Alibaba, the largest e-commerce company in China, plans to expand the "Double 11" shopping festival to a global shopping event in time for the upcoming Christmas.
"Double 11," which occurs every Nov. 11, is a Chinese festival for the singles, and the Chinese celebrates this every year with shopping festivals, karaoke and parties.
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba plans to expand the "Double 11" festival to a worldwide setting this year by opening special promotions they would have only offered for online shoppers in China on the same day.
Taobao and Tmall, two of Alibaba's online market platforms, made record sales of over 35 billion yuan (about $5.71 billion) for "Double 11" shopping spree in 2013. In just one hour and ten minutes from the event's opening, mobile Taobao had reached 1 billion yuan worth of transactions.
"This (global Nov 11 shopping festival) also provides a great way for Alibaba to establish themselves on a global scale. It remains a China focused firm, but if it offers significant discounts to consumers abroad, then they can expand their reach across borders," said Neil Flynn, head equity analyst at Shanghai-based Chineseinvestors.com, a leading financial analysis firm of US-listed Chinese companies.
But Alibaba would still have a long way to go before this online shopping spree event to compete in matured Western markets with strong local competitors, pointed out Wang Xiaoxing, an analyst with the Beijing-based internet consultancy Analysys International.
"The deliveries in cross-border online shopping usually take a long time, and Alibaba will have to grapple with the challenge of ensuring high-quality after-sales services to Western shoppers," Wang said.
"One problem with exporting Single's Day to the rest of the world is that 11/11 is Remembrance Day in many Western countries. So it may not be appropriate for Alibaba to host a shopping extravaganza on such a sombre day," Flynn said.
Alibaba started the "Double 11" shopping tradition in 2009, offering shoppers with special sales promotions and discounts on a variety of products.