“The sales on Singles Day shows the power of the internet and that China still has considerable consumption potential”, said Zhu Qibing, a Beijing-based analyst at China Minzu Securities.
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Overall the top countries selling to China this singles day were: United States, Japan, South Korea, Germany, and Australia. The idea is that if you’re single, you have no commitments (at least not as far as a partner or kids are concerned) meaning that you should “celebrate” by going spending on things that you want.
This year’s Singles Day comes at a critical juncture for the company. Suning’s in-store sales will count towards Alibaba’s total gross merchandise volume, as long as they go through final processing online, an Alibaba spokesman said. “Chinese consumers associate quality and prestige with American and European brands, and both have very solid presence on 11/11 in response to strong consumer demand”.
Known as the world’s biggest 24-hour online shopping event, Singles’ Day falls on November 11th every year.
Nasdaq-listed rival online marketplace JD.com reportedly filed a complaint with the government last week, accusing Alibaba of monopolising the market by restricting suppliers from participating in other operators’ promotion events on November 11.
Alibaba said that more than $1 billion was spent within eight minutes of when the sale began at midnight. By two P.M. on the national shopping day, online-retail firm Alibaba reported that online sales had climbed to $10 billion.
That number is a 60% increase from previous year. In 2014, its Singles’ Day sale saw $9 billion over the course of the day.
It’s no surprise that with more than six million products from over 40,000 merchants, they’ll need the extra hands.
Total GMV settled through Alipay was $3.9 billion in the first hour.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA) is deploying 1.7 million delivery personnel, 400,000 vehicles 5,000 warehouses and 200 airplanes just to make sure everything runs smoothly.
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Following this year’s event, economists will be looking for clues about Chinese domestic consumption in Wednesday’s sales as the world’s second-biggest economy head for the slowest growth in almost a quarter of a century. It uses cameos from celebrities, including Kevin Spacey, who promoted the event playing his role as Machiavellian US President Frank Underwood from the hit Netflix series “House Of Cards”.
