Hoping to emulate the success of China’s Singles’ Day, Hong Kong will launch a citywide O2O shopping festival this year.
Commerce minister Greg So Kam-leung says the aim of the online-to-offline promotion is to boost retail sales in the city following a year-on-year slump.
“Online and offline selling were independent at first, but gradually the two can work together to make the pie bigger,” says So.
On July 1, the 7.1 O2O Hong Kong Shopping Festival draws its inspiration from the success of eCommerce giant Alibaba’s annual November 11 event. Billed as the biggest shopping event in the world, Singles’ Day last year had record sales of US$17.8 billion, beating the previous year’s $14.3 billion.
So says the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau will support the festival and help bring together the online and offline shopping sectors. Being organised by the Hong Kong O2O eCommerce Federation (HKOEF), the sale will last three to seven days.
HKOEF is a group of companies aiming to “digitise” traditional companies and profit from online-offline events.
“In Hong Kong, the traditional retail sector has been seriously challenged by eCommerce,” says HKOEF founding chairman Karen Chan Ka-yin, who is executive director of electrical appliance manufacturer German Pool. “We would like to do something ‘explosive’ to combine online and offline shopping to help, and this can also stimulate the tourism sector.”
Government figures show retail sales fell in value 2.9 per cent year on year in December.
Organisers say the numbers 7 and 1 will be part of a theme for the event.
“Products could be priced at HK$71 or HK$710, selling at 71 per cent of the original price, or just 71 units of limited-edition products,” says Chan.
Companies planning to participate include Sasa cosmetics stores and Tai Hing roast meat restaurants, which will offer 710 cups of its signature milk tea at HK$7.10 each.