Capitalizing on opportunities

Alibaba may have started the Singles Day shopping extravaganza, but it is not the only company capitalizing on its opportunities.

JD.com, which launched its Singles Day sales on November 1, said cumulative sales amounted to 159.8 billion yuan through yesterday.

Suning’s online retailing unit said online transaction size by 6pm yesterday soared 1.3 times from a year earlier, and it completed 1 billion yuan of transaction within 50 seconds after midnight.

NetEase’ shopping site Kaola saw sales reaching 100 million yuan within four minutes and transaction surpassed last year’s 24-hour figure after one hour and 18 minutes.

It’s hard to talk about Singles Day fatigue with these sorts of figures. What’s the attraction?

Well, for one, there are discounts galore. Consumers can buy not only daily necessities and other merchandise but also lifestyle services, such as meal vouchers, entertainment coupons, beauty treatments and even travel packages offered by Alibaba lifestyle services site Koubei.

Online selling in many instances dovetails with offline vendors.

Earlier this month, Alibaba announced a strategic partnership with Fung Retailing Ltd to bring more international brands to the Chinese mainland through the Hong Kong retailer’s global network of more than 3,000 stores.

Alibaba’s overseas business divisions, which include Tmall World, AliExpress and Lazada, were carrying the Singles Day shopping bonanza to overseas users, covering more than 200 markets and 300 million overseas consumers.