The Singles Day sale on 11 November may have promoted the idea of sales on auspicious dates; but it really has nothing on the spending power taking place on the 12 December (12.12) sale. Malaysians appeared to be more willing than ever to spend money at the end of the year, spending three times as much as they did on 11.11.
Shopback noted that Malaysians spent an average of USD76 (RM310) on the 12.12 sale, up from the USD24 (RM98) spent on 11.11. Despite this, we appear to have fallen well short of the regional average of USD119 (RM485).
The extra spending was attributed to the holiday season, and was spurred by travel bookings by families and shopping for what were presumably Christmas presents. Shopback also noted a boost in sales for clothing for the coming new year. Interestingly, while the trend on 11.11 showed people buying necessities, the 12.12 sale was driven by travel and vouchers for services.
Shopping habits also show that Malaysians are more likely to rush when deals are involved. We were showed to be most active during the first hour of the sale, with a massive burst of activity between midnight and 0059 hours. This is the exact opposite of the rest of the APAC region, which waited patiently until the following night to begin shopping. Even the kiasu Singaporeans were only active between 2100 and 2159 hours on 12 December. On the other hand, Taiwan and Indonesia waited until the very last possible moment before starting to shop.
As expected, some 60% of all traffic to Shopback’s partners came from mobile devices. A trend that is expected to continue well into the future.
Shopback is not yet done with the sales, as it has announced that the 12.12 Online Fever campaign will continue until 14 December. Possibly to capitalise on the buying frenzy that Malaysians seem to be in.
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