Instead of just the usual 24 hours, Alibaba Group’s record-breaking Single’s Day sale would run for 24 days, ending on Nov. 11.
Combined sales of Cyber Monday and Black Friday pale in comparison to China’s Single’s Day which had an estimated turnover of more than 91.2 billion yuan ($18.8 billion), breaking several one-day global sales records.
Alibaba, with the longer sale day, expects to break more records for this 2016. Zhang Yong, Alibaba Group chief executive, said Single’s Day is not just a shopping spree day for Chinese men and women not in a relationship. Rather, it is the beginning of a new retailing era.
Besides the longer days, Alibaba would also open up the sales to Hong Kong and Taiwan residents as the first markets outside the mainland where online shoppers could purchase international products through Tmall, Alibaba’s online marketplace, Straittimes reported.
The expansion beyond China is a strategy on Alibaba’s part to rely less on the mainland for its revenue amid threats of an economic slowdown possibly affecting negatively the group’s revenue.
In early 2016, Alibaba acquired for $1.4 billion Lazada, the Singaporean e-commerce site which operates sites in Malaysia and Indonesia. With its addition of Lazada, Zhang said Southeast Asian spenders would soon also experience the “chop-off shopping phenomenon” He explained it refers to people who cannot stop shopping because of the irresistible offers.
Bloomberg added that there would also be new activities such as virtual fashion shows and augmented reality games to entice shoppers. On Oct. 23, Alibaba would livestream an eight-hour fashion show in Shanghai, featuring 50 international brands where shoppers could pre-order clothes while the models are still wearing the new clothes on the runway.