Jingdong (JD.com) total 11-day sales during Double 11 2020 grew by 32% YoY and reached 271.5 billion yuan (US$41.02 bn) in GMV. Tmall’s 11-day Singles’ Day sales reached 498.2 billion yuan (US$75.27 billion) with an increase of 26% YoY.

Tmall Historial Double 11 Sales

CIW Premium subscribers can download this year’s update on Double 11 here.

Double 11 Sales 2020

Lenovo reported total sales of 1.3 billion yuan in the first hour of the first day (1 Nov). Xiaomi received total sales of over 1 billion yuan in less than 20 minutes of the first day.

Tmall Double 11 Sales

In just two minutes, Tmall’s smart home sales exceeded 100 million yuan on the first day. And more than 1 million smart home devices were sold in one hour.

As of 1:00 a.m. on Nov 1, the total sales of Tmall Smart Speaker ranked first in the smarter speaker category. Among them, the total sales of smart screen products increased 14 times year on year.

By 1:51 am on Nov 1, 100 brands, including Apple, L’Oreal, Haier, Estee Lauder, Nike, Huawei, Midea, Lancome, Xiaomi, Adidas had a total sales of more than 100 million yuan (US$14.95 million). The most popular categories are 3C and cosmetics.

Update (11 Nov): According to the data of Taobao Live, the proportion of GMV via live streaming exceeded 60%, and the number of live streaming merchants increased by 220%. Taobao Live promoted more than 4 million employment opportunities.

Alibaba Tmall Double 11 total GMV in 2020 reached 372.3 billion yuan (US$56.46 bn) as of 00:30 am on 11 November.

Update (12 Nov): Tmall’s 11-day Singles’ Day sales reached 498.2 billion yuan (US$75.27 billion).

• 250,000 brands in total participated in Double 11 this year, of which 31,000 are overseas brands. Within these overseas brands, 2,600 participated in 11.11 for the first time.
• 357 emerging brands became top sellers in their respective subcategories. More than 1,800 emerging brands surpassed their GMV from Double 11 last year and, of these, 94 emerging brands enjoyed sales growth of over 1,000%.
• Under Alibaba’s Spring Thunder initiative, 1.2 million merchants and 300,000 factories focused on overseas trade from more than 2,000 industry clusters across China participated in Double 11.
• AI customer chatbot handled over 2.1 billion queries during the 11-day period.
• The United States was the top country selling to China by GMV.
  • Other top-selling countries to China, in alphabetical order, include: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and UK.

JD.com Double 11 Sales

Jingdong (JD) released the first day Double 11 report, and the turnover of the whole day increased by more than 90% year on year.

According to JD big data, FMCG products such as milk and dairy products, shampoo, rice, biscuit cake and paper drawing have become the top five categories in terms of sales, while 3C household appliances such as mobile phones, washing machines, flat-panel TVs, refrigerators, laptops and other household appliances rank first by total sales.

JD Plus, which recently reached 20 million members, saw a lot of activity on Nov 1st. The number of new users on Nov. 1st increased 113% YoY.

JD’s C2M home appliances, which have quickly become popular for their high cost-to-performance ratio also performed well. Twenty products from this line selected as priority quickly exceeded sales of RMB 200 million yuan on the first day.

Personal care home appliances grew 180% on the first day of sales, among which makers of hair dryers, electric razors and more such as Dyson, Philips, Flyco, Panasonic, Braun and Oral B were highest ranked in terms of sales.

Mobile phone sales in half an hour saw 314% growth. JD’s special mobile phone for the elderly saw eight times growth in the first 15 minutes, while users who participated in JD’s trade in program in the first 30 minutes increased 465%.

JD Luxury saw whole day sales on Nov. 1 up 138% YoY. In the first 30 minutes, 127 brands including Ferragamo, Ralph Lauren and Tod’s saw sales up 10 times YOY. International jewelry brands were up six times.

