Although it’s over half a month away from the largest single day e-commerce shopping festival in the world, namely China’s November 11th (also known as Singles Day), competition between China’s largest ecommerce platforms is already heating up.
On Oct 21th, Tmall by Alibaba Group had its official press conference and launched its pre-sale promotions. According to Tmall & Taobao CEO Mr. Jiang Fan, over 500 million consumers will participate in Tmall’s double 11 sales this year, and Tmall aims to save them 50 billion RMB (7 billion USD).
What can consumers expect on Tmall double 11?
More than 10 million products from over 200,000 brands will offer their biggest discounts to date, among which more than 1 million will be new products launched during 11-11 for the first time. Meanwhile, top brands like Apple, Huawei, Lamer, Dyson, Volvo cars and Moutai will have the release dates of new products coincide with this shopping frenzy.
Additionally, more than 50% of beauty brands plan to release their Christmas gift boxes during 11-11. 215 brands, including Lancome, SK-II, YSL, Givenchy and Shiseido, will also provide 241 customized products specifically developed for Singles Day.
Previously, more than 20 global luxury brands, including Chanel, Michael Kors and Acne Studios, have opened an official Tmall flagship store, bringing the number of international luxury brands on Tmall to 93 now.
Tmall double 11 Pre-Sales exceeding all expectations…
Cosmetics:
Within the starting 10 minutes of Tmall’s pre-sales the turnover of 7 brands, including Estee Lauder, Lancome, L'oreal, Shiseido, Helena Rubinstein (HR) and Olay, exceeded 100 million RMB (14 million USD).
Within 25 minutes, Estee Lauder achieved a turnover of nearly 500 million RMB (70 million USD), more than its whole day turnover during last year's double 11. Its eye cream contributed to almost 40% of the turnover.
Other brands that exceeded last years turnover and the amount of time it took:
P&G: 11 minutes and twice more
Dickies: 3 minutes
Stuart Weitzman: 4 minutes
Babycare: 4 minutes
Reebok: 5 minutes
Adidas: 15 minutes
MCM: 8 minutes
Samsonite: 30 minutes
Huawei: 30 minutes
Zwilling: 28 minutes
On the same day as Tmall’s presser, Suning group(苏宁易购) another of China’s ecommerce giants also held its double 11 press conference titled “Scenario Gravity”. During the conference Suning revealed its e-commerce business structure and the retail strategy it has adopted for the past 10 years. The layout is similar to Alibaba’s ecosystem covering areas of maternal and childcare, home appliances, 3C, fresh goods, FMCGs, sports, and entertainment etc. In June 2019, it announced the acquisition of Carrefour China. It aims to provide diversified retail services and efficient product lifecycle management culminating in a purchase to delivery time of less than one hour.
According to the double 11 turnover data stratified by each ecommerce platform from 2016 to 2018, it’s obvious that Tmall dominates ecommerce in China, JD’s market share has gradually been eroded while Suning has grown steadily. PDD is also an interesting new entrant to China’s ecommerce space, first showing up in 2018 and already consolidating a 3% share in this hugely valuable sector. Neither JD nor PDD are standing still, get your popcorn ready to watch the greatest ecommerce show on earth unfold. How much revenue will Singles Day generate this year, 350 billion, 400 billion, 450 billion?
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