HCM City (VNS/VNA) - Theyear-end online shopping frenzy has kicked off with giant local and foreignplayers like Lazada, Tiki, Sendo, and Shopee rolling out promotions since themiddle of last month.

Advertising platform Criteo said the year-end shopping season usually beginswith 10.10 sales.

“Singles’ Day, November 11, remains the key shopping festival and post-SinglesDay sales ride on the festivity’s traction,” Steven Tuan Nguyen, its seniorregional manager for Southeast Asia, said.

“As we approach the year-end holidays, there is also a spike in online retailas part of the celebration. This sustained sales season presents retailers moreopportunities to engage their audiences.”

While Singles’ Day is still among Vietnam’s biggest shopping festivals, theothers include Black Friday, Cyber Friday and 12.12, he said.

He expected the trend this year to be similar to last year when Singles’ Daysaw a 64 percent increase in online retail sales and 23 percent increase inonline retail traffic. The traffic peaked at around noon and from 9pm to 11pmon November 11.

Of all the key shopping seasons, Black Friday had the highest conversion ratewith an increase of 53 percent.

The top performing product verticals were fashion and luxury though it has beennoted that mass merchant sales grew significantly on Black Friday as well.

Criteo predicted: “Given the momentum from Singles’ Day to the remainder of theyear, retailers who are looking to expand in these countries should considerprolonging their promotional efforts until December. This can help drive saleswhen shoppers have a level of interest due to year-end festivities and are mostengaged.”

E-commerce companies are in a rush to organise promotions.

For instance, Lazada’s Singles’ Day promotion attracted the participation ofover 1,000 brands, and 11 million products and hundreds of promotion codesworth 11 billion VND were offered to customers.

According to Lazada, Singles’ Day plays an important role in the development ofe-commerce companies and has become popular in Vietnam.

Shopee announced the return of the 11.11 Big Sale, saying it would be itslargest ever.

It began in all seven Shopee markets in the middle of October with millions ofsellers, brands and industry partners taking part.

Chris Feng, its CEO, said: “We launched our first 11.11 shopping event in 2016and localised this global phenomenon for people in our region. It has sinceevolved tremendously as more sellers, brands and partners celebrate thisspecial day with Shopee.

“We spent months preparing for this year’s event from curating the very bestdeals with sellers and brands to optimising delivery processes with logisticspartners in every market.”

This year, there will be free shipping daily across the entire duration of thesale.

Shopee recorded 11 million orders on November 11 last year, a 24-fold increasefrom the first 11.11 sale in 2016.

As Shopee successfully localises the 11.11 phenomenon in Southeast Asia andTaiwan, November 11 is becoming a major day of shopping in the region.

Feng said: “Shopee has ignited the year-end shopping season after our record9.9 Super Shopping Day and, most recently, a successful 10.10 shopping event.

“November 11 marks the peak of this exciting period and we invite everyone tojoin us at Shopee 11.11 Big Sale.”

After Singles’ Day, there will be Black Friday and Cyber Friday.

Criteo said in its report that Singles’ Day is still the biggest event inmarkets such as Singapore, Malaysia and Taiwan, while in Indonesia it is 12.12.

In Vietnam, Single's Day has become a significant event but Black Friday hasthe highest surge.

Last year, the latter saw online retail sales and traffic increases of 149 percentand 61 percent, respectively, while 12.12 saw increases of 97 percent and 34 percent./.