Southeast Asia's Zalora is expecting record-breaking Singles Day sales

November 12, 2021: -Southeast Asian e-commerce company Zalora is anticipating record-breaking business this Singles Day between economic reopening and increased tech adoption across the region.

Speaking to CNBC as the shopping event kicked off, Zalora Group’s CEO Gunjan Soni said she expected the Singles Day performance to outpace last year.

Singles Day, taking place on November 11 is an online shopping event similar to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It originates in China and is especially popular across Asia.

“We are seeing a lot of excitement, and I expect us to break quite a few records,” Soni told CNBC.

The fashion retailer said it expects pandemic-winning categories, such as athleisure, beauty, and kids, to keep doing to do well this year. Athleisure refers to a type of clothing that combines athletic gear with leisurewear.

But Zalora also anticipates other last hard-hit segments like womenswear and occasionwear to make a comeback.

“The good news is that we’re starting to see a return in demand for women’s apparel and occasion wear, and we expect the spike to happen especially for holiday-related gearing up,” Soni said.

Singles Day is a significant event for retailers across the region. On Tuesday, In intra-day stats released, fellow Southeast Asia e-commerce site Lazada, owned by China e-commerce giant Alibaba, said it took just nine minutes to cross $11 million in sales.

It comes as Southeast Asia continues to make leaps forward in tech adoption, necessitated in part by coronavirus lockdowns. Even as regional economies move, to varying degrees, to reopen, Soni said she expects the demand for e-commerce to continue going forward.

“We are very bullish on the vertical across fashion, beauty a lifestyle if we take the coming three to five years,” she said.

Southeast Asia’s six huge economies are now home to 440 million internet users, 40 million of whom came online this year, according to a new report released by Google on Wednesday, Temasek Holdings, and Bain & Company. Of the total 440 million, 80% have made an online purchase at least once.