Double 11 fashion main venue on November 6, the reporter found that Adidas, along with no more than 20 other brands including ONLY, VEROMODA, and UNIQLO, was listed under the top category “Selected Big Brands.” Such “front-row” exposure undoubtedly ensured a prime traffic entry point. At that time, brands including Nike, UA, Li-Ning, Anta, and Puma (in that order) were located in the “Sports & Outdoor” category, which appeared after four swipes.
By the evening of November 10, six brands — Adidas, Nike, Li-Ning, Anta, Lululemon, and Skechers (in that order) — occupied the top “Mall Big Brands” section of the Tmall Double 11 fashion main venue.
▲ On the evening of November 10, several major sports brands held top positions in the Double 11 main venue.
It is evident that in this battle for resources, Adidas has consistently secured the best placement, and the investment required for this is undoubtedly substantial.
In terms of multi-brand resource coordination, both Li-Ning and Xtep took action. Li-Ning launched a promotion where orders over 300 RMB on its official flagship store would receive 1,000 RMB in coupons, applicable across its main store, badminton store, and the DANSKIN store it acquired. Xtep offered 888 RMB in coupons usable at its main store and kids’ store for orders over 300 RMB.
On the other hand, this year’s Double 11 saw only 361° and Anta leveraging their sports marketing resources. As the official partner of the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, 361° launched a daily sign-in event during the shopping festival offering a chance to win the title of torchbearer for the 2018 Asian Games. Meanwhile, the Anta flagship store gave customers who spent over 3,999 RMB a 2018 Winter Olympics dragon suit, effectively using its status as a sponsor of the Winter Olympics apparel.
This not only enriched the forms of Double 11 activities but also highlighted the brands’ rights and images as sponsors and partners of various sporting events. Leveraging sports marketing resources to drive sales during Double 11 is expected to become increasingly common and comprehensive in the future.
Social Media Innovations – Trend Festivals and Celebrity Livestream Rooms
During Alibaba’s Q2 earnings conference, CEO Daniel Zhang stated that the Taobao mobile platform has transformed from a sales platform into one driven by social interaction, content, and community. The livestreams used by many brands during this year’s Double 11 reflect this shift.
Take Xtep’s Zhao Liying livestream as an example: there was a prominent entrance on the Xtep flagship store directly leading to the livestream page. Throughout the one-hour broadcast, options to follow Xtep’s official flagship store frequently popped up on-screen to drive traffic from the livestream to the online store. Product promotions continuously appeared in the lower-left corner of the screen during the stream, while the host’s repeated mentions of a “red packet rain” (bonus giveaway) were another key factor keeping viewers engaged.
During Zhao Liying’s livestream, the host had her personally sign a gift item, which was then given away as a Double 11 prize, further stimulating the audience’s desire to purchase.
▲During Zhao Liying’s live stream, links to the official Anta flagship store and product pages kept appearing.
Beyond the new format of live streaming, before Double 11, Anta launched designer-collaboration online exclusives at Tmall’s Fashion Festival and also unveiled a designer clothing series created in collaboration with fashion designer Zhou Xiangyu through the event.
Beyond the main battleground — full coordination across official websites, WeChat, and Weibo
Although the JD.com flagship stores of Adidas, Puma, and Under Armour all adopt the same page design as on Tmall, overall, Tmall remains the main battlefield for sportswear brands during Double 11. Skechers' JD.com page does not feature the images of its endorsers Li Yifeng and Tang Yan, and instead focuses more on winter products. Brands like Nike and Anta not having official flagship stores is even more telling of their alignment in the competition between the two platforms.
In terms of support from official websites, NEWBALANCE and Adidas have the most aloof attitudes. The former shows zero enthusiasm for participating in Double 11, while the latter only has a small section of men’s discounted items under a secondary menu — with no mention of the term “Double 11,” though it could also be part of the regular discount promotions on the site.
Nike and Under Armour, on the other hand, put more effort into their official websites, each launching new shoes from their flagship product lines on Double 11. Nike released the Air Jordan XI WIN LIKE’82, while Under Armour prominently featured the launch of the Curry MORE FUN series at 10 AM on November 11 on its homepage. This helps ensure the attention of their official websites on Double 11 and demonstrates Nike and Under Armour’s emphasis on their own traffic platforms.
Although there is no Double 11 festive atmosphere on the official websites or JD.com, NEW BALANCE is one of the brands that makes the most use of new media platforms like WeChat and Weibo. Entering November, the official NEW BALANCE WeChat account releases Double 11-related content almost daily. Nike posts much less frequently, but this is related to their generally lower posting frequency, although their individual posts tend to have the highest reach.
Overall, Li-Ning is the brand that exerts relatively balanced efforts across the four platforms: official website, JD.com, WeChat public account, and Weibo. However, within the complex promotional ecosystem, it’s understandable that brands selectively prioritize certain areas based on their strategies and resources.
Source: Lazy Bear Sports