Prime Day? Alibaba prepares for something bigger
For anyone who thought Amazon’s July “Prime Day” event was the biggest shopping day of the year, check out Alibaba’s upcoming “Global Shopping Festival” promotion.
Global Shopping Festival grew out of Singles Day, an informal celebration of the Chinese singles dating scene which Alibaba formally turned into a shopping holiday in 2009. Falling on Nov. 11, what is now known as
Global Shopping Festival generated gross merchandise volume of more than $9.3 billion on the Alibaba Alipay mobile and digital payment platform in 2014.
This year, more than 1,000 retail brands, with 180,000 stores in 330 cities across China, will participate. Consumers will be able to receive discounts in-store as well as online, including in retailers’ Alibaba online storefronts. Products in 10 major categories will be featured: automobiles, home furnishing and décor, household items, consumer electronics, beauty and health, food, apparel, body care, baby care, and travel and hotel accommodation.
The promotion will feature six million products from more than 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands, including 5,000 overseas brands from 25 countries and regions such as the U.S, Europe, Japan and South Korea
“Omnichannel retailing is one of the key initiatives for this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival,” said Jeff Zhang, president of China Retail Marketplaces at Alibaba Group. “It marks the first step in achieving the full integration of digital and physical commerce. Alibaba Group is dedicated to working with brands and retailers to facilitate their transition from traditional to omnichannel retailing.”
Specific omnichannel features Alibaba will offer for Global Shopping Festival include location-based in-store coupons delivered through Alibaba’s Taobao mobile app, advance reserve purchases of discounted items in select stores, and optimized pickup and delivery of online purchases using Alibaba ERP-POS Link.
Alibaba has a significant advantage in its promotion compared to Prime Day, in that there is also a strong in-store component. Of course, although both promotions are global, Alibaba’s home market of more than 1 billion Chinese consumers is also a benefit.
It is also worth noting that Alibaba appears to be focusing on providing items consumers truly want, while many Prime Day deals were obvious efforts to clear slow-selling overstock and leftover merchandise. Given Amazon’s global reach and potential for omnichannel collaborations with brick-and-mortar retail partners, with some fine-tuning next year’s Prime Day may come closer to Global Shopping Festival volume.