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RESEARCH, ANALYSIS & TRENDS





Alibaba’s Singles'

Day broke the


world’s


eCommerce sales


record




Chinese consumers flocked to Alibaba’s "Singles' Day" It is likely to create a new order for cross-border busi-
discounts on Tuesday, hitting a sales record of $9.34 ness in the future, which will definitely become a huge
billion on November 11, 2014 that smashed all previous challenge to the American eCommerce giant, Amazon.
records. Years ago, the "11.11" online shopping festival only
happened in China. Now it will go beyond China to oth-
China’s dominant e-commerce company, and clear No. er parts of Asia and even to the world.”
1 Internet retailer, began promoting the specific calen-
dar date for its annual 'Singles' Day' shopping event Indeed, Jack Ma, founder and executive chairman of
online sales in 2009 as a kind of an anti Valentine’s Alibaba, said he hopes to fully bring the Singles' Day
Day movement, with many other merchants coming on shopping holiday to global consumers by 2019 and ac-
board in recent years. cording to Alibaba's media briefing, shoppers from
more than 220 countries could take part in the shop-
Quite obviously, the date “11.11” has been chosen well, ping festival this year.
since it is easy to remember and conveniently placed in
the doldrums of consumer spending between China’s IDC believes further that mobility and online to offline
National Day and the Chinese New Year holidays. (O2O) will be two important aspects of the changes in
consumer behavior. Fact is that China’s anti–
Same as last year, sales easily outstripped any equiva- Valentine’s Day has become one of the most profitable
lent shopping occasion this year, such as the famous manufactured holidays in history that surpassed $2 bil-
post-Thanksgiving shopping splurges on Cyber Monday lion in sales volume processed through the Alipay mo-
and Black Friday in the US. bile app within the first hour and 11 seconds on No-
vember 11, 2014.
Instead, Singles’ Day has become THE day of sales for
China's fast growing eCommerce market, which is ex- For Alibaba, which recently listed on the New York
pected to grow at an annual rate of 25% over the next Stock Exchange, mobility is important to demonstrate
few years, from $390bn in 2014 to $718bn in 2017, ac- its ability in mobile eCommerce at every opportunity,
cording to a recent study released by management since Tencent (Wechat), one of its main competitors,
consulting firm AT Kearney. occupies the dominant position in social networking
and mobile IM in China, IDC explained. Hence, there is
huge pressure on Alibaba's future development in mo-
IDC believes, according to a recent release, that
"11.11" is not only a festival for Alibaba online shoppers bile Internet, besides high consumer expectations re-
and online retailers, but that it also changes consumers' garding O2O shopping. Most probably you will see new
buying behavior and influences the evolution of the Chi- O2O models emerge where, for instance, consumers
na e-commerce ecosystem.. can go to offline shops to get the goods they purchased
online, or consumers in offline shops can get coupons
for future shopping by scanning the QR codes on the
IDC commented: “Several years ago, it was hard to packing bags.
believe that the infrastructure of the China retail and
logistics sectors could support such a great volume of
consumer shopping transactions on a single day. How- IDC considers the Singles’ Day shopping festival as
ever, this has come true with the upgraded eCommerce China’s experimental field for eCommerce market inno-
ecosystem in China, which is built on the 3rd Platform vations, which seems just so true as it gives China and
(cloud, mobility, social and Big Data). One of the mean- the world a glimpse into the eCommerce ecosystem
ingful things about the "11.11" online shopping festival and consumers' shopping behavior that allows busi-
is that it facilitates the development of the China busi- nesses to stay ahead. ◊
ness infrastructure, including IT infrastructure, logistic

services, etc. Alibaba is now moving on to build a wider By Daniela La Marca
e-commerce ecosystem all around the world.
6 Asian eMarketing November 2014 - Cross-, Multi-, Omni-Channel & Everywhere Commerce
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