Singles’ Day, Black Friday & Quick Commerce: APAC Retail’s New Peak Season

Black Friday isn’t a day anymore. Singles’ Day now stretches across weeks. Quick commerce promises groceries in 15–30 minutes. In this APAC edition of Five Things Friday, co‑hosts Ngai Yuen Low & Ryf Quail break down how peak season is changing across China, Southeast Asia, Australia and Japan – and what it really means for consumers, retailers and retail property.Joining from WP. Kuala Lumpur and the Greater Sydney Area, Ngai Yuen and Ryf compare how Singles’ Day has turned into a multi‑week promotion machine, why Black Friday lands very differently in Singapore vs Malaysia, and how Australia now treats November as a long sprint into Christmas.🌐 Visit Retail News.AI, your premium destination for the most relevant, cutting-edge information in the retail sector: https://retailnews.ai/💬 Which of these trends do you think will shape the future of retail the most — and why? Share your thoughts in the comments below!✅ Subscribe now and never miss a new episode of The Retail Podcast.https://www.youtube.com/@theretailpodcast?sub_confirmation=1--------*Welcome to the official channel of THE RETAIL PODCAST, the leading community for global retail leaders, innovators, and changemakers.*If you are struggling to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving industry, looking for insights from major conferences like NRF, Shoptalk, and EuroCIS, or aiming to connect your digital funnels to physical events with measurable ROI, this channel is designed for you.➡️ Hosted by Alex Rezvan and joined by some of the most respected voices in the sector, The Retail Podcast brings sharp, actionable insights from industry veterans with backgrounds at Microsoft and Verizon, where projects worth over $1.5 billion were directed. Our mission is to help retailers and businesses that sell to retailers anticipate change, embrace technology, and unlock new growth opportunities.Here you will discover exclusive interviews with executives and innovators, coverage of global retail conferences, analysis of technology and AI trends, in-depth explorations of fashion, grocery, luxury, and eCommerce, and thought leadership that keeps your strategy relevant all year long. As part of the RetailNews.AI ecosystem, this channel does more than report the news—it shapes the conversation on the future of retail.*Subscribe now and activate notifications so you never miss the strategies, stories, and signals defining tomorrow’s retail.*--------📲 Follow us on LinkedIn to stay connected with daily retail insights and industry updates.https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-retail-podcast/📩 Contact us at: [e-mail]--------🔗 References:--------⏱️ Timestamps • 0:00 – Intro: Five Things Friday APAC & on‑the‑road check‑in • 1:06 – Singles’ Day & Black Friday turn into full “seasons” • 2:03 – Black Friday in Singapore vs Malaysia • 2:39 – Australia’s Black Friday “monster” & Christmas build‑up • 3:40 – Spend forecasts, per‑capita estimates & retail optimism • 4:36 – Promo email overload, time‑bound offers & Cyber Monday as one festival • 5:53 – Hockey weekend, 16‑year‑old daughter & shopping plans • 6:12 – TikTok’s “last time” parenting trend and emotional moments • 7:18 – MAPIC recap: retail property finally turns a corner in Europe • 8:12 – Asian retailers (kidswear, Mr DIY) reshaping European high streets • 8:40 – Quick commerce scepticism: infra, riders and margin erosion • 10:03 – India’s BigBasket & the race for shorter delivery promises • 11:25 – Don Don Donki: favourite retailer in Asia & SE Asia juggernaut • 13:07 – Yen weakness, retail tourism & destination Don Don Donki stores in Japan • 14:17 – Store autonomy, non‑traditional management & wrap‑up--------#TheRetailPodcast #FiveThingsFriday #APACRetail #BlackFriday #SinglesDay #QuickCommerce #DonDonDonki #MrDIY #RetailTrends #ecommerce

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hi, I'm Brief Qual, Managing Director of NRF retails Big Show
Asia Pacific and this is Five things Friday APEC edition.
Hello. We're all popping one hour,
yeah. I think there is a there is a 5

(00:22):
things Friday, part of which allof the Co presenters that we
have there I was in popping along with.
Anyway, fantastic, lovely to seeyou.
I haven't seen you for a couple of weeks.
I'm still on the road. I haven't stopped being on the
road. Where are you today?
I'm coming you from a hotel in London, but I've been Barcelona,
South of France. I was cricket went well.
Just as an aside, the cricket went well, very well.