Update (11 Nov): JD Double 11 total GMV in 2020 since 1 November exceeded 200 billion yuan (US$30.33 bn) as of 00:09 am on 11 November. Here are a few quick highlights:

• In 6 seconds sales generated from live-streaming exceeded RMB 100 million yuan
• In the first 11 minutes, JD private label sales exceeded sales of the whole day on Nov. 11^th last year
• Haier, Midea, Gree and other brands sold over RMB 100 million yuan in products in one minute
• Huawei Mate 40 sales in 7 seconds exceeded RMB 100 million yuan
• Over 100,000 computers were sold in 10 minutes
• The turnover of JD Super, JD’s online supermarket increased 10 times YOY in the first five mins of sales
• JD Fresh increased 5 times YOY in the same timeframe
• JD’s international business saw transaction volume increase more than 120% YOY in the first 10 minutes
• JD’s imported goods supermarket saw turnover increase 2.5 times month-on-month
• 93% of first party orders placed during the Singles Day Grand Promotion have been delivered to customers in 24 hours

JD’s Consumer-to-Manufacturer (C2M) home appliances, which quickly became popular in the market because of their high-cost performance and ability to meet consumers’ demands, were highly sought after during the Singles Day period.

Twenty products hand selected by JD as development priorities quickly exceeded RMB 200 million yuan when the official sales period kicked off on Nov. 1^st.

C2M relies heavily on JD’s supply chain abilities. JD helped with sales forecasts for 33,000 brands and 5 million products and automatically deployed them to the locations nearest to users in advance.

Update (12 Nov): Jingdong (JD.com) total sales during Double 11 2020 grew by 32% YoY and reached 271.5 billion yuan (US$41.02 bn) in GMV.

Starbucks saw one-day GMV growth of over 90% YoY on 11 Nov to 200 million yuan.

Other Platforms

Suning reported 5 billion yuan sales across all channels as of 00:19 am on 11 Nov.

Gome GMV increased by 166%. In terms of online platforms, the sales of general merchandise increased by 237% month on month, and that of maternal and infant commodities increased by 314%.

Xiaomi reported total sales of 14.3 billion yuan across all platforms in the 11-day sales.

Come back soon; we’ll update with the latest information on Double 11. You can subscribe to e-newsletter or paid subscription. 

Dossier: Double 11

How JD penetrates lower-tier cities with social e-commerce initiative

Double 11 Introduction

Alibaba Tmall Double 11

Alibaba Taobao kicked off its Double Eleven Global Shopping Festival (“Double 11”), the largest annual shopping festival in China, on 21 October 2020 with new innovations and features to meet rapidly changing consumer trends.

These include the participation of Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform; broader consumer reach and bigger promotions, “double” the number of shopping windows that will spotlight more brands, products and special offers, and the popular live streaming technology creating more fun and engagement for Chinese consumers with the largest international presence to date.

For many brands, Double 11 is the single biggest growth driver every year and this year will be no exception. Check out Double 11 2019 performance.

Read our guide on Double 11 here.

Deepening Engagement to Create “Double” Opportunities

This year the Taobao/Tmall Double 11 Festival expands the concept from “single” to “double,” enabling merchants to double up on promoting their products to consumers across China not just once, but twice, according to Alibaba’s official announcement.

A new sales window will be added from November 1 to 3 on Taobao/Tmall platforms, ahead of the main event on November 11, with the aim of providing merchants, specifically new brands and small businesses, the opportunity to showcase their products and tell their brand stories amid the pandemic.

Double 11 has become one of the most important new product launch events of the year for many brands. This year, more than 2 million new products will be introduced, which is double the amount compared to last year.

Double 11 will be offering more opportunities for merchants both online and offline to engage with consumers as well as provide a better consumer experience overall.

This year’s Taobao Double 11 experience will also be enhanced by Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform, which brings together nearly 2 million local service providers offering special promotions in more than 100 cities.

Offline small- and micro-merchants across China, such as street stalls and neighborhood grocery stores, will be able to participate in the excitement of Double 11 by connecting with consumers through Alipay’s digital lifestyle platform.

Big Growth Driver for Participating Brands

Alibaba launched Spring Thunder Initiative early this year as a continuous effort on merchants empowerment and Double 11 is yet another milestone to help merchants regain growth.

This year’s Taobao Double 11 Festival will feature 14 million value-for-money products from more than 250,000 brands available on Tmall.

Also, to cater for the needs of customers in lower-tier cities, Taobao Deals’ “RMB1 Sales” campaign will enable consumers to purchase goods at huge discounts with free shipping.

To meet Chinese consumers’ increasing demand for international products, Tmall Global will bring more than 2,600 new overseas brands to Chinese consumers for the first time. Alibaba’s cross-border e-commerce platform Kaola will also join Double 11 for the first time, featuring products from 89 countries and regions.

Live streaming and Logistics Core to the Event

Live streaming is expected to take the center stage of this year’s Taobao/Tmall Double 11.

In addition to sessions hosted by top live streamers, about 400 company executives and 300 celebrities will also hold individual live streaming sessions. Taobao Live will offer sessions ranging from cosmetics, electronics, to cars and houses.

