The Alibaba News Roundup is a weekly digest of events and happenings across the company. This week, we wrap up this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival and the key takeaways for retailers, e-commerce platforms and brands. Also covered are 11.11 highlights from Lazada, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia. We’ll share a white paper that delves into the successful virtual tourism project by Alibaba’s travel-services platform, Fliggy, as well as the announcement of Cainiao’s launch of a full suite of logistics services in Japan.

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Recap of 2020 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

This year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival wrapped up with a record $74.1 billion in gross merchandise volume, reflecting China’s speedy recovery in consumption after emerging from the effects of the pandemic. Speaking at a conference in Shanghai on Monday, Alibaba Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Daniel Zhang said the impact of Covid-19 underpinned new consumer behavior and trends during this year’s shopping event, partly highlighted by an increase in participation of older shoppers from Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers. The number of older consumers spiked 300% from the previous year, a trend that continued from earlier this year when they were forced online by China’s Covid lockdowns. They came online out of necessity, but what’s clear from this 11.11 is that they’ve stayed online, even when they have the choice not to. Also notable was that 357 emerging brands became top sellers in their respective categories this year, which Zhang attributed to their rapid digital adaptation and direct-to-consumer outreach.

Fun Facts about Lazada’s 2020 11.11

Lazada, Alibaba’s e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia, reported a record-breaking 11.11. The platform said earlier Covid-related disruptions brought more local merchants in the region online in recent months. And with more SMEs participating, the one-day online event saw faster digital acceleration, higher user engagement and more online transactions than ever before. Here are some key highlights from this year’s 11.11:

      Engagement

• The one-day event attracted more than 40 million users and 400,000 brands and sellers.
• LazLive, the platform’s livestreaming channel, attracted over 11 million views on Nov. 11.
• User engagement increased by 3.5%, with two games added to the platform, and shoppers logged over 70 million minutes on Lazada’s in-app games.

      Sales

• It took only 100 seconds for Lazada to reach US$11 million in sales and a half-day for LazMall, its virtual shopping mall, to surpass last year’s GMV.
• 26 brands joined the LazMall Millionaires Club, each with over US$1 million in sales.
• Samsung Electronics was one of the first brands to hit US$10 million in sales.
• More than 8,000 SMEs topped US$10,000 in sales, twice as many as last year. Their overall online success represents a bigger trend of digital adoption among local businesses, accelerated by Covid-19.

Analyzing Livestreaming in Tourism Industry

As the fate of international travel remains murky, Alibaba’s travel-services platform Fliggy has been spreading its wings in virtual tourism. The Fliggy Tourism Recovery series is allowing Chinese consumers to virtually travel to different cities and visit museums in the comfort of their homes. To understand how livestreaming worked in the tourism business, we launched a white paper in partnership with Jing Culture & Commerce. It examines how museums and cultural organizations are using the tool to engage with aspiring travelers. You can also watch this video to hear from Ada Xu, regional director of Europe & Middle East at Fliggy, explaining how the project was born and the trajectory of China’s travel industry amid a changing industry landscape.

Cainiao Launches Japan Logistics Service, Increasing Shipping Efficiency By Up to 40%

Cainiao Smart Logistics Network has launched end-to-end logistics and supply-chain services for local businesses in Japan. The Alibaba Group logistics unit said its first- and last-mile, warehouse management, international shipping, trucking and customs clearance services should increase shipping efficiency by up to 40%. That means shipping times drop to 11-13 days from 18-22 days through use of a full-suite logistics service system. Cainiao’s B2C warehouses in Tokyo and Osaka are located within 10 kilometers of Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport respectively, while B2B warehouses are strategically located within 15 kilometers of the nearest port in Yokohama and Kobe to facilitate the movement of goods for import and export. China is Japan’s largest partner in two-way trade, accounting for US$144 billion, or 19.5%, of total exports, and US$173 billion, or 23.2% of imports, according to World Bank data.

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