How Much are Filipinos are Willing to Spend for the 12-12 Sale?

Last month, local online shopping sites held a grand sale of their products to celebrate what has since been dubbed “Singles’ Day.” Held every November 11, it is an event that originated in China that was originally meant to celebrate the Chinese youth’s “singleness,” or the state of not being involved in a romantic relationship.

But through the involvement of large retail firms such as Alibaba and JD.com, the holiday has since evolved into what is today known as the world’s biggest annual online shopping event. CNBC reported that Chinese retail giant Alibaba set another record of more than $30.8 billion (Php1.6 trillion) in sales during this year’s 11-11 event.

The commercial success of the event has led online retail firms in the Philippines to also take advantage of this shopping craze.

Lazada, the most popular e-commerce player in the country, said it had around 80 million items for sale from its 30,000 sellers during the 11-11 event this year alone. Though the company declined to reveal their actual earnings, Lazada Philippines CEO for Logistics/Operations Juan Pavez told Entrepreneur Philippines in an interview in November that they expected sales to jump 15 times more than their average daily sales. True enough, they already hit 60-percent of their daily targets as of 9 a.m. that day.

Although the 11-11 event proved to be successful, it doesn't look like Filipinos have had enough of grand sales. Today, December 12, e-commerce firms are already in the midst of another sale event, this time called 12-12 or “Double Twelve.”

Picodi.com, a Poland-based discounts provider for e-commerce platforms launched in 2010, surveyed a total of 496 of their users in December 2018 to find out how engaged Filipinos are going to be during the 12-12 sale.

The Picodi Analysis Team found that 91 percent of those surveyed are planning to participate in the Double Twelve event and are willing to spend up to Php4,300 each on an average of 4.6 items.

Clothes are on the top of the list of online shoppers, followed by electronics, cosmetics, grocery products, and footwear.

And since the event falls during the Christmas season, 23 percent of the participants said they would take the grand sale as an opportunity to buy gifts for others. Still, most of them at 45 percent said they would buy both for themselves and others, while the remaining 32 percent said they would shop for themselves only.

Picodi.com estimates an 881-percent increase in transactions and a 56-percent jump in traffic across online shopping sites during the event compared to a regular day.

Based on internal statistics from Picodi.com, the majority of online shoppers, or 61 percent, use their smartphones in placing orders. They note most of the users use Apple devices when shopping online, followed by Samsung, Asus, Oppo and Huawei. Only 36 percent use computer devices to shop, while the remaining three percent use tablets.

Picodi.com is based in Krakow in Poland and was launched in 2010 as International Coupons. It now operates in over 30 markets worldwide.