It’s nothing short of being termed incredible if onlines sales register a figure of US $ 10 billion in first 30 minutes of the sale.
Alibaba has done that! The Chinese e-commerce giant has started its annual Singles’ Day Sale, which is also known as ‘Double Eleven’, by crossing a GMV of US $ 10 billion in the first half an hour of the sale while in the first 9 hours, the company garnered a whopping 158.31 billion yuan (US $ 22.63 billion).
That’s a significant 25 per cent jump from 126.72 billion yuan at the same point last year.
The festival’s name originates from the calendar date 11 November, with the four ones of 11/11 signifying being single.
Singles’ Day has been promoted as a shopping fest by Daniel Zhang, Alibaba Chairman and Chief Executive ever since its inception in 2009 and has grown rapidly to become the world’s biggest online sales event.
With the current pace, the company seems to be on the right track to cross the US $ 30 billion recorded last year, although the 27 per cent growth registered in sales in 2018 was the lowest in the event’s 10 year run.
Comparatively, USA’s Cyber Monday online sale only registered a meagre US $ 7.9 billion.
Not only in China, Singles’ Day is gaining increasing popularity outside the country as well. Other players like JD.com and some bricks-and-mortar stores also take part in the Anti-Valentine’s Day sale. Alibaba’s Southeast Asia subsidiary Lazada offers discounts in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.
This is the company’s first ever Singles’ Day sale without founder Jack Ma. They expect over 500 million users to participate in the shopping festival this year, about 100 million more than last year.
More than 200,000 brands from 78 countries are participating in the festival, with one million new products on offer.
