Alibaba's 11/11 sales a record breaker  

天猫“双11”成交571亿

12点零时之后，阿里巴巴天猫“双11”战绩公布，11月11日当天，天猫平台实现交易总额达到了571.12亿元人民币，约93.39亿美元，来自无线端的交易额也占到了42.6%。[查看全文]

E-commerce giant Alibaba's Singles Day sales totaled 57.1 billion yuan (US$9.32 billion) on Tuesday, illustrating the buying power of the Chinese consumer and the importance of the event in the retail calendar.

The live sales figure on Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's giant screen at its sprawling Hangzhou campus surged past 2013's record high of 36.2 billion yuan with several hours left on the clock as Chinese and overseas shoppers bought heavily discounted online goods.

The recent US listing, just eight weeks ago, seemed though to quieten company leaders.

Jack Ma, the normally chatty executive chairman, shied away from the main media events, limiting himself to an interview with state broadcaster China Central Television.

The shopping day, similar to Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the US, comes less than eight weeks after its public share listing in New York, which set its own US$25 billion record.

Alibaba turned the Singles Day celebration, a November 11 Chinese response to romantic holidays like Valentine's Day, into an online shopping festival in 2009. It copyrighted the "Double 11" term three years later after recognizing its commercial potential.

"You're seeing the unleashing of the consumption power of the Chinese consumer," Joe Tsai, Alibaba Group's executive vice chairman, told reporters.

"We really are witnessing history here because we are seeing the shift of the economy from focused on the state sector to consumption."

Alibaba did 35 billion yuan in business during last year's festival, and Tech research firm IDC predicts this year's total gross merchandise volume (GMV) will reach US$8.62 billion.

Less than 18 minutes into this year's "11.11 Shopping Festival", GMV had already hit US$1 billion.

The numbers are boosted by Alibaba's "presales initiative." Merchants advertised Singles Day prices as early as October 15, taking deposits for the items but only processing full payments and shipping the goods on Singles Day itself.

Though the 27,000 vendors that take part can boost their sales and gain customers by being featured on Alibaba's Singles Day shopping sites, some have complained that discounts and cut-throat corporate rivalry undercut the benefits.

Analysts also said Alibaba's GMV will be driven by order cancellations during Singles Day being delayed until today on tmall.com, its online retail site.

"Tmall will not let you cancel Singles Day orders until the following day, because they want to be able to talk about the GMV number and the enormous target," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting.

While rivals such as JD.com Inc, Suning Commerce Group Co Ltd and Wal-Mart Stores Inc's Yihaodian have all got in on the Singles Day act, Tsai was bullish about Alibaba's pole position.

"I don't think any other company in China can create a day like this," he said.

Chinese online retailer JD.com said that orders in the first 16 hours of Singles Day had more than doubled compared with last year.

China's Xiaomi Technology Co Ltd, the world's third-largest smartphone maker, said sales had surpassed 1.4 billion yuan, and as of last night it had sold more than 1 million handsets.

The "11.11 Shopping Festival" began with just 27 merchants in 2009. This year it is reaching shoppers in more than 200 countries, Alibaba said.

Shanghai Daily - Agencies