How Alibaba’s Singles’ Day became a global billion dollar shopping festival – and what ‘11.11’ means for luxury brands

Nov 11 , 2019

The total figure spent is displayed on the big screen in Shanghai during the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival in 2018, when a new record was set – and is likely to be broken in 2019. Photo: Simon Song

More than 500 million people are expected to buy something online as part of Alibaba’s Singles’ Day shopping festival – on November 11, 2019 –but how can luxury brands build a following while maintaining integrity?

Given the eye-popping numbers involved, Alibaba Group Holding's “Double 11” e-commerce campaign, which takes place annually as the Singles' Day shopping festival on November 11, has become a golden opportunity for global brands to make a quick profit.

The GMV (gross merchandising volume) of the one-day event in 2018 – US$30.8 billion – was about the same as Italy’s e-commerce market for the whole year.

When the GMV of other Chinese online marketplaces such as JD.com are included, last year’s Double 11 was more than three times the size of the US’ two biggest shopping days – Black Friday and Cyber Monday – combined.

In e-commerce, China is far ahead of other markets worldwide, as the broad popularity of Double 11 shows.

Jack Ma, former chairman of the Alibaba Group, appears in a promotional TV programme presented during the Singles’ Day celebrations in 2018. Photo: Simon Song

Alibaba, which owns the South China Morning Post, says the number of buyers in this year’s Double 11 festival will rise to 500 million, up from 400 million in 2018.

Forty per cent of them made a purchase from international brands last year. For the 22,000 international brands taking part this time around, these are mouth-watering figures indeed.

Mariah Carey performs at the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival in Shanghai in 2018. Photo: Simon Song

The star-studded Double 11 opening gala has been described as “The Superbowl of Shopping”. Held at Shanghai’s Mercedes-Benz Arena, last year’s presales event combined a pop concert with dancing, aerobatics, interactive games and a telethon to attract 240 million viewers.

Clearly, Double 11 is a much more celebratory, social event than similar festivals in the US. Hence Alibaba’s own title of Global Shopping Festival.

In recent years Double 11 has featured online games and interactive shows. There will be promotional events at Alibaba’s 62 Intime department stores, 100 Hema supermarkets and 222 Easyhome home improvement stores across China, as well as through partners like Luckin Coffee.

To consultants McKinsey & Co, the aggressive expansion of Double 11 via “creatively leveraging complementary events” is a way of keeping momentum up amid slowing growth.