Alibaba Group unveils plans for 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

Alibaba Group will make this year's 11.11 Global Shopping Festival bigger, better, and more tech-enabled

These include the participation of Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform; broader consumer reach and bigger promotions; “double” the number of shopping windows that will spotlight more brands, products, and special offers; as well as the popular livestreaming technology creating more fun and engagement for Chinese consumers with the largest international presence to date.

For many brands, 11.11 is the single biggest growth driver every year and this year will be no exception. The annual event will continue to support merchants with new innovations, valuable consumer insights, and trusted technology, fulfilling the mission of 11.11 when it was created 12 years ago.

Deepening engagement to “double” opportunities

This year, the festival expands the concept from “single” to “double”, enabling merchants to double up on promoting their products to consumers across China not just once, but twice. A new sales window will be added from November 1 to 3, ahead of the main event on November 11, with the aim of providing merchants, specifically new brands and small businesses, the opportunity to showcase their products and tell their brand stories amid the pandemic.

11.11 has become one of the most important new product launch events of the year for many brands. This year, more than 2 million new products will be introduced, which is double the amount compared to last year.

“Innovation lies at the heart of the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, and we are more committed than ever to empower businesses to capture opportunities and growth through new ideas and initiatives in this challenging year. The pandemic has fundamentally changed consumer shopping preferences and accelerated the digital transformation of many businesses. Through our expansion from ‘single’ to ‘double’, 11.11 will be offering more opportunities for merchants both online and offline to engage with consumers as well as provide a better consumer experience overall,” said Jiang Fan, president of Taobao and Tmall.

This year’s 11.11 experience will also be enhanced by Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform, which brings together nearly 2 million local service providers offering special promotions in more than 100 cities. Offline small- and micro-merchants across China such as street stalls and neighbourhood grocery stores, will be able to participate in the excitement of 11.11 by connecting with consumers through Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform.

Biggest growth driver for participating brands

Alibaba launched the Spring Thunder initiative early this year as a continuous effort to empower merchants. 11.11 is yet another milestone to help merchants regain growth.

This year’s festival will feature 14 million value-for-money products from more than 250,000 brands available on Tmall. Also, to cater to the needs of customers in lower-tier cities, Taobao Deals’ RMB1 Sales campaign will enable consumers to purchase goods at huge discounts with free shipping.

To meet Chinese consumers’ increasing demand for international products, Tmall Global will bring more than 2,600 new overseas brands to Chinese consumers for the first time. Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola will also join 11.11 for the first time, featuring products from 89 countries and regions.

Livestreaming and logistics

Livestreaming is expected to take centre stage of this year’s 11.11. In addition to sessions hosted by top livestreamers, about 400 company executives and 300 celebrities will also hold individual livestreaming sessions. Taobao Live will offer sessions ranging from cosmetics and electronics to cars and houses. New features like online property viewings and virtual vehicle test drives will provide more realistic and engaging experience to help consumers with their buying decisions. Alibaba’s DAMO Academy will use AI to create its first virtual livestreaming host, while Fliggy will host travel-related livestreams.

This year’s event will have the largest international presence since it was founded in 2009. AliExpress now sells to more than 200 countries and regions worldwide. Lazada was the first to bring the shopping festival concept to Southeast Asia across six markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam. Shopping festivals such as 11.11 have also become one of the key industry growth drivers as local small- and medium-sized businesses participate in this biggest event alongside LazMall, the region’s largest online mall with more than 18,000 local and international brands. This year, Lazada will continue its shoppertainment features ranging from livestreaming to new consumer games and innovations such as voice search to find items.

Alibaba’s robust technology and logistics infrastructure is the backbone of the 11.11 Shopping Festival. Cainiao will charter approximately 700 flights during 11.11. More than 50 per cent of this year's cross-border parcels are expected to be delivered twice as fast as its usual speed.