South Korean retailers benefited from another record-setting Nov. 11 Singles Day shopping extravaganza led by Alibaba Group of China. Since 2009, Chinese retail giant Alibaba Group has transformed Singles’ Day, which falls on Nov. 11, into an online shopping festival with large discounts offered for 24 hours.
Over 40 percent of shoppers made purchases from international brands, said Alibaba.
Among the countries that sold products to Chinese customers on Sunday, Korea ranked third after Japan and the United States.
Korea placed at No. 3 on the list in 2016, but fell two ranks last year after the deployment of the U.S.-led terminal high altitude area defense (Thaad) antimissile system.
The incident soured relations between the two countries and provoked a boycott movement against domestic brands in China.
The exact volume of Korean goods purchased on Sunday was not disclosed, but it was evident that the shopping spree had an impact on local companies, as some of them reported record-breaking figures on Monday.
Korea’s top beauty and personal care brand LG Household & Health Care Ltd. said on Monday that overall cosmetics sales during this year’s around-the-clock shopping gala rose 50 percent from a year ago at Tmall Global, a major e-commerce platform managed by China’s Alibaba Group.
Sales of household items also jumped 73 percent during the same period.
LG Household & Health Care raised 23 billion won (US$20.3 million) in sales of its flagship cosmetics label the History of Whoo during this year’s Singles Day event, up 72 percent from last year.
Sales of luxury cosmetics brand su:m37 also jumped 82 percent during the same period mainly driven by increased demand for its Water-Full skin-care product line.
The brand sold 26,500 sets of Water-Full line on November 11, up 208 percent from a year ago. It sold 24,400 sets of its Time Energy skin moisturizing solution, up 48 percent during the same period.
Korea’s largest cosmetics company AmorePacific Corp. also scooped up sales on Sunday event.
Sales of Yoonjo Essence, an activating serum of its premium cosmetics brand Sulwhasoo, hit 10,000 in just 60 seconds after launching sales at Tmall.
Pre-order sales of Hera’s Rouge Holic lipstick also quintupled this year from last year.
Korea’s fashion and retail conglomerate E-Land Group that manages 19 brands on Tmall raised 72.3 billion won in revenue on November 11 alone.
Korea’s largest manufacturer of instant noodles Nongshim Co. also raked in record sales of 800 million won at Alibaba’s online shopping mall Taobao on the event day, more than tenfold from its daily average sales and up 25 percent from last year.
The company attributed record sales to its top-sellers Shin Ramyun and Kimchi Ramyun.
Alibaba clocked in sales of US$30.8 billion in the 24-hour shopping gala that began at 12 a.m. Sunday, beating last year’s US$25.3 billion.