Competition more fierce for Australian retailers this 11.11

Original article: Alibaba breaks Singles Day sales record from Internet Retailing, November 2017

Chinese consumers spent more than $33 billion (RMB 168.2 billion) on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms during its 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, breaking last year’s record of $23.3 billion (RMB 120.7 billion).

More than 140,000 merchants and brands participated in the Singles Day sales event, China’s much larger answer to Black Friday in the US, including major Australian retailers, such as Chemist Warehouse.

Australian sellers ranked third in terms of the combined GMV they generated during the event, behind Japan and the US, while the top imported brand was Swisse.

Azoya, a company that helps retailers and brands sell to Chinese consumers, said its top-selling Australian customer experienced a 300 per cent increase in average daily sales during the event, compared to the preceding days. This is in line with last year.

“This year the competition was far more fierce for Australian retailers than it was in 2016. Major marketplaces such as JD.com, Amazon.cn, VIP, Tmall, Suning, etc, stored hot selling products from Australia (Swisse, Blackmores, A2, Bellamy, Aptamil), in advance in free trade zones or near-shore warehouses before the holiday sales, with prices very competitive and low,” said a statement from Azoya.

“This made it much more difficult for Australian retailers to fight against, especially given the double eleven shoppers are extremely price sensitive.”

Azoya also said that the main competition on Singles Day revolves around Chinese brands and retailers, rather than overseas products.

At its peak, Alibaba Cloud processed 325,000 orders per second, and its logistics arm, Cainiao Network processed 812 million total delivery orders. The first delivery arrived 12 minutes and 18 seconds after the event kicked off at midnight on 11 November. 

Key highlights from the 2017 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 

• Total GMV settled through Alipay was RMB168.2 billion (US$25.3 billion), an increase of 39 per cent compared to 2016

• Total mobile GMV settled through Alipay was approximately 90 per cent of total GMV, compared to 82 per cent last year

• Alipay processed 1.48 billion total payment transactions, up 41 per cent from 2016, and processed 256,000 transactions per second at peak

Globalisation: Power of the Chinese consumer

• 60,000 international brands and merchants available to Chinese consumers

• 225 countries and regions with completed transactions

• 167 merchants each generated more than RMB100 million (US$15.1 million) in sales, 17 merchants surpassed RMB500 million (US$75.4 million) in sales, and 6 merchants surpassed RMB1 billion (US$150.9 million) in sales

• Top countries selling to China include: Japan, United States, Australia, Germany, South Korea