Alibaba aims for another record with Singles’ Day

Alibaba Group will begin its annual 24-hour shopping extravaganza today with deals and deep discounts and a performance by American pop star Taylor Swift to top it all, as it pushes to break another record in Singles’ Day sales.

This year’s bash comes as the $486 billion Chinese retail juggernaut navigates through a major turning point following the September resignation of its flamboyant co-founder Jack Ma as chairman, and as it looks to raise up to $15 billion via a share sale in Hong Kong as early as this month.

Akin to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US, Singles’ Day, a shopping festival originally promoted by Alibaba chairman Daniel Zhang in 2009, has since grown rapidly to become the world’s biggest online sales event.

Alibaba registered sales worth $30 billion on its platforms on Singles’ Day last year, dwarfing the $7.9 billion online sales in the US for Cyber Monday. Yet the 27 per cent sales growth was the lowest in the event’s 10-year history, spurring a search for new ideas.

“This year will be the 11th 11.11 festival, with more than 200,000 brands participating, 1 million new products on offer and more than 500 million users are expected to participate – about 100 million more than last year,” Alibaba said in a statement.

Taylor Swift, whose latest album Lover has broken records in China, will headline the opening gala alongside local celebrities such as Jackson Yee. Livestreamers are also set to play a prominent role in product promotions this year, as Alibaba turns to online video influencers to increase engagement on its app.

Its heavy marketing campaign underscores intensifying competition with smaller rivals such as Pinduoduo which have outsmarted Alibaba in second and third-tier cities with deep discounts and group-buying deals.

Pinduoduo will be also holding its own Singles’ Day events on the same day.

The e-commerce upstart has signalled its intentions to break Alibaba and rival JD.com’s stronghold on wealthy Chinese shoppers.