Singles Day: Alibaba reports record sales, but growth slows

The 24-hour Chinese shopping mega-event known as Singles Day brought in record numbers for the country’s e-commerce giant, Alibaba. But it appears that the growth rate is decelerating.



Alibaba Group Holding Limited reported that the total amount of goods and services sold by vendors (known as gross merchandise volume) over its e-commerce sites rose 24% to a record $17.8 billion this year. Last year, by contrast, sales on Alibaba platforms increased 60%.



Mobile GMV settled through Alipay accounted for 82% of total GMV.



Alibaba pulled out all the stops this year, with entertainment, celebrity buzz, a heavy reliance on social media, and steep Singles’ Day (also known as 11.11) deals. These efforts helped translate into 175,000 orders processed per second at its peak timeframe; 120,000 transactions processed per second at peak, and a total of more than 1 billion payment transactions processed overall, according to a company statement.



"This year’s 11.11 is a preview of the future of retail, where entertainment, commerce and interactive engagement intersect seamlessly,” said Daniel Zhang, CEO of Alibaba Group. “From the kick-off of warm-up activities to last night’s countdown gala, all the way through the 24-hour global shopping festival itself, we’ve seen unprecedented engagement between consumers and merchants.”



Some 235 countries and regions completed cross-border transactions. Meanwhile, 37% of total buyers purchased from international brands or merchants, and the top countries selling to China by GMV included Japan, United States, South Korea, Australia, Germany. Among the top U.S. brands represented were Apple, Nike, New Balance, Playboy and Skechers, the statement said.



Alibaba's rival JD.com, which Walmart has a stake in, said its sales passed last year's Singles Day total in the early afternoon, but gave no figures, BBC.com reported.