There’s a Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Family Day (in Canada and South Africa) – and now there’s Singles Day (celebrated last week), a Chinese holiday dedicated to joy of celibacy. But like everything else in this globalized internet-centric world, fun events, vacations, and commemorations take on an international flavor. And that also goes for Singles Day; Created by Chinese university students and promoted by Alibaba, Singles Day has become the biggest shopping day on the internet, grossing $ 18 billion this year alone, more than Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday combined, or one of the main pre-Christmas dates in December.

And while Singles Day has yet to cross the Pacific, American and European companies are all there, bringing clothing, electronics and more to Chinese consumers. On November 11, U.S. e-merchants like Costco, American Eagle Outfitters, Calvin Klein, Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, and New Balance competed with e-commerce sites around the world for a slice of the $ 18 billion in sales they’ve made. Alibaba manages, as it processed $ 1 billion worth of orders in the first 5 minutes. If past performance is any indication of future results, next year’s Singles Day could see even more astronomical numbers.

Alibaba has made Singles Day the biggest online selling phenomenon on China’s sales force alone – and naturally, the company wants to export it to the rest of the world. Like Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday, one of the charms of Singles Day for consumers is the low price of everything on offer – and as the phenomenon expands to encompass more retailers and consumers. more countries, small e-commerce sites may find themselves excluded from the market. great business taking place that day. This is because they will not be able to match the discounts offered by the bigger sites that can afford to offer appealing products to attract customers and possibly get them to buy more expensive products.

So what can e-merchants do to compete? It turns out that there is a winning strategy. Recent research indicates that even more than low prices, customers prefer to buy from sites offering interest-free installment card payments. In fact, when credit card users are offered interest-free payments on their existing credit cards with no credit verification or application process required, over half (54%) of credit card users prefer payments. to free delivery. Likewise, 53% of credit card users preferred payments over 10% cash back.

In a installment card payment scenario, customers buy what they want and pay for it over time. For example, a customer who makes a purchase of $ 500 may choose to pay it off over ten months, with each payment being $ 50. The purchase is secured by the customer’s credit card, but the card is debited by the agreed amount each month, without interest. The system is very popular in half a dozen countries around the world and offers consumers an easy way to understand and control their finances. Instead of just making minimum payments on credit cards – with interest accruing – consumers know how much to pay, when to pay, and when they’re done paying for their purchase.

Even among high-income consumers, who earn up to $ 150,000, interest-free payments outweigh incentives like low prices and free shipping as the reason to frequent a site, with over 60% of them. them claiming that payments were a more important feature to them. Additionally, the survey found that 40% of credit card users would increase their purchase amount by at least 10% if they offered them interest-free installment payments.

The power of interest-free card payments is such that they are preferred even over discounts and other offers, among buyers of all kinds, and certainly buyers who will buy on Singles Day. For ecommerce sites that embrace this strategy, the path to success on Singles Day – or any day – could be much easier.

About the Author

Gil Don is CEO and co-founder of Separate it, a payment tool that offers payments by credit card. Gil has extensive experience in sales and management. He is highly skilled in business analysis and negotiation and is client focused. He is the Regional Manager for one of EMC’s product divisions responsible for driving sales, building customer relationships and establishing additional channel partners. Prior to EMC, Gil was Vice President of Marketing and Sales for leading technology systems integrators like Ankor systems and We!

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