Alibaba Group kicked off its annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival on October 20, the biggest retail extravaganza in China.
As the Festival enters its 13th cycle, Alibaba is placing greater emphasis on inclusiveness and sustainability across its ecosystem.
Please find a selection of quotes from Alibaba executives, retail experts and international brands, presented in chronological order and gathered by Alizila reporters.
Faye Sha, General Manager of Germany-headquartered manufacturer of electrical devices for health and well-being Beurer China
“For us here are at Beurer these three learnings are key to a successful Double 11: Firstly, offering discounts when purchasing a particular product is always in favor with consumers, especially for discounts across different stores. Secondly, presale promotional events are very popular, and will generate a lot of traffic. And thirdly, brands should try to increase content distribution outside of their own virtual store on different channels to attract customers to their online store.”
Miquel Angel Bonachera, co-founder and executive director at AB-BIOTICS
“Tmall has opened us a window into China. It lets us bring our most successful products into this region, and we could see during 11.11 Global Shopping Festival Chinese consumers are highly interested on our innovations. We are so happy China loves Floradapt!”
Frank Lavin, CEO and chairman of Export Now
“Single’s Day is not just a shopping holiday. It has established itself as the preeminent consumer event in China. Consumers use it for brand discovery, and brands recognize it is the best communications platform for new products.
“Single’s Day has morphed into a day of experimentation, testing, social connections and games — all on top of the original shopping purpose.”
Ashley Dudarenok, China marketing expert and founder of social media agency Alarice
“This year, Alibaba is further focusing on creating more convenient, interactive and impactful retail experiences.
“The fact that shopping festivals are here to stay is undeniable — this is a part of modern Chinese culture. But how will they evolve? In my view, likely into a product and trend discovery fest rather than just a discount hunting exercise and binge buying.
“Shopping festivals are no longer just about discounts but rather about discovering new products and trends.”
Deborah Weinswig, founder and CEO of Coresight Research
“Alibaba’s priority in the earlier years was on driving GMV, but the company is now focusing on the value it can create for society, including by putting sustainability at the core of the shopping festival.
Julia-Caroline Zurwesten, Head of Salus & Schoenenberger Greater China & Asia of German-headquartered natural remedies and food supplements provider, Salus:
“The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival is one of the most important events for us at Salus to connect and interact with our Chinese consumers. With our two flagship stores on Tmall Global, we will increase our promotional activities and thereby enlarge our brand visibility and customer base for our key product Floradix. Challenges within the international supply chain necessitated earlier and more careful planning this year, so we started our preparations in early summer to ensure we have a sufficient amount of products in the local warehouses. We look forward to yet another exciting and successful Global Shopping Festival this year!”
Iris Chan, Partner & Head of International Client Development, DLG (Digital Luxury Group)
“For some product categories, such as beauty, over 40% of annual sales made on Tmall take place on key shopping festivals like 618 and 11.11. This makes it of utmost importance for brands develop the right kind of content , experiences and customer journeys to drive shoppers down the funnel from awareness to purchase, during these events.”
Axel Jürgensen, Export Director of Germany-headquartered supplements group, Doppelherz
“The cooperation with Alibaba is really paying off for us, especially in the run-up to Singles Day on 11.11. Every year, the Global Shopping Festival is one of our most important events and Tmall is one of our most important sales channels – that won’t change.”
Kerstin Erbe, Managing Director Product Management of Germany-headquartered retail store chain, dm-drogerie markt
“11/11 is the most important shopping event for dm in China. It points the way ahead for the upcoming months and shows us what products and trends our Chinese customers like.
“In addition, we can test new marketing options, for example live streaming or new attractive product bundles. This year’s 11/11 is very special for us because we introduce a new product to Chinese customers and we are going to cooperate with a well-known TV star.”
Andrew Seaton, Chief Executive of the China British Business Council
“If you are looking for evidence of the extraordinary size, dynamism and technological innovation of the Chinese consumer market, 11.11. Global Shopping Festival – with online sales of over £20 billion on one day – is it.
“With a population more than four times that of the U.S. and a rapidly growing middle-class – which will reach 770 million by 2030 – no other market can match China in terms of the sheer scale of the opportunity on offer for UK brands.
“This is translating to jobs, investment and opportunity across the whole of the UK. Understanding the significance of trade with China to our economy is essential to building a recovery post-COVID.”
Cheung Man-Chung, Senior Researcher and China and Japan Lead at Insider Intelligence/eMarketer
“Singles Day is a national shopping event originated from China with a growing global footprint. While shopping is its underpinning idea, the event is also about innovations, breaking the boundary to inspire the “what’s next” of retail and figuring out ways to better the retail experience at large.”
Anita Lyu, General Manager of Tmall Global
“This 11.11, we hope to make it easy for consumers to find the best products and enjoy shopping on Tmall Global. At the same time, we hope to help international brands find growth despite the macroenvironment challenges.”
Janet Wang, Head of Alibaba’s Tmall Luxury Division
“The pandemic has marked an important shift in consumers’ shopping habits. Since consumers can no longer travel overseas, they’re looking for different ways to delight themselves and improve their lifestyles.
“Consumers today aren’t satisfied with just two-dimensional images and texts … They want to use 3D technology to see the product’s details and texture from different angles, use AR to try on watches, jewelry and shoes. These experiences help close the distance between luxury brands and the consumer.”
Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group
“Over the last 12 years, 11.11 has showcased the tremendous consumption power of Chinese consumers and pushed boundaries for the global retail sector.
“This year’s Festival marks a new chapter for 11.11. We
believe we must leverage the power of 11.11 to encourage sustainable development and promote inclusiveness to consumers, merchants and partners across our ecosystem.”
“We believe that behavioral change is essential to ensuring a sustainable future. Which is why as the creator and leader of the 11.11 festival, Alibaba aims to play an important role in driving those positive changes.”
Bruno Lannes, a consulting veteran of 15 years in China and Partner at Bain & Co.
“The 11.11 festival is still very important, it’s part of the rhythm of shopping in China. For brands, its very important to make sure that they have a successful shopping festival … They organize their marketing budget and their marketing campaigns around such events.”
Liqing Zheng, Head of Tmall Consumer Marketing
“For this year’s 11.11, we want to make going green mainstream with a dedicated vertical for eco-friendly brands and products, as well as green shopping vouchers.”
Davin Leong, Managing Director for Asia Pacific at British hairstyling and appliance brand ghd (Related story)
“As brands, we have a responsibility to pitch a little bit ahead, excite our customers in Tmall … Whether there’s an innovation for example, or a huge media campaign leading up to November 11… it takes a lot of planning.
“A lot of brands take the opportunity to showcase their latest and greatest, and of course there are value-added incentives for consumers to make purchases. You can certainly see [in] the whole consumer market leading up to … shopping windows, there’s just a lot of excitement.
“Brands obviously engage the media, trying to get a lot more awareness out prior to the start of the shopping festival. So, for ghd we’ve partnered up with Tmall very closely.”
Rachel He, Senior Analyst at Euromonitor International, a market research provider
“According to Euromonitor’s distribution data, e-commerce as a channel has taken around 60% of total personal care appliances volume sales, so large-scale promotions are indeed crucial tactics to drive sales and even milestones to launch significant new products for brands.”
