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Winning Your Singles’ Day Marketing Battle With AI

 
Alibaba pledged that this year’s Singles’ Day shopping festival will be the largest-ever in terms of “scale and reach“, and marketers can now use personalization powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to get the most out of this golden opportunity.

The one-day shopping extravaganza will take place on Nov 11, which marks its 10th anniversary. As Alibaba is taking the event global this year, around 180,000 brands from China and abroad will offer promotions and discounts to shoppers. The Chinese e-commerce giant is also offering 3,700 categories of imported goods from 75 countries and regions on Tmall Global, its dedicated cross-border portal.

Lazada, a Singapore-based e-commerce site with US$4 billion investment from Alibaba, will participate in the shopping event for the first time. It’s expected to attract buyers across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore.

To fight for shoppers’ share of wallet, many brands start to showcase their best promotions weeks ahead of the day. But how to stand out from the crowd in such a high-stakes game, and engage with the right audience with the right message that will maximize conversion later?

Here are three steps that how you can nail your marketing for Singles’ Day through AI-driven personalization.

Step 1: Increase Considerations Through Personalized Promotions Ahead of the Event

A lot of consumers wait for Singles’ Day to buy products they want, especially the items that they don’t usually buy all year around, such as sofa bed or tennis shoes. They search and browse the participating brands’ online stores, as well as compare with other external sites for the best deals.

To make sure your promotions reach the right audience, you must know which products they are interested in. Relying on consumer data from your owned channels might just not be enough and therefore it is crucial to have insights on their external behaviors.

For instance, Andy actively searched online for the best deals on jeans, dress pants and running shoes, but he only looked for jeans in brand A’s online store. Wouldn’t it be great for brand A to know that Andy is also interested in the other items?

AI-powered marketing automation tools, such as AIQUA, can identify which products Andy is interested in based on keywords within articles that he browses on both internal and external sites. You can then send only relevant promotions to him across all channels, including app and web push notification, email, SMS, LINE, etc..

However, there is a high chance that consumers will receive dozens of promotions from various brands every day. This is where you can use creative formats to catch their attention. For example, a cluttered notification inbox can be overcome by using a full image banner or GIF. This improves click-through rate (CTR) by 18 percent, according to Appier data.

In a different case, when you send multiple promotions to one user, he or she can be conveyed in a beautiful carousel notification. This improves CTR by 56 percent.

Step 2: Optimize On-Site Experience Through Personalized Product Recommendations

Now you have delivered the right promotions to your existing and potential customers, but that doesn’t mean you can just relax and wait for them to buy your products. Once they land on your site, you need to create a perfect on-site experience for each customer, to drive consideration for more products.

By using AI, you can display personalized product recommendations to each customer based on what they are interested in. For example, Andy added a pair of jeans to his cart, and you already know that he is also interested in dress pants and running shoes through AI-generated insight (Step 1). So, now you can recommend these products by showing relevant images to him.

As shoppers spend a lot of time browsing online in the period leading to Singles’ Day, and add items to their shopping carts just to check out on Nov 11, you want to entice them to add as many products to the cart as possible.

Step 3: Seal the Deal Through AI-Powered Remarketing

On Singles’ Day, many shoppers will check out soon after midnight to snatch the best deals. It is therefore vital to bring them to your cart page through personalized cart abandonment messages just before midnight.

For shoppers who haven’t acted at midnight, you can send follow-up messages throughout the event day as a reminder. AI can help streamline your communication by predicting which channel or device would be the best to convert them.

For example, Andy always uses mobile before going to bed, but tends to use tablet in the afternoon. So, you can send messages to the most suitable device to reach him.

To create a sense of urgency in shoppers, you can also send low-stock alerts or price-drop messages to those who haven’t checked out during the event day.

With the globalization of Singles’ Day this year, the competition for brands will only get fiercer. However, the power of the Chinese market is undeniable. By leveraging AI-powered personalization, you will be sure to get a step ahead in the world’s biggest and possibly the most competitive shopping event.

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