(00:44):
And and the rugby you and why don't you start self, OK.
I want to talk about how things are changing to become something
so much a part of our lives without us realising things like
singles Day, Black Friday, whichdidn't exist before and suddenly
now is like the season for it. So when I was in China, I was
really surprised to find out that singles day is like stretch

(01:07):
for five weeks. So while 1111 is still the day,
but every other conversation is like, oh, leading up to it.
You can already buy this now thepre book this, pre buy this.
So so that's happening. And then Black Friday, we all
know that that's that used to bejust one day or maybe stretch on
the weekend with the following Monday.

(01:27):
But now it's like, I think 10 days one month.
What's happening? Well, we all know what's
happening is not doing as well as before, but you know, and so
they're trying to lengthen the time so that they can do better
and better and better. But I don't know if that's
actually good for consumers are.You tell me about Black Friday
in Southeast Asia. Is it?
Does it permeate through all countries?

(01:48):
This is a thing? How big is it?
So in Singapore is way bigger than Malaysia, for example,
because the understanding what Black Friday is completely very
different. Nobody's selling the idea what
Black Friday is except that it is an e-commerce day.
We all know the story of how howBlack Friday started back in the
States and back in I think the days where it is really about

(02:10):
oh, the one day that you look forward to for e-commerce right
before way before singles day. So in Malaysia, when we talk
about Black Friday, it is often with what?
But if you just talk about salesday at the end of the month
because you know their salary, then they will be picking it up
very quickly. So it is not at the same speed
in every country in Southeast Asia for Black Friday.

(02:32):
How's the line in Australia? Australia, that's what's going
to be my point. Australia is it's it's a monster
of a day. And in fact, I was saying, but
before we started Black Friday, like you're talking about when I
was a kid, it didn't exist. Like now it's like shifted the
whole retail coming. I mean, as a a Christian
country. So Christmas is a big deal,
right? And really you can't if you want

(02:52):
to run a show in Australia, you can't get a retailer turn up to
a show after September for a lotof money because it's getting
ready for Black Friday through the disaster.
But it starts at the start of ofNovember.
Like it's crazy. I'll be I I buy motorbike gear
and I am getting deals from the 1st of November.
And but this, this period, what's really lovely about
Australia is that in part from being being with part for

(03:13):
myself, of course, is the fact that, you know, that this is
starting to see look of some positive economic size.
So we're being told by Australian Retailers
Association, the and some of theanalysts.
So we're talk, we're expecting Black Friday to be something in
the magnitude of 5% bigger than last year and the biggest in
recent history. So we're talking about 6.8

(03:35):
billion Australian or 4.4 billion US from Friday to
Monday. So over 4 days.
And it's and, and in terms of Australian dollars only the US
$50 are probably about 6,000,000, but I would say it's
probably that's probably 5 million.
So, yeah, so it's the talking about roughly $800 Australian
per person for the weekend space.
And people are sorry, people areshopping because of obviously

(03:55):
bleeding into Christmas. They're buying stuff for
themselves. They're looking for savings,
right? That's the drivers.
But you know, this is, you know,where's this is positive growth
for retail in Australia. And it starts, it's the
beginning of the season. So this weekend is massive and
there's a lot of positive feeling in Australian retail.
Now I purchased something on LinkedIn a few weeks back, but
it's it's looking really, reallypositive.

(04:16):
And or, and the end it like as Iwas saying, you on Friday
tomorrow on this at the end of this week, if you're in the
office or you probably work fromhome on a Friday, that's
probably more. No, I work in the office. 100%
Alex is in a hotel in London. He doesn't even know where he
is. But the point of that I'm making
is that is you're having, you'rehaving a conversation with

(04:38):
someone and they'll get an e-mail about a special and they
go, can I just, can I just call you back in 10 minutes?
Because all the time bound you have to, you have to buy this a
boat. And I've been getting emails
like this for like 30 days. I'm like losing my mind.
I'm like, Oh, I've got to, I've got, I can't even see that.
So it's like it's inside. It's crazy.
But the, the, the positive out of it, all of it is there's real
green shoots. And we think in Australia
particularly from, from this, this Friday to Boxing Day, 26

