Alibaba smashes Singles Day sales record

E-commerce giant Alibaba’s Singles Day sales broke through the $8 billion mark late yesteday, 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 to the 50 billion yuan ($8.16 billion) mark with almost three hours left on the clock as Chinese and overseas shoppers bought heavily discounted online goods.

More than 39 billion yuan ($6.4 billion) worth of goods was sold on the e-commerce giant’s websites 15 hours into the event, with another nine to go. Less than eight weeks after its public share listing in New York, which set its own $25 billion record, expectations for this year are high.

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 $8.62 billion. Less than 18 minutes into this year’s “11.11 Shopping Festival”, GMV had already hit $1 billion, the company said.

The shopping day, similar to Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the United States, comes less than eight weeks after its public share listing in New York, which set its own $25 billion record. Alibaba turned the Singles Day celebration, a November 11th Chinese response to romantic holidays like Valentine’s Day, into an online shopping festival in 2009.

“You’re seeing the unleashing of the consumption power of the Chinese consumer,” Joe Tsai, Alibaba’s executive vice-chairman, told reporters. “We really are witnessing history here because we are seeing the shift of the economy from one 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 will reach $8.62 billion.

The numbers are boosted by Alibaba’s “pre-sales initiative”. Merchants advertised Singles Day prices as early as October 15th, 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 gross merchandise volume will be driven by order cancellations during Singles Day being delayed until today on Tmall. com, its online retail site.

Rival JD.com said on its official Twitter account that orders in the first 16 hours of Singles Day had more than doubled compared with last year. – (Reuters/Bloomberg)