We’re eight days away from the biggest shopping event of the year and to borrow a line from Whose Line Is It Anyway, “It’s time to shop, shop, shop!”
11.11 or Singles’ Day is now by far the most anticipated shopping event of the year. In 2019, e-commerce sites like Lazada and Shopee made headlines for having the highest single-day sales in the entire year. Shopee sold over 70 million products and Lazada surpassed its previous year’s 11.11 sale in just 11 hours.
From experience, I can tell you that this is the one day where you’ll be getting the best price for your purchases; which is to say, it’s time to get out those credit cards and start filling up those shopping carts.
Like most people, I used to purchase essentials like detergent and shampoo and toothbrushes on a monthly basis, but after saving substantially by buying in bulk on 11.11, I’ve become the kind of person who stocks up on 15 bottles of body wash and four cartons of diapers on this one day.
While there aren’t physical crowds to jostle with like there is on Black Friday, shopping on 11.11 is not for the fainthearted. In order to get the best deals, you need a solid strategy and some dexterity but don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
Step 1: Stack your savings with Cashback/Rewards programs
Online rewards programs rely on the strategy of giving customers a cut of the commission they get from referral links. There’s genius in its simplicity.
Here’s how it woks: Sites earn a referral fee from merchants for every purchase made via a referral link. They then pass on a portion of this fee back to the customer in order to incentivise purchases via these referral links and everybody wins.
As a consumer, there’s really no added cost to doing this. All it takes is an extra 10 seconds to open the app and link to the respective merchants before every purchase.
Shopback partners with almost all of the big e-commerce merchants in categories like lifestyle, fashion, groceries, dining and even travel purchases. Every purchase that you make via the app earns you cashback ranging form 1.5% to 20% and once you accumulate a minimum of $10 cashback, you can withdraw it into your bank account.
Over the past several years, I’ve earned a total amount of $1,151.63 in lifetime earnings from Shopback. This is extra money that I got back by simply clicking through to the merchants via the app every time I made a purchase online.
As a newer player in the cashback platform scene, Rebatemango has fewer merchants onboard but on the plus side, you have the option of converting the rewards into cashback, miles or points. Similarly, the cashback can be withdrawn once you accumulate a minimum of $10.
If you’re interested, my rebatemango lifetime earnings are at $492.46. Again, this is free money that I would have missed out on had I skipped this step of clicking through via the app.
*Pro tip: competition is a good thing, so remember to check both platforms to see which one offers the best rebate before making a purchase with the respective merchants.
Step 2: Start collecting vouchers NOW
Seasoned shoppers know that while the madness starts at the stroke of midnight on 11.11, preparation for the event starts days ahead. Merchants are already making it rain with vouchers and you want to get in on the action this very moment.
Vouchers drop at 9am, 12pm and 6pm every day from now till 11.11 and believe me, these go quick. I set an alarm for every drop and even then, it usually takes me several days of furious refreshing and tapping before I score all the vouchers. The vouchers may be hard to get but the good news is that once you get it, it’s yours to use any time before 2359.
At midnight on 11.11, the first round of mayhem begins. Storewide flash sales run from 12 – 2am and depending on what products you intend to purchase, there are good deals to be found here. Check to see if the items you’re eyeing is on the list of participating merchants and if not, wait till 9am where you can make use of the vouchers you’ve collected.
Shopee’s strategy is slightly different – instead of spreading it out over several days, voucher collection will only happen on 10 November at 12am, 12pm and 10pm.
On 11.11, flash vouchers will be released at 12am, 8am, 10am, 12pm, 2pm, 6pm, 8pm, 9pm, 10pm, and 11pm. There will be plenty of opportunities to grab the vouchers but Shopee works on a first-to-check-out basis, so have your items carted and ready for check out once the vouchers drop.
Collect Qoo10 coupon packs starting from 9 November and this also works on a limited redemption basis.
Step 3: Use the right credit cards for even more rebates/rewards
This step requires an entire article so check out our guide to using the best credit cards.