(05:02):
December, it's going to be our best series season in living
memory because it's been pretty rugged for a long time.
And that's really good for from from a show organised point of
view. Because if when we take, when
retailers are making sales and they've got smiles on their
faces, they buy tickets to showslike ours, which is good.
That's my way. Sure is true.
What about Cyber Monday? Is that is that?
Yeah, don't get anything. It's it's, it's just part of the

(05:23):
deal. It's, it's a, it's basically
it's all talked about as one festival.
So it's from from Friday to Monday.
Yeah. It's just, it's we we do quite
often people say BFCM. Oh.
Really. Wow.
I wouldn't know what that meant.And maybe you're like, are you
doing BFCM? I'll be like, yeah.
OK, cool. So I'll go with at the
conferences that I've been attending, one of the biggest

(05:46):
differences that I noticed this year at mapping, which is
ultimately commercial real estate people that have got
billion dollar shopping centres or assets in different European
countries all come there to talkabout.
And for the last five years it'sbeen doom and gloom, shrinking
assets, poor return on investment.
This year everyone feels that they've turned the corner and

(06:06):
retail property is back. And so therefore one of the
drivers of that in Europe, specifically European cities,
Berlin, Madrid, London, Paris, is the fact that Asian retailers
making comeback and some of those Asian come companies such
as Balabalu, which is children'sclothing and they have, I don't

(06:27):
know, over 1000 stores already in Asia.
And Mr DIY, who? Actually Malaysian I.
Know this one? Yeah, All right.
Yeah. And they're doing phenomenally
well and they've and they're black.
Who would think that you would blend retail, entertainment and
DIY? But that is at the heart of what
Mr DIY does. And so it's a fantastic, I think

(06:49):
into what could potentially be amulticultural High Street with
Asian retailers dominating in certain sectors that they've
done well at home and and now they're expanding into Europe.
So I think that's an interestingtrend to watch.
Coming back to you for you in for the second one.
Yeah. So talking about expanding of

(07:10):
expansion of a trend, there is atrend that I've not believed in
and I want to say I'm still not believing in it because I, I
kind of think, you know, settingup the infra just to do it is
really too much. And the margin erosion is just
going to be, I mean you're not going to make business that way.
So I'm talking about quick commerce.
So now a lot of people think quick commerce just from the

(07:31):
front and side is like, oh, I'm doing this, I'm asking for, I'm
buying it and it's going to cometo me within an hour.
And I think in South Korea or a lot part of the China, this is
becoming less and less time. It can be 30 minutes, it can be
15 minutes, it can be as quick as that.
And it's become like an everydayinfrastructure.
So I guess in those countries, in certain very specific cities,

(07:54):
I think it work really well because I think the way the
roads or the way they've got it planned, the way they have got,
you know, the, the sheer size ofriders, I think that worked.
But in a country like many others, I mean, I was really
sceptical when they talk about India picking up quick commerce.
And today India's quick commerceis even bigger and better ahead

(08:16):
than the traditional quick than the traditional commerce
e-commerce. I mean, so it's like, what?
I'm bad fault, but I'm still gonna stand strong.
No quick commerce in Malaysia, I'll tell you.
I'll tell you and I, we spoke. We spoke at NRF APEC.
We did. We got.
This we had we had big basket from India.
So are there a grocer speak and and and Ashutosh is the is he's

(08:38):
only advisable that she's a lovely man and he's sort of a
head of sort of last mile. So he's the guy who's
implementing like implementing it like it's insane.
And he talks about the market dynamics.
But you said to me, don't tell anyone about this, that we don't
need to have anyone. No, you know, I mean, if you ask
the customer, the customer is going to say, yeah, I want it,

(09:00):
but it's really we can't deliverit.
That's the point and. And Ashutosh's point was too he
he in his ass for big basket. They put delivery times against
items and if they put a deliverytime which is faster than
something else, people want to buy the faster ones irrespective
if it was 7 minutes or 13 minutes.
Doesn't. You don't need it.
Maybe you don't. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Who needs something? Who needs an apple in 7 minutes?