New features like online property viewings and virtual vehicle test drives will provide a more realistic and engaging experience to help consumers with their buying decisions. Alibaba’s DAMO Academy will use artificial intelligence technology to create its first virtual live streaming host while Fliggy will host travel-related live streams.

This year’s event will have the largest international presence since it was founded in 2009.

AliExpress now sells to more than 200 countries and regions worldwide. Lazada was the first to bring the shopping festival concept to Southeast Asia across six markets – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Shopping festivals such as Double 11 have also become one of the key industry growth drivers as local small-and-medium businesses participate in this biggest event alongside LazMall, the region’s largest online mall with more than 18,000 local and international brands.

This year Lazada will continue its “shoppertainment” features ranging from live streaming to new consumer games and innovations such as voice search to find items.

Alibaba’s robust technology and logistics infrastructure is the backbone of the Double 11 Shopping Festival. Cainiao will charter approximately 700 flights during Double 11. More than 50% of this year’s cross-border parcels are expected to be delivered twice as fast as its usual speed.

JD Double 11

JD also kicked off its Double 11 2020 campaign on 21 October 2020. JD is expected to be the first choice of consumers buying 3C products (mostly computer, consumer electronics, and communication products) in this year’s Singles Day promotion, according to Nielsen.

Double 11 Pre-sales

Nearly 140 million items were sold during the pre-sales period from October 21st to 28th, an increase of over 42.3% from the same period last year, of which JD.com sales increased by 85.5%, according to O&O Consulting.

Products worth more than RMB 1,000 yuan accounted for 48.3% of JD’s pre-sales. Pre-sales of medicine and health care on JD increased by 378% YoY while home furnishings increased by 79.3%. One of the reasons cited for the increase is people’s yearning for a sense of security and stability after a very tumultuous start to 2020.

During the pre-sales, home appliances, computer and office supplies, maternal and child, medical and health care and other categories saw growth of over 100% YoY, indicating that after the epidemic consumer demand to “settle down” has become more important.

According to JD’s own data, from October 21st-29th advanced orders for health equipment, Chinese and western medicine, and traditional nourishment on JD’s platform increased more than 10 times compared with the same period last year.

Orders for fitness and exercise equipment increased more than three times, while health-conscious small home appliances increased four times YoY.

In terms of key sub-categories such as computers, electrical appliances and home furnishing, JD’s pre-sale volume of mid and high-end goods exceeded peers, especially in the home decoration category.

O&O data finds that consumers have a tendency to turn to JD for purchases in the durable consumer categories such as large household appliances, computers, and household appliances, with the platform making up 62.7%, 82.6% and 82.7% of pre-orders respectively by category.

The largest annual shopping festival in China Double 11 is less than two months away; Alibaba’s B2C e-commerce platform Tmall has kicked off this year’s campaign last week. Tmall stores can apply for their participation in Double 11 2019 from 12 September to 20 September.

Tmall Double 11 presale will start on 21 October and reach its peak on 11 November 2019.

Tmall will review and approve merchants to participate in this year’s Double 11 based on their historical activity and performance. And, participating brands and merchants are required to provide coupons and discounts to shoppers and sign up delivery insurance for orders during the campaign period.

Tmall also recommends merchants participate in price protection scheme for consumers’ better shopping experience. Products for Double 11 Festival are required to apply no less than 10% discount off the corresponding lowest regular pricing.

Tmall also has a strict requirement on the shipping dates. All ordered during 11-15 Nov must be shipped before 18 November. The same requirement applies to its cross-border shopping platform Tmall Global.

As usual, participating merchants must provide free shipping. And, for Tmall Global merchants, they should cover the import tax too except for some products with higher discounts.

China’s cross-border e-commerce users overview 2019

A new service will help Alibaba double the number of foreign brands on Tmall Global to 40,000 in three years.

Alibaba has taken another giant leap forward towards its ambition of becoming the world’s fifth-largest economy by 2023, becoming a truly global titan of commerce. A crucial element of realizing this is attracting more global brands, large and small, to its platform.

This has just become much easier with the new English-language portal on Tmall Global. Introduced in 2014, international brands on Tmall Global cover more than 4,000 categories and originate from 77 countries and regions. Tmall Global now plans to launch other foreign-language sites, including Spanish, Japanese and Korean.

Global eCommerce expansion ramps up with the launch of English Tmall portal

This new service will certainly help Alibaba double the number of foreign brands on Tmall Global to 40,000 in three years, with a goal of generating more than half of the company’s revenue from outside China by 2025.

