23 Nov DAHON Reports Record Sales in Chinese ‘Singles Day’ Shopping Spree
World leader in folding bikes hits number two spot out of all bicycle brands in online sales
November 23, 2015, Duarte, California – World leader in folding bikes DAHON has this year seen phenomenal success from the annual 11.11 Chinese shopping spree known as Singles Day, with US$1.2 million in sales over just two days. The folding bikes were sold online via Tmall, a subsidiary of Alibaba. DAHON has been selling over the internet on Tmall for five months now. This is a prelude to DAHON’s ‘click-and-collect’ service which will be offered in China, where shoppers can order and pay online and then collect their serviced and assembled bike from their local DAHON dealer. Customers and dealers benefit from this arrangement, which sees the bicycle store take a small percentage of the transaction, and ensures the rider is starting out with a properly set-up bike and a good service relationship that should last for many years. The Singles Day sales performance will certainly serve to increase enthusiasm among dealers and customers alike for this program.
The double eleven sales results put DAHON at the number-two spot in the entire bicycle category, in comparison to brands like Giant, who sold around US$430,000 and Specialized whose figures came in at less than US$80,000. Many consumers credit the apparent 11.11 success to the compact shipping size and nearly hundred-percent assembly of DAHON products, as well as the brand’ s credibility. The fast progress to become the number two shop in the bike category is a testimony of the power of internet shopping and to the popularity of DAHON folding bikes.
DAHON founder and CEO Dr. David Hon elaborated: “This result must be considered a very encouraging piece of news for DAHON and for folding bicycles. China has been the world’s largest auto market for several years now. But policymakers are re-examining the people’s love affair with the automobile in view of serious air pollutions in big cities. As a signatory of U.N. environmental treaties/pledges, China is making increasing effort in the promotion of the use of the bicycle. Average unit price has been growing fast, although the total number of units sold remains rather constant at about 25-30 million units per year. Over 10% of all bikes sold in China are folding bicycles, thanks to its many practical and potential uses.”
Just one month later came China’s ‘Double 12’ shopping event, another chance for customers to snap up bargains both online and in person. Selling via their own e-commerce sites on Tmall and Jindong, DAHON retained the number 2 spot amongst all bicycle brands, raking in sales of US$173,000 in only one day. This time DAHON scooped the extra accolade of Champion in sales of sports bikes over 1,000 Chinese Yuan.
