Alibaba is known for turning the obscure holiday Singles' Day into a one-day online shopping extravaganza. (Photo : Reuters)
"The numbers will be big and they'll be bigger than last year."
This is what Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. President Michael Evans told Bloomberg TV during the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in San Francisco about what they are eyeing to surpass in this year's Singles' Day.
Investing in new innovative activities, the leading Chinese e-commerce firm expects to set a new Singles' Day record, surpassing the $14.3 billion-mark it achieved last year, Bloomberg reported.
These services include fashion shows as well as augmented reality games aimed at enticing shoppers, the article wrote.
On Oct. 23, Alibaba will stage an eight-hour fashion show in Shanghai which will be participated in by around 50 international brands. Through this, viewers can pre-order clothes they wish to buy on Singles' Day.
On the other hand, the reality games it will launch two weeks before the event will be inspired by the phenomenal Pokemon Go. To earn prizes and discounts, consumers have to a follow a mascot called "Tmall Cat."
Nonetheless, Evans clarified that the company is not putting primary focus on statistics. "If the social experience isn't a great event for all the people who participate, then we haven't really achieved what we want," he enthused.
Singles' Day started in the 1990s as an obscure holiday twist in contrast to Valentine's Day. But as Alibaba coincided it with a "one-day online sales extravaganza" back in 2009, it has become an online consumer phenomenon reminiscent of Amazon.com's "Prime Day."
Taking the concept to the next level, Alibaba turned the event into a Super Bowl-like celebration complete with a countdown that kicks off in the final hours of Nov. 10, the eve of the anticipated Singles' Day.
This year, celebrities who will grace the revelry will include pop sensation and Alibaba's "global ambassador" Katy Perry.
Apart from the annual online shopping activity, the Hangzhou-based firm is also tapping rural and global markets by investing in media and cloud computing to harness revenues from new platforms.
