Singles’ Day 2018 Wrap-Up: Full Participation of Alibaba Ecosystem Boosts Sales to Record High

Singles’ Day Shatters Records Again in 2018

The tenth annual one-day 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, also known as Singles’ Day or Double 11, concluded with remarkable results. This year’s Singles’ Day continued to break records:

• Total gross merchandise volume (GMV) reached ¥213.5 billion ($30.8 billion), 27% higher than last year.
• Alibaba’s Cainiao Network processed a record high of over 1 billion delivery orders, up almost 24% from last year’s 812 million orders.
• Tmall Global exceeded last year’s day total GMV in just 6 hours and 29 minutes.
• Over 180,000 brands participated, up from last year’s 140,000.
• 237 of those brands achieved over ¥1 billion (US$14.4 million) GMV.
• More than 40% of consumers purchased from international brands.
• Japan, United States, South Korea, Australia and Germany were the top five sources of imported products.

Sales records were smashed at an even faster pace. It took just two minutes and five seconds to reach ¥10 billion (US$1.46 billion) while last year it took three minutes and one second to reach the amount; and just 15 hours and 49 minutes to reach last year’s total GMV of ¥168.2 billion (US$25.3 billion).

Source: Ebrun.com /Coresight Research

The unprecedented scale of the Singles’ Day this year, in terms of the number of Alibaba units, brick-and-mortar stores and brands participating, contributed to this year’s record-high sales.

Alibaba’s Ecosystem All-In

Businesses across the Alibaba ecosystem were all in for this year’s Singles’ Day with 29 Alibaba units participating. Local service companies Ele.me and Koubei (which mergedin October) also contributed to the success of this year’s Singles’ Day:Ele.me offered 24-hour delivery services and provided delivery for select Starbucks stores in 11 Chinese cities. Around 150,000 merchants on Koubei offered 50% off on catering, beauty and hair salons and karaoke bars. Ele.me exceeded last year’s total orders in the first nine hours of this year’s event.

Alibaba also took the occasion to help Chinese merchants reach overseas consumers through AliExpress, which upped its game by extending Singles’ Day to a two-day event ending 23:59 (Sydney time) on November 12. AliExpress also worked with Cainiao Network, Alibaba’s logistics arm,to open more overseas warehouses and e-commerce-dedicated intercontinental cargo flights to ensure 72-hour delivery to Europe.

Lazada, an Alibaba-controlled e-commerce platform operator, also helped raise awareness of Singles’ Day in six Southeast Asian countries by participating in the event for the first time this year. Lazada reported over 20 million consumers browsed and shopped on its websites and apps.

New Retail Upgraded the Consumer Experience

Alibaba continued to expand New Retail to brick-and-mortar partners. This year, around 200,000 smart stores participated, up from last year’s 100,000. Around 100 Hema supermarkets and 400 RT-Mart supermarkets were converted to 11.11-themed stores offering one-hour delivery to customers within a three kilometer radius (1.8 miles). 222 EasyHome stores (China’s second largest home-furnishing chain) also participated in the festival for the first time.

Increased Brand Participation

More brands participated this year than ever before, more than 180,000 domestic and overseas brands. 237 brands achieved a total GMV of over ¥1 billion (US$14.4 million), up from last year’s 167, including international brands such as Apple, Dyson, Kindle, Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, Nestlé, Gap, Nike and Adidas.

Japan and the US remained the top two sources of imported products.

Source: Alizila/Coresight Research

Key Takeaways

The tenth 11.11 Global Shopping Festival broke new records in sales and delivery orders. The scope and international reach of the Singles’ Day this year was unprecedented, supported by full participation of all Alibaba companies and more overseas merchants than ever before. New Retail played an important role in this year’s Singles’ Day event, bringing more seamless integration of online and offline retail operations.