Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba’s domestic e-commerce business unit, launched at 8pm on Monday the presale stage of its promotion for Singles’ Day – also known as 11.11 or Double 11, referring to the shopping extravaganza originally observed on November 11 – as the company anticipates a record-high volume of users taking part in this year’s festival. Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.
“This year’s 11.11 is unfolding as Chinese consumer sentiment is improving,” Alibaba vice-president Liu Bo, who serves as president of Tmall, said in a statement. “We are making unprecedented investments to incentivise our users and support our brands and merchants to drive high-quality growth.”
JD.com and PDD Holdings-owned Pinduoduo also rolled out their respective Singles’ Day promotions on the same day, marking a departure from 11.11 campaigns over the past few years. The three e-commerce rivals used to launch promotions on different days partly to avoid direct, side-by-side comparison of their respective sales numbers ahead of November 11.
The annual Singles’ Day festival, which was initiated by Alibaba in 2009 as a 24-hour online retail event, has become a proxy for many investors to track consumer spending in China as well as an important barometer of the country’s economic health.