New growth engines are also essential given a cooling economy in China, an ongoing trade war with the US and increasingly aggressive competitors including JD.com and Pinduoduo. Efforts are well underway in this regard, with Alibaba having made inroads into Southeast Asia through the acquisition of Lazada, but it now aims to broaden its reach even further.

Attracting more international brands across key categories will provide a strong fillip to growth. Alibaba is already increasing investments to unlock growth from China’s lower-tier cities and rural areas, which currently account for only 20% of total orders for the company. This means plenty of room to grow for the business and cements the huge opportunities to go after for international brands.

Streamlining the Gateways to China

The new portal allows English-speaking merchants to fill in details online about their products, which are then vetted by Alibaba based on category and quality. If they fit the bill, Alibaba contacts them within 72 hours to gauge if their products are a fit for the Chinese consumer and Tmall.

The portal provides a hands-on guide to overseas merchants on how to open a store on the platform and make use of tools such as Tmall Overseas Fulfilment, which provides a low-cost way to set up their business in China before they start selling to domestic consumers. Tmall Global will also advise merchants on optimizing operations after they’ve established a strong presence on the platform.

Prior to the site, joining Tmall Global was only possible through personal introduction, or by signing up at trade fairs. With a huge emphasis on leveraging technology, namely artificial intelligence, to automate processes, a self-service portal and onboarding system makes sense. Especially if Alibaba wants to hit its ambitious target.

China is a fast moving, dynamic, highly nuanced, highly competitive, market. Understanding the drivers and influencers of growth, and how to unlock them is a scary prospect and often too daunting for smaller non-native brands.

The provision of Tmall Global’s portal will help brands understand the vast, diverse and digital-facing Chinese market – while at the same time providing Alibaba with what it strives for, operational efficiency through the efficient and effective use of data.

Removing friction and pain-points from the entire process of attracting, onboarding and helping to succeed, this new portal will certainly appeal to smaller brands. However, brands will need a good understanding of how to tailor products, messaging and marketing strategies to truly grow in China.

The need to deal with real-time data and industry benchmarks will become imperative. This will remain a challenge for smaller brands and will be essential capabilities if they’re to fully realize the opportunity in China and the potential of selling through Tmall Global.

Brands will still need to truly understand the landscape, and the ever-evolving shopper-retailer-brand relationships if they’re to establish credibility within the organization, and externally with key partners. Demonstrating the potential of Alibaba’s ecosystem and platforms in prioritizing investment for maximum ROI, is only one piece of the jigsaw.

eBook: Tmall Global Guide

This article was originally published on Kantar.com

Tmall Global plans to open six new procurement centers across the world to help overseas vendors capture Chinese consumers’ booming appetite for newer and better imported goods according to Alizila. The centers will be established in Japan, South Korea, and Hong Kong, as well as in the regions of North America, Europe and Oceania.

China’s e-commerce cross-border trade to more than double to RMB 620 billion ($98 billion) in gross merchandise volume by 2019 according to Boston Consulting Group research, from RMB 305.5 billion in 2016.

Tmall Global, which already offers more than 18,000 brands from 74 countries and regions, is committed to attract even more brands and vendors across the world to sell their goods into China in the coming year, said Tmall Global General Manager Alvin Liu.

The top cross-border e-commerce platforms in China include Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, Amazon, Netease Kaola, and etc.

This report is mainly based on Amazon’s own data regarding the volume of overseas sales and consumer behavioral surveys. One highlight is the fact that the number of overseas brands purchased through its cross-border platform has, in the last half year, increased from 80,000 to 210,000. Find out more here.

Black Friday continues to be a revenue driver for cross-border e-commerce platforms in 2017

E-commerce enterprises in China have taken an increasing role spearheading cross-border commerce in goods and services between China and other nations. As consumers within the country have become more affluent, some enterprises have begun importing increasing amounts of high-quality consumer goods from abroad while others provide platforms for importers to sell goods B2C and C2C.

The following is an overview of the state of the cross-border e-commerce sector in the first half of 2017.

Cross-border e-commerce market overview

From 2013 to the present the value of cross-border transactions conducted using e-commerce platforms has more than doubled, from 2.9 trillion yuan (US$ 434.7 billion) to 6.3 trillion yuan (US$944.5 billion) in 2016, and is expected to surpass the US$1 trillion mark in 2017. In 2016, year-on-year growth was 23.5%, a figure expected to fall slightly to 19.0% in 2017.

