(The total sales of Tmall and taobao in 2016)
Singles' Day or Guanggun Jie (Chinese: 光棍节; pinyin: Guānggùn Jié; Wade–Giles: Kuang-kun chieh; literally: "bare sticks holiday") is an entertaining festival widespread among young Chinese people,[1] to celebrate the fact that they are proud of being single. The date, November 11th (11/11), is chosen because the number "1" resembles an individual that is alone. This festival has gradually become one of the largest online shopping days in the world,[2] with sales in Alibaba's sites Tmall and Taobao at US$5.8 billion in 2013, US$9.3 billion in 2014, over US$14.3 billion in 2015 [1], and exceeds US$ 17.6 billion in 2016.
(Sales of tea in 2015)
Regarding e-shopping of tea, 2016’s sales indicates again that puerh tea has gained the most popularity. It occupied 27.22% in 2015 and reached 31.41% in 2016, while oolong tea decreased from 21.37% in 2015 to 16.96% in 2016.
(Sales of tea in 2016)
Because of the special virtue of puerh tea, the average price of pu’er tea is still the highest according to the TMALL’s sales.
(Average price of different teas in 2016 and 2015 on Single's day)
What's more, purchasers prefer to surf or buy goods through mobile APP stores, which also tell the future trends of e-shops.
(The rate of purchase through mobile app in 2015 and 2016)
It sounds crazy, but double 11’s competition is more than just price wars. Besides prices, they also compete on tea varieties, users’ experience and resources. That is to say, this war is not only a challenge for promotion strategy, but also a contest of storage, logistics and capitals.
However, the data is just for reference, and can not tell the whole market’s situation exactly, because online shops mainly target on younger customers. There are partial traditional customers(quality customers) still prefer to go to real shops and taste tea before actual purchase, especially when they buy luxury refined tea.
[1]: wikepedia
Pic（1.2.3.4.5) zgcybtea