“618 Mid-year Shopping Festival” from Taobao and Tmall Empowers Brands to Go Deeper in China
June 03 2019 - 12:12AM
Business Wire
Event targets less-developed areas of China
with 1.5 million new products and special promotions
Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA) has kicked off this year’s “618
Mid-year Shopping Festival” from Taobao and Tmall, empowering
brands and merchants to tap into China’s less-developed regions
with 1.5 million new products and multiple promotional
initiatives.
This year’s festival aims to engage customers in emerging
cities, counties and villages across China. To do so, Taobao and
Tmall are boosting promotional resources to elevate excitement and
help brands reach this rapidly growing market. Altogether, over
200,000 brands and retailers will participate in the shopping
event.
“618 Mid-year Shopping Festival” from Taobao and Tmall
officially started on June 1 and will last until June 18. Within
the first hour, from midnight to 1:00 a.m., gross merchandise
volume (GMV) exceeded that of the first 10 hours last year. And at
11:23 a.m., less than 12 hours after the start, total GMV surpassed
last year’s full-day figure.
Branded products are so far proving extremely popular. Top
brands like Apple, Xiaomi, Haier, Aux, Midea, L 'Oreal, Lancome,
Nike and Adidas each notched over RMB100 million in sales in the
first hour. Among them, Apple sold over RMB100 million worth of
products in two minutes and 45 seconds, while Midea and Nike both
hit that mark in four minutes.
Capturing the Potential in Less-developed Regions in
China
“In addition to rising discretionary spending, consumers in
China's less-developed regions are becoming more-sophisticated
shoppers who are looking for lifestyle upgrades. This increased
consumption potential could mean bright prospects for our
merchants. People in these areas might have less access to physical
shopping facilities than those in big cities, and this year we are
working closely with our partners to address their needs and offer
them the same good quality products on our platforms with
innovative and fun programs,” said President of Taobao and Tmall
Jiang Fan.
The number of people living in smaller cities and rural areas
accounts for nearly 70% of China’s total population, according to
Chinese market-research firm Analysys. These consumers are catching
up with first- and second-tier markets in valuing quality over
price. Tmall’s figures also show that over half of the sales
generated on its Luxury Pavilion comes from customers outside
China’s first- and second-tier cities.
In view of this trend, Taobao and Tmall are leveraging Alibaba
Group’s ecosystem and technology and an array of innovative
marketing channels and tools to build momentum from early June,
leading up to the 618 Mid-year Shopping Festival. Key initiatives
to offer opportunities in fast-growing markets and enhance customer
engagement include:
Tmall product debuts. About 1.5 million products will
debut on Tmall during the festival with customers enjoying
heavyweight promotional offers on these items. Many were developed
by brands on an accelerated cycle, thanks to consumer insights
provided by Tmall. In addition to deals on the 1.5 million new
products, brands are offering millions of other products at a
discount. All products are available to consumers nationwide, but
brands are paying special attention to the needs and desires of
customers in lower-tier Chinese cities.
Flash Sales. Alibaba’s flash sales channel, Juhuasuan,
allows brands to offer deep discounts to reach new customers in
fast-growing markets. Juhuasuan will organize dozens of 618-themed
group-selling campaigns featuring must-buy items recommended by
brands. Statistics show that Juhuasuan is a tried-and-true channel
for brands to attract first-time buyers. Since 2018, 80% of the
transactions for branded goods through Juhuasuan were from new
customers, and nearly half were from lower-tier cities.
Taobao Livestreaming. Few marketing tools have proved
more effective than livestreaming for brands to introduce and
recommend 618 products to potential consumers in less-developed
regions. In 2018, sales generated by Taobao Livestreaming exceeded
RMB100 billion. This year, U.S. brands, including Stadium Goods,
the streetwear and sneaker resale store backed by LVMH Luxury
Ventures, Korean beauty brands, like Laneige and Innisfree and
Japanese cosmetics brands Shiseido will host livestreams for
618.
Daily Deals. This channel on the Taobao app provides
special offerings directly from manufacturers and is highly popular
among consumers from less-developed areas in China. Equipped with
insights from consumer preferences and behaviors, manufacturers are
able to adjust their production processes on a real time basis to
meet the consumers demands. These manufacturers will introduce
100,000 promotional items for the 618 celebration.
With an extensive reach of 654 million annual active consumers
in China, strong technical support and in-depth market knowledge,
Alibaba’s ecosystem offers strong growth potential for brands. Its
platforms also allow easy access to high-quality products for
consumers in less-developed cities around China.
Alibaba Group’s 2019 annual results reflect that growth
potential, with more than 70% of the over 100 million new active
users added during the year ended March 31, 2019 coming from
less-developed cities.
About Alibaba Group
Alibaba Group’s mission is to make it easy to do business
anywhere and the company aims to achieve sustainable growth for 102
years. For the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, the company
reported revenue of US$56 billion.
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version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190602005106/en/
Claire ZhaoAlibaba Group+852 97278923yanan.z@alibaba-inc.com
Xiaoyi ShaoAlibaba Group+86
18658170996shaoxiaoyi.sxy@alibaba-inc.com
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