Following improvements in logistics and international supply chains, consumers are becoming “sea scourers” (haitao, researching and purchasing imported goods online) as a way to meet their needs, leading to rapid growth in the number of Chinese consumers purchasing imported goods online.

In 2016, 41 million Chinese consumers purchased imported goods online, an increase of 78.3% from the year prior, and it is expected that this figure will grow by a further 41.5% in 2017, to 58 million.

For comparison, there is a total of 765 million discrete accounts on all e-commerce platforms in China, meaning that 7.6% of consumers will make an international purchase in 2017. This also implies that while growth rates will taper off over time, the market is far from saturated relative to the size of the overall e-commerce market.

The e-commerce market for imported goods is dominated by four companies, NetEase Kaola, Tmall Global, VIPShop Global, and JD Worldwide, of which Tmall Global and JD Worldwide are offshoots of larger e-commerce platforms, Taobao and JD.com.

These four collectively account for 72.7% of the market. JD Worldwide and other companies which are able to rely on a larger e-commerce platform and strong supply chain will be able to leverage these advantages to occupy a strong market position.

Understanding China’s “sea scourers”

Survey data shows that nearly 70% cross-border online shoppers have bought imported goods in the first half of 2017, of whom just 1.6% were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied, while 80% were satisfied or very satisfied.

Economic development within China has allowed cross-border e-commerce platforms to continually develop their product selection, while technological improvements have contributed towards a better shopping experience, such that consumers are generally satisfied with their options and the quality of the goods and customer service they receive.

“Sea scourers” are motivated to buy imported goods by several factors, the most important of which are a search for quality and authenticity, a belief that imported goods are a better value for the money, and the variety of brands available online from international sources.

In a market such as China, where e-commerce is not always reliable and counterfeit goods are commonplace, it’s only natural that the most common concern driving consumers to buy imports is product quality.

In addition, clear patterns emerged from the survey data regarding spending; 66.2% of transactions were in the range of 300-1000 yuan (US$45-150), indicating that average spending among “sea scourers” is higher than among ordinary e-commerce users, but that the majority of them are not buying high-priced luxury goods. This reinforces the data above; most “sea scourers” are motivated by a search for quality and authentic goods which is harder to find in domestic products.

A large majority of consumers (65.2%) say they buy imported goods online at least once a month, with a significant fraction saying they purchase goods weekly, suggesting that buying imported goods has become routine and an important part of the consumption habits of many households.

Analysts believe that increasing consumer affluence coupled with the quality of the goods available from overseas markets will continue to drive e-commerce users abroad to fulfill their daily needs.

Preferred nations of origin

In cross-border e-commerce, developed economies dominate as exporters. Japan, South Korea, the United States, France, and Germany were the biggest suppliers of goods to cross-border shoppers. 43.9% of China cross-border online shoppers reported having purchased Japanese-sourced goods, predominantly in the cosmetic, skincare, and nutrition industries.

South Korea and the United States were in second and third place; consumers primarily purchased skincare products, foodstuffs, and fashion from South Korea and nutrition, fashion, and infant-related products from the US. France and Germany were both sources of infant-related and nutrition products, while France also provided cosmetics and Germany, skincare products.

Survey responses showed that quality is not just a consideration for consumers in choosing to buy from abroad, but also in choosing from where to buy. 36.6% of “sea scourers” reported choosing products from a given country of origin based on product quality, a significant margin over those who chose based on style (27.8%) or reputation (18.9%).

… and e-commerce platforms

Meanwhile, among new “sea scourers”, NetEase Kaola, Tmall Global, JD Worldwide, and Little Red Book dominate as preferred cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Cross-border online shoppers chose among competing e-commerce platforms based primarily on three factors: guarantees of product authenticity, platform popularity, and variety and completeness of choices offered.

The majority choose e-commerce sites which control the import and sale of all products on the site, with 57.4% preferring such sites, while just 26.2% prefer sites which offer a platform to independent sellers. Those who responded in favor of centralized sites cite quality assurance, professional operations, and stringent selection of products as their primary reasons for preferring them.

In keeping with the above, consumers found NetEase Kaola, Amazon Global, and Little Red Book to be the most credible platforms when looking to buy authentic, name-brand products from abroad.

Additionally, these three sites had the highest satisfaction rating among surveyed consumers, with average ratings of 8.2/10, 8.0/10, and 7.8/10 respectively, suggesting that centralized commercial platforms have a leg up among consumers who are accustomed to a “Wild West” environment