China’s Alibaba Group Holding, Ltd. is taking a step forward toward its goal of “buy global and sell global” by helping overseas merchants sell to consumers outside the Chinese mainland during its upcoming Nov 11 shopping festival dubbed Singles’ Day. For the first time in history, hundreds of overseas brands on Alibaba’s Tmall platform will be able to sell directly to online shoppers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, a move that is seen by Alibaba as testing the waters as it strives to achieve its ambitious goal of serving 2 billion consumers in 20 years.
For those unfamiliar with the shopping holiday, Single’s Day started in China in the 1990s as a type of anti-Valentine’s Day, on which folks celebrated being single. The date, November 11th (11/11), is chosen because the number “1,” as in being “alone.” Around 2009, Alibaba is credited with turning Singles’ Day into a type of celebration in online shopping, whereby you gift yourself. It has become the world’s largest e-commerce day by far. In 2015 alone Single’s Day generated $14.3 billion for China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba over a 24 hour period. Comparatively in the US – Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday, generated a combined total of $7.54 billion in total online revenue last year. This spending extravaganza is only expected to get bigger in 2016 after spending totals in 2015 grew 54% from 2014. Alibaba is expected to surpass 100 billion yuan (approximately $14.67 billion) through expanding online sales past mainland China and into parts of Southeast Asia and by teaming up with international retailers.
Daniel Zhang, chief executive officer of Alibaba Group, said at an event in Hong Kong on Thursday, that globalization is one of the top priorities of the company.
“During the Nov 11 shopping festival last year, we brought overseas brands to online shoppers in the mainland. This year, we hope to help more brands enter new markets and access consumers beyond the mainland,” he said, adding that the company’s next step would be to help overseas brands access shoppers in Southeast Asia. By expanding globally, Alibaba is expected to set a record in the sales due to a larger shopper base.
JD.com Inc, Alibaba’s biggest rival in e-commerce in China, adopts a similar strategy. The company, which has formed a strategic alliance with Wal-Mart, plans to spur sales by helping Chinese consumers access to a wide variety of products imported by Wal-Mart from around the world.
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