(09:23):
I mean, maybe you do. I mean maybe you've got a
teacher you need to give a present to.
But the point I'm trying to makeis like like people were making
this in diets. This is 7 minutes and this is 9
minutes. I'll buy the seven minute 1
because it like it'd be different types of bananas.
Result. It's like crazy anyway, so who
knows what this is? All the consumers.
Here. OK, moving on to your reef for
the final one. Right, so the fit to finish off,
we are going to talk about my favourite retailer in Asia.

(09:45):
I, I, I, I have a bit of a punchon for this retailer.
I'm going it's the Japanese. I'm going to share my screen.
How do I do this? I'm going to add to stage here
we go look at that. So this is Don Don Donkey.
This is Pan Pacific International Holdings.
They're the 4th. They have a whole, these guys
have they're a retail conglomerate in Japan, they're
the fourth biggest in Japan. They've got outfits in Europe.

(10:07):
They've got all sorts of different things, but this is
their sort of their sort of popular culture slash grosser
slash all sorts of things. So yeah, it's in, there's two
sides in Singapore and they're all over Asian and it's a it's a
juggernaut in Asia Pacific, particularly Southeast Asia.
I mean, you and you've got it inMalaysia and you just can't walk
into these stores and not buy something.
It's just epic. Is this picture?

(10:27):
This picture is the one in Australia, is that right?
No, we don't have them in Australia.
Not yet. No, no, I would.
I might ring. I might ring them and say, look,
you need to come to Australia, I'll take you because this is
this. This place is awesome.
It's so. And it's a gross like.
It's a it's like food and snacksand and groceries are.
Fruits are known for they they actually like everything.

(10:49):
Yeah, so anything Japanese culture, like, you know, things
like anime get things long HelloHello Kitty pop stuff.
Very interesting food. Yeah, 100 all kinds of and you
it's also you walk in and it's very hard to get out so.
You can't see the road out asidefrom that and the music is on

(11:12):
repeat is on rewind is the same song.
Anyone in Southeast, anyone in Southeast Asia knows the Don Don
Donkey track and probably could.If I said to you and sing the
Don Don Donkey song, you just whip it out.
But what what Pan Pacific Holdings is doing?
I want to talk about the still because the concepts also, it's
a real tourist destination driver.
So it's and then it's a destination retail.

(11:34):
So in Singapore, for example, there's only two sites, one in
Suntec and one in Orchard Rd. But in Japan, the Japanese yen
has been the weakest it's been since the 1970s.
It's really struggling. And so there's been obviously
massive growth in retail tourism.
And to meet that demand, PPIH Don Don Dokies owners have
announced they're launching destination retail for tourists

(11:55):
in Japan. So in Osaka, in Tokyo there and
a bunch of other bigger cities, there'll be, there's 8 new
stores, 300 square metres to 1000 square metres.
They're not small stores, right?Big to capitalise on people who
are coming to Japan and wanting a retailer tourism experience.
And this is, this is, you know, what would you say you?

(12:16):
And it's the epitome of Japaneseretail in terms of the way it
looks and feels. Yeah, and the way they buy, the
way tourists buy is not the samelike how a normal customer will
buy. Yeah.
It's not about buying and putting in the basket.
It's about buying and putting itinto a luggage.
So you, you you could go in without luggage and you could
buy luggages at Don Don Donkey. You live with maybe say, 3

(12:37):
luggages of all kinds. That's crazy, you know?
This looks like, for me an an extension like Mini.
So who again is another Asian retailer?
Yeah, yeah, phenomenally well. But the interesting thing about
Donkey is how it's being run andalso how how every store is so
empowered to just sort of do their kind of marketing, do

(13:00):
their kind of decoration, do their very it's.
Very non Japanese in terms of command and control.
Japan is very much down structure, whereas Don Donkey is
completely counter to that. So I reckon for most Japanese
retailers, this would blow theirmind in terms of the way they're
managed. As you and said, the stores are
totally empowered to to do theirown thing.
The store managers put the sale prices up.

(13:21):
They do that. They make the decisions of how
their store runs and that's veryJapanese too, which is, which
makes it unique. Oh, fantastic.
Well, that's. Brilliant.
Well, listen, we, we've hit our time.
Thank you so much for giving up your time and sharing what's top
of mind for you. And I look forward to seeing you
next. Week, thank you very.
Marcelini, see you again.