In the Singles’ Day event this year, Alibaba has smashed all the sales record by raking in mindboggling $17.7 billion in 24 hours. It is reported that the figure is indeed bigger than that of Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
The global shopping festival of Alibaba which goes online on 11/11 is the world’s humongous online sale. Alibaba has already broken all the sales record. Although they did not manage to rake in astonishing $20 billion as predicted by some experts but they still managed to get closer to the $18 billion mark.
According to Alibaba, the most purchased item was undoubtedly mobile phones.
The Singles’ Day event began in style with a televised gala event which attracted global attention. In addition, the performance by One Republic and cameo appearance from the basketball legend Kobe Bryant rocked the show. Furthermore, the heartthrob of all the ladies and football legend David Beckham also graced the occasion with his wife.
While talking about the gala, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group Chris Tung stated:
“It is a global carnival, a world-class performance that involves the audience throughout the event with many touch points and is like nothing else you have experienced”
Pre-orders boosted the sales dramatically
The tool that Alibaba uses to count its sales figures is Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV). The figures depict the total sum of goods which are sold during the sale.
One of the key factors which played a significant part in dramatic sales is that the pre-order booking was open for the customers. As a result, it allowed customers to reserve their products which they did at a promotional event earlier this year.
It is reported that the pre-orders were supposedly higher this year than previous year. An official of Alibaba stated:
“The orders were so much so that other Alibaba officials were talking about how the 24-hour sale had become a 24-day affair”
Moving forward
Managing Director of IDC China, Kitty Fok while speaking to BBC stated:
“We’re seeing an even bigger shift from offline shopping to online shopping. Moreover, there is also more of a focus on rural areas. People in the villages who could not do online shopping now have mobile phones and so can do that”
The CEO of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang stated:
“Only 10 percent of China’s total retail spending is happening online, which means that Singles Day will likely keep growing for years to come”
The collective worth of Alibaba Group is massive $257 billion. They recently surpassed Walmart as the world’s largest retailers. The group comprises e-commerce, cloud computing, payments, marketing, media and entertainment companies. Alibaba is also looking to expand its wing to India and South East Asia. The market in India is enormous with over 1 billion population. Additionally, South East Asia is home to 600 million people.
Do you think Alibaba will be able to establish its footings in the aforementioned regions as greatly as they have in China?
Image Credits: Tech in Asia
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