Alibaba breaks Singles’ Day record
Says its strategy in India would be to reinforce the payment infra
Making the Indian online ecommerce festival discounting bonanza look like a garage sale, Chinese marketplace behemoth Alibaba on Friday (Singles’ Day) broke its own previous year’s record of $14.3 billion in gross merchandise value (GMV), in a little less than 20 hours.
Singles' Day is a festival among Chinese youth, to celebrate being single. The date, November 11, was chosen because the number one resembles an individual who is alone. This festival has gradually become one of the largest online shopping days in the world for Alibaba.
Taking a cue from the push to digital cash in India in the wake of the ban on ~500 and ~1,000 banknotes, the Chinese e-commerce giant told media its strategy in India would be to reinforce the payment infrastructure in the country. The company is the biggest investor in online mobile wallet giant Paytm, which has in 48 hours since the banknote pullback made major gains.
Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma was in Shenzhen, China, observing Singles’ Day sales. He also attended the gala dinner later.
According to sector insiders, Alibaba is keen on bringing this kind of sale in India whenever they enter the market. “This is bound to happen. On every Singles’ Day, the Jack Ma-led company makes mindnumbing GMV figures. This would definitely make its way to India,” a sector observer said. GMV or gross merchandise value is the total value of merchandise sold over a given period through a website.
While three major e-commerce entities in this country — Amazon, Flipkart, and Snapdeal — made a combined GMV of $2.1 billion in their day's festival sale, the whole Indian marketplace system made close to $4 billion. Alibaba, during this year’s sale, made a billion dollars in GMV in the first five minutes and a little over $5.2 bn in the first hour.
Last year, Alibaba made more in GMV than both Cyber Monday and Black Friday sales combined in the US. “This is the biggest online shopping festival in the world. The kind of innovations Alibaba has brought into the sale this year make it all the more exciting. Alibaba would initially start small in India but eventually bring in all that they offer in China,” said the insider.
The sale was started on Alibaba in 2009 and involves thousands of brands. This year, Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson, former England football captain David Beckham and wife Victoria, US basketball star Kobe Bryant, and US pop rock band OneRepublic, were part of the 24-hour festival.
The world's biggest retail event featured six million products from 30,000 brands, sold by 40,000 merchants.