Alibaba Group has launched its 2019 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, taking the annual event into its second decade.
The shopping holiday this year focused on “new consumption,” “new business” and actively contributing to a greener society.
“Our goal is to stimulate consumption demand and support lifestyle upgrade in China through new brands and products,” said Taobao and Tmall president Fan Jiang. “We will enable merchants in China and around the world to grow their businesses through data-driven product innovation and consumer insights, as well as leverage our recommendation technology and content-driven user engagement to delight consumers in urban coastal cities and less-developed areas of China.
“Given its scale, minimizing environmental impact is essential and our technology will ensure it is a green 2019 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.”
The festival taps a global supply chain to meet the growing demand of Chinese consumers for new brands and new products. More than 200,000 brands are participating; one million new products are on offer and more than 500 million users are expected to participate in this year’s festival – about 100 million more than last year.
Estimated consumer savings from brand and platform promotions and coupons are around RMB 50 billion (US$7 billion).
For the first time, Alibaba held a concurrent kickoff event in the northeastern city of Harbin, underscoring its focus on serving consumers and small businesses in China’s less-developed markets. In the last quarter, more than 70 percent of Alibaba’s new annual active consumers came from lower-tier cities.
“The success of our focus on less-developed markets in China is reflected in our new customer acquisition growth,” said Alibaba Group CMO Chris Tung. “We are equally driven to help local enterprises and factories digitize, which improve their operational efficiency and ability to engage with customers across the country.”
More than 22,000 international brands from 78 countries and regions will participate in this year’s 11.11 on Tmall Global, Alibaba’s cross-border online marketplace, providing an expansive international product selection for consumers.
For the second year, Lazada will take part and expects its “shoppertainment” – a blend of shopping and entertainment – to attract a record number of participating merchants and consumers in its six markets.
While continuing to serve over 200 countries and regions, AliExpress will enable local merchants from Russia, Spain, Italy, and Turkey to participate in 11.11 for the first time.
Daraz disrupted South Asia’s retail market with 11.11 last year and is gearing up again with celebrations in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Nepal. India will celebrate with the UC Shopping Fest, in association with Paytm, VMate, and 9Apps.
Fliggy will offer 30,000 different vacation packages to over 200 destinations to serve Chinese tourists. Thousands of travel experts will offer tips and suggestions via live streams during 11.11.
Cainiao and its partners will make November 20th a day focused on the recycling of cardboard packaging. They will work to convert 75,000 locations into permanent recycling stations, and express courier companies to pick up used cardboard boxes and wrapping.
Consumers will be incentivized to recycle through rewards of “green energy” points on Ant Forest.
Alibaba Cloud expects to save 200,000 kilowatt-hours of energy on November 11th at its data centers, which will be powered by renewable energy and energy-conserving technology such as liquid-cooled servers.