Brands and retailers using Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) to reach China’s consumers wrapped up the first sales period (November 1–3) of this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival with strong results. To create more opportunities for new brands and small businesses to participate in Alibaba’s 11.11, this year’s festival is offering two shopping windows: November 1-3 and the day of November 11. Highlights from the first shopping window of this year’s event include:

• Hundreds of millions of consumers flocked to Alibaba’s marketplaces at 00:00 a.m. on November 1 to shop the 14 million items on offer.
• Over 100 brands, including Nike, Adidas, Apple, L’Oréal, Estée Lauder and Lancôme, achieved RMB100 million in gross merchandise volume (GMV) only 111 minutes into the first sales period.
• Beauty products – always a popular category during the 11.11 festival – generated more than RMB10 billion in GMV and exceeded 150% year-over-year sales growth in the first hour of the event. Estée Lauder’s Tmall flagship store was the first to surpass RMB1 billion in sales during 11.11. 34 new cutting-edge brands in the beauty category also achieved more than RMB10 million in sales in a single day.
• Over 1,800 new brands (brands that have been on Tmall for less than 3 years) surpassed their respective last year's GMV on November 1. Among them, 94 brands have already achieved 1,000% YoY growth. The number of new products debuting on Alibaba’s B2C platform Tmall alone will exceed 2 million this year, twice the number of new products from last year, clearly illustrating how important the festival is for capturing consumer attention and driving engagement.
• The first delivery of an item purchased during the shopping event was for mosquito repellent. The delivery occurred 11 minutes after midnight to a consumer in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, who placed the order via Ele.me, Alibaba’s on-demand delivery platform.
• Nearly 200 luxury brands joined this year’s 11.11 festival; among them Montblanc, Piaget, IWC Schaffhausen are participating for the first time. Luxury brand Cartier hosted its first jewelry show on Taobao Live, unveiling more than 400 timepieces and jewelry items, including a necklace valued at RMB90 million (USD28.3 million). Their livestream attracted 770,000 viewers in just two hours.
• Positive results from the 11.11 presale period show robust and continuously growing demand for imported goods. October 21, the first day of presales, Tmall Global’s GMV increased more than 90% year on year.
• Uncle Bud’s, one of Alibaba’s US Pitch Fest brand winners, is bringing its hemp and CBD products to Chinese consumers through their newly opened Tmall Global flagship store. Their brand ambassador Earvin “Magic” Johnson will join many other international brands and celebrities to do a livestreaming session on Tmall Global on November 7. Other Pitch Fest brands including C.O. Bigelow, Pipette and Lab to Beauty are also launching on Tmall Global in time for 11.11.

The results from the first 11.11 shopping window this year indicate a solid rebound of consumer spending in China, demonstrating the importance of the opportunity it presents for international brands and small businesses.

To help international audiences better understand consumer trends and the next wave of groundbreaking retail innovation, and to show how international brands are entering and succeeding in the Chinese market, Alibaba is hosting a live virtual event called “Understanding 11.11: Alibaba’s Mega Shopping Festival.”

The 45-minute live broadcast – a first for the company – will air at 10:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. PT) on November 11. It is timed to coincide with the last 30 minutes of the 11.11 festival in China (11:30 p.m. November 11 to 12:00 a.m. November 12, China time) and the 15-minute period immediately following, when Alibaba will be sharing live results from the festival. The broadcast will feature:

• Interviews with Alibaba Executive Vice Chairman Joseph Tsai and President Michael Evans.
• Founders and CEOs of iconic global brands such as DVF, Fender and BISSELL talking about what it takes to succeed in the Chinese market.
• American small businesses that participated in 11.11 for the first time this year and the lessons they learned along the way.
• One of China’s hottest livestreamers on how and why livestreaming, a powerful marketing and brand-building tool, has taken the e-commerce market by storm in China.
• LIVE results from 11.11 and exclusive behind-the-scenes footage that shows how Alibaba pulls off the world’s largest shopping festival.

To RSVP and register to view the live broadcast program, please click here. For additional content, please follow Alibaba Group’s official Twitter account or visit the 11.11 Media Resources page on Alibaba’s corporate news site, Alizila, which has more background, fact sheets and content related to this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.

About the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival began in 2009 with just 27 merchant participants. The event was designed to raise merchant and consumer awareness of the value of online shopping. More than 250,000 brands are participating in this year’s event. For the latest news and updates on the 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, please visit www.alizila.com.