The ‘No Buzz’ Alibaba Singles Day 2023 Update
Last year, after following the fabulous Alibaba Singles Day (11.11) Sales for many years, I wrote about The ‘No Buzz’ Alibaba Singles Day 2022 Update here at: https://outsideinlens.substack.com/p/the-no-buzz-alibaba-singles-day-2022
In a way, Alibaba Singles Day 2023 continued to be another ‘No Buzz’ event. But, considering my solid inclinations to study about their stunning growth numbers and new ‘transformational’ stuff they do (or did?) every edition, I have tried to dig deep to find out some interesting stories from this year’s edition. Hoping to find some valuable nuggets of new insights… Let’s go Outside In…
2023 Highlights
Consumer Numbers: 1 Billion Consumers Participated, with $156 Billion in estimated Sales (Fortune Magazine Estimate for the full Event, spread across multiple Weeks)
Merchandise Numbers: Over 80 Million products on offer, with about 46,000 brands and merchants worldwide promoting Overseas Products
GMV Growth for Brands: 402 brands surpassed RMB100 million ($13.72 million) in GMV each, while 38,000 brands more than doubled their GMV year-on-year
Record Investments by Merchants: Over 1 million of them promoted goods from down jackets to mānuka honey, according to Alimama, Alibaba’s monetization platform. The top five industries supporting the wave of store openings were consumer electronics, clothing & fashion, home decoration, food and health
Direct Discount Virtual Store: Taobao & Tmall introduced a large-scale direct discount virtual venue that offered an across-the-board 15% price reduction, in addition to usual coupons that could be used across different stores. It recorded 210 million orders, while the venue featuring value-for-money products from manufacturers generated nearly 90 million orders
Record Parcel Volumes (as usual): Between Nov. 1 to Nov. 11, parcel volume swelled to 5.26 billion packages, 23.22% higher than a year earlier. On Singles Day specifically, 639 million parcels whizzed around China, up 15.76% year-on-year
Wardrobe ‘Business as Usual’: In the first hour during the first day of pre-sales, 337 clothing brands sold more than during the first four hours of pre-sales last year. Brands like Victoria’s Secret recorded a more than doubling in sales during this first hour. The sales of more than 100 clothing brands on their brand-owned livestream channels increased more than 500% year-on-year over the first four hours of pre-sales. They expected more than 10 million new clothing products to be sold on Tmall ranging from limited editions to Tmall exclusives
Pet Sector Continues to Climb: Within 48 minutes, pre-sales in this category outpaced those from the entire first day of pre-sales last year. 6 pet brands on the platform topped RMB 10 million ($1.4 million) each in pre-sale transaction value. Another 81 merchants in this category reported pre-sale transaction value above RMB 1 million in this same time frame
Travel Products Scale BIG: Travel products on sale during Singles Day nearly doubled last year’s promotion. Marriott International, Hilton, Disney and Universal Studios were among the big brands that took part. Alibaba’s Online Travel Platform Fliggy offered value-for-money options and expanded its membership benefits during the Promotion
It is 2023 – So, we will AI
Tmall ‘Digital’ Float Parade: Lego, Ralph Lauren and MCM were among the brands who participated in Tmall’s Singles Day Float Parade created with generative AI
Check the full video here at: https://www.alizila.com/chinas-e-commerce-industry-embraces-ai-this-singles-day/
Taobao Wenwen Chatbot: Shoppers were able to call on AI-enabled app’s chatbot Wenwen for shopping assistance. It could answer queries such as the “best mobile phone to buy” or the “most value-for-money lipstick”. It was also be able to add up all the discounts on offer to calculate the best prices, helping shoppers make decisions. Based on the large language model’s understanding of text and its generative capabilities, the chatbot helped consumers narrow searches by suggesting more relevant questions and offering detailed product recommendations in various formats, including text and short videos
Merchant Content Creation was in the spotlight, with investment in short video campaigns jumping over 400% year-over-year. Livestreaming channel Taobao Live brought together 18 anchors and more than 100 brands to distribute RMB1 billion worth of coupons between Oct. 12 and Oct. 23. The coupons could be used to pay the pre-sale deposit during Singles Day Sale. Participating in the giveaway were celebrity hosts including Li Jiaqi (aka Austin Li). Taobao and Tmall also introduced 10 free AI tools to selected merchants, including the AI creative production platform “Wanxiang Lab” that helps merchants to generate product images for different purposes in just 30 seconds. Sellers could also select from seven writing styles to create quick product descriptions with one-click publishing available across different channels
2023 Takeaways
Consumers Seeking Value: When consultancy Bain asked Singles Day shoppers to state their top reason to spend during the festival, 45% responded that they were mainly seeking value. People are looking for deals in 2023, according to China retail expert Ashley Dudarenok
CX and Content: High-income groups still value brands and new products while emphasizing consumer experience. On the other hand, lower-income consumers remain price-sensitive but are developing awareness of mass-market brands and increasingly want entertaining content. The mass affluent are highly price-sensitive
Livestreaming (Continues): Sports brand FILA was among the brands with a dedicated livestreaming channel during the Singles Day period. A group of hosts for FILA generated a transaction value during pre-sales above the RMB100 million number on Oct. 24 on the stream. Another 38 merchant-run livestreaming channels generated over RMB100 million in GMV each, accounting for over 60% of the channels with over RMB100 million in GMV. And, 451 merchant-operated channels recorded over RMB10 million GMV each during the campaign period. Celebrity influencer Lou Yonghao sold the run of the ‘Adora Magic City’ cruise ship, which can accommodate up to 5,246 guests, for RMB20 million ($2.75 million)
Shoppertainment (Continues): Apart from the signature Taobao and Tmall’s Countdown Gala, AliExpress hosted a concert in Madrid featuring Spanish pop duo Funzo & Baby Loud, Dominican musician Henry Mendez and other stars
Brand Loyalty Programs Spur Sales: On November 1, over 100 brands reported transaction value surpassing RMB100 million ($13.7 million) attributable to members of their brand loyalty programs. This was the first time in Alibaba’s Singles Day history that these many brands reached this milestone. It paints a powerful picture of the importance of customer loyalty
These Highlights and Takeaways don’t really come across as WOW eh? Yes, in a way, while I continue to be impressed with the scale of their Sales, I am feeling underwhelmed about finding anything truly ‘transformational’ which made us look at the Alibaba Singles Day Sale in anticipation…
In Conclusion
With two consecutive ‘No Buzz’ Alibaba Singles Day Updates in 2023 and 2022 looking Outside In, one can’t help wonder if the trend is here to stay or will new growth avenues will emerge? Quite a few ambiguities exist today…
The Sobering Comments…
Stagnant Growth or Surprising Sales?: https://www.voanews.com/a/china-s-singles-day-shopping-bonanza-loses-its-luster-/7350757.html
Has the Singles Day ‘Shopping Festival’ lost its luster?: https://ecommercedb.com/insights/singles-day-2023-stagnant-growth-or-surprising-sales-surge/4693
PDD Overtakes Alibaba Market Cap: https://www.benzinga.com/markets/asia/23/12/36046261/pinduoduo-overtakes-alibaba-in-market-cap-for-first-time-jack-ma-declares-the-era-of-ai-e-commerce-h
And, yet we see bullish Consumer Insights, Sales Trends and Business Intent afresh…
Catch More ‘Impressive’ Numbers and Category Insights here at: https://www.alizila.com/1111-live-blog-alibaba-2023/
Luxury Lessons from Singles Day 2023 – Young Consumers pursue Jinghzi Qiong (Exquisite Poverty) – many young people are motivated to pursue ultra-low prices on essential items just so they can make room in their budgets for major luxury purchases. Read more at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gemmawilliams/2023/11/15/luxury-lessons-from-chinas-singles-day-2023/
Jack Ma urges Employees to regain Lost Momentum: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/jack-mas-alibaba-briefly-loses-china-e-commerce-crown-to-rival-pdd-marks-shift-in-industry-11701417352459.html
Let’s plan to check them out in 2024 again, before we conclude?
Looking Outside In?
Let me know what you think…
References and Sources
1) Record Investments by Merchants:
https://www.alizila.com/1111-alibaba-taobao-tmall-2023-singles-day-double-11-sales/
2) Alibaba Singles Day Live Blog 2023: https://www.alizila.com/1111-live-blog-alibaba-2023/
3) Alibaba Singles Day 2023 Growth: https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-singles-day-double11-2023-records-gmv-growth-china-shopping-festival/, https://www.alizila.com/1111-alibaba-taobao-tmall-2023-singles-day-double-11-sales/
4) Aliexpress Madrid Fest 2023: https://www.wegow.com/es/magazine/trending/aliexpress-fest-madrid
5) Taobao Wenwen: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/philip-chen-809b86137_taobaowenwen-singlesday-aiassistant-activity-7127709115669225473-QN6G/
6) Alibaba Fliggy Travel at Singles Day: https://www.alizila.com/alibaba-fliggy-11-11-travel-discounts-singles-day-double-11/
7) Alibaba/China’s E-Commerce Industry Embraces AI on Singles Day: https://www.alizila.com/chinas-e-commerce-industry-embraces-ai-this-singles-day/
8) Adora Cruises Sold via Celebrity Livestreaming: https://www.alizila.com/whos-who-china-influencers-livestreaming-turbocharge-double-11-singles-day-shopping/
9) Fortune GMV Estimate for Singles Day 2023 Sale Period: https://fortune.com/2023/11/12/china-singles-day-ends-alibaba-jd-com-report-growth/
10) Luxury Lessons from Singles Day 2023: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gemmawilliams/2023/11/15/luxury-lessons-from-chinas-singles-day-2023/
11) Alibaba Singles Day Loses its Luster?: https://www.voanews.com/a/china-s-singles-day-shopping-bonanza-loses-its-luster-/7350757.html
12) Singles Day – Stagnant Growth or Surprising Sales?: https://ecommercedb.com/insights/singles-day-2023-stagnant-growth-or-surprising-sales-surge/4693
13) PDD Overtakes Alibaba Market Cap: https://www.benzinga.com/markets/asia/23/12/36046261/pinduoduo-overtakes-alibaba-in-market-cap-for-first-time-jack-ma-declares-the-era-of-ai-e-commerce-h
14) Jack Ma urges Employees to regain Lost Momentum: https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/jack-mas-alibaba-briefly-loses-china-e-commerce-crown-to-rival-pdd-marks-shift-in-industry-11701417352459.html