Alibaba’s 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival kicks off

The world’s largest online shopping event went live at midnight China time. Alibaba’s 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, its 12th, already saw a strong "shopping window" November 1-3, a new retail opportunity introduced this year. The second window is on the traditional Singles' Day on the 11th, and over 250,000 brands are expecting sales to come rolling in.

According to Alibaba, more than 16 million discounted products are on offer on 11.11, over 3 million for the first time, and over 2 million new products are debuting on Alibaba’s B2C platform Tmall alone this year. Nearly 200 luxury brands joined this year’s 11.11 festival; among them are Montblanc, Piaget, and IWC Schaffhausen which are participating for the first time.

Over 100 brands, including Nike, Adidas, Apple, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder and Lancôme, achieved RMB100 million in gross merchandise volume (GMV) only 111 minutes into the first sales period. Beauty products - a top 11.11 category – generated more than RMB10 billion in GMV and exceeded 150% year-over-year (YoY) sales growth in the first hour of the event. Estée Lauder’s Tmall flagship store was the first to surpass the milestone of RMB1 billion in sales during 11.11, and 34 new brands in the beauty category achieved more than RMB10 million in sales in a single day. In fact, Tmall Global’s first day presale GMV growth increased by 90% YoY.

In fact, Alibaba said over 1,800 emerging brands surpassed last year's 11.11 GMV on November 1 alone. Among them, 94 brands have already achieved 1,000% year-on-year (YoY) growth. Luxury brand Cartier hosted its first jewellery show on Taobao Live during the first shopping window, unveiling more than 400 timepieces and jewellery items including a necklace valued at RMB190 million. This livestream attracted 770,000 viewers in just two hours.

The results from the 11.11 presale period show robust and continuously growing demand for imported goods, as well as a solid rebound for consumer spending in China, Alibaba said. The festivities have continued with a live annual gala event in Shanghai on the 10th, followed by the formal 11.11 launch in Hangzhou at the stroke of midnight on the 11th.

This year the Festival has doubled down on the concept of “single”. Merchants could double up on promoting their products to consumers across China twice. The new sales window from November 1 to 3, ahead of the main event on November 11, aimed to provide merchants, specifically new brands and small businesses, the opportunity to showcase their products and tell their brand stories amid the COVID-19 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 twice the number 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 year full of challenges. The pandemic has fundamentally changed consumer shopping preferences and accelerated 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 in late October, when 11.11 was announced.

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 connect with consumers through Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform.

The 2020 Festival will feature 14 million value-for-money products from more than 250,000 brands available on Tmall. Also, to cater for 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 have an 11.11 debut, featuring products from 89 countries and regions.

Livestreaming is expected to take the centrestage this year’s 11.11. In addition to sessions hosted by top livestreamers, about 400 company executives and 300 celebrities will also be conducting livestreaming sessions. Taobao Live will offer sessions on topics 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 decide.

Alibaba’s DAMO Academy will use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to create its first virtual livestreaming host, while Fliggy, Alibaba's travel service platform, 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. Lazada's LazMall is 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 help consumers locate items.

Alibaba’s technology backend and logistics infrastructure is the backbone of the 11.11 Shopping Festival. Cainiao will charter approximately 700 flights during 11.11, and more than 50% of this year's cross-border parcels are expected to be delivered twice as fast as before. Alibaba and brands have also ensured that more than 1 million popular goods are in warehouses across China for quicker domestic delivery.

Other innovations include XiaomanLV, the newest addition to the delivery fleet belonging to Alibaba’s logistics unit, Cainiao. The new delivery robot model, developed by Alibaba’s DAMO global research academy, operates autonomously through complex traffic conditions. XiaomanLV has already been expediting package delivery at China’s Zhejiang University since November 1. The robots are expected to deliver 30,000 packages by the end of this year’s 11.11.

To help international audiences better understand consumer trends and the next wave of retail innovation, and to show how international brands are entering and succeeding in the Chinese market, Alibaba is hosting a live virtual event called Understanding 11.11: Alibaba’s Mega Shopping Festival. The 45-minute broadcast – a first for the company – will air at 10:30 am ET (7:30 am PT) on November 11. It is timed to coincide with the last 30 minutes of the 11.11 festival in China (11:30 pm November 11 to 12 am November 12, China time) and the 15-minute period immediately following, when Alibaba will be sharing live results from the festival.

The broadcast will feature:

 Interviews with Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai and President Michael Evans.

 Founders and CEOs of iconic global brands such as fashion retailer DVF, guitar specialist Fender and consumer appliance firm BISSELL talking about what it takes to succeed in the Chinese market.

 US small businesses that participated in 11.11 for the first time this year and the lessons they learned along the way.

 One of China’s hottest livestreamers on how and why livestreaming, a powerful marketing and brand-building tool, has taken the e-commerce market by storm in China.

 LIVE results from 11.11 and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage that shows how Alibaba pulls off the world’s largest shopping festival.

Register for the virtual event here.

The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival began in 2009 with participation from 27 merchants. It was conceptualised as an event for merchants and consumers to raise awareness about the value of online shopping.