Alibaba generates $74.1 billion in GMV during 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

Alibaba generates $74.1 billion in GMV during the 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

“Over the past 12 years, innovation has been at the heart of 11.11 as it became a global consumer festival. 11.11 is defined by our consumers, merchants and our partners across the ecosystem, and has received great support from society,” said Jiang Fan, president of Taobao and Tmall. “We will continue to focus on developing our digital infrastructure in the service of empowering merchants of all sizes to find a path to success in the digital economy.”

Over 470 brands achieved more than RMB100 million ($15.11 million) in GMV, showcasing the value creation of digital transformation across the Alibaba Digital Economy.

The Alibaba digital infrastructure handled 583,000 orders per second during peak of activity, demonstrating the strength and scale of the company's underlying technology platform.

Cainiao Network, Alibaba's logistics platform operator,processed more than 2.32 billion delivery orders cumulatively over the 11-day period.

Livestreaming has become an indispensable marketing tool, with over 30 livestreaming channels featured on Taobao Live that each generated more than RMB100 million ($15.11 million) in GMV.

The 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival attracted 250,000 brands in total, of which 31,000 are overseas brands. Within these overseas brands, 2,600 participated in 11.11 for the first time.

Around 357 emerging brands became top sellers in their respective subcategories. More than 1,800 emerging brands surpassed their GMV from 11.11 last year and, of these, 94 emerging brands enjoyed sales growth of over 1,000 per cent.

Under Alibaba’s Spring Thunder initiative, 1.2 million merchants and 300,000 factories focused on overseas trade from more than 2,000 industry clusters across China participated in 11.11.

It is worth noting that the AI customer chatbot handled over 2.1 billion queries during the 11-day period.

The United States was the top country selling to China by GMV. Other top-selling countries to China, in alphabetical order, include Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, and the UK.

On November 11, Alibaba Group held a second Asia-Pacific press briefing for the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2020 at the Alibaba Xixi Campus in Hangzhou.

Liu Bo, vice president of Alibaba Group

According to Liu Bo, vice president of Alibaba Group cum general manager of Tmall Marketing and Operations, this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival is particularly significant for Alibaba, as every 12 years represents the completion of a full cycle in Chinese culture/numerology. There are some special preparations made in the lead-up for this year’s edition to optimise the experience for consumers and support for merchants, especially during the pandemic.

Tmall is especially ready for this year’s festival, having started preparations three to four months ago based on direct feedback from merchants and consumers about their preferences and expectations. The introduction of two 11.11 sales windows is another key change from previous years.

In addition, significant attention was placed on optimising the customer experience even further, especially in strengthening logistics capacity and improving the speed of parcel delivery.

Alibaba is also focusing on serving people from different economic backgrounds, cultures, regions and sectors, while promoting responsible consumption by tailoring promotions and products offered to different communities.

Alibaba designed this year’s festival based on understanding of consumer behaviours and preferences, optimising the kinds of products being offered to shoppers, and innovating the way to engage effectively with consumers.

Gamification, which was a highlight of this 11.11, created new opportunities for brands to interact with consumers through a fun environment.

Many international brands are using 11.11 to introduce sub-brands to the Chinese market

Another big focus this year is to empower participating merchants and brands with new capabilities available via the Alibaba Business Operating System (ABOS) – from brand incubation, livestreaming e-commerce, membership, brand building, sales and marketing, and tools for consumer engagement. The scale of 11.11 makes it an ideal platform to put these capabilities to the test.

For example, Alibaba is encouraging manufacturers to move up the value chain and create a brand of their own. Through the ABOS-powered incubation process and support by Alibaba, some of these manufacturers are now the top 10 or 20 selling brands in terms of GMV for their product category.

Focusing on new product launches has become an important practice for merchants, with GMV of new products continuing to grow.

Internationally established brands are also leveraging Tmall to introduce new products to the receptive young and middle-class consumers in China.

Many international brands including L’Oreal and Estée Lauder are using 11.11 to introduce sub-brands to the China market as well.

"Ultimately, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival is for consumers. Alibaba hopes consumers can truly enjoy it as a celebration of their own. This year’s positive mottos like 'Cheer up' and 'Have a great life together' were designed to encourage more people from different backgrounds and demographics to participate and share in the joy of the festival," Liu Bo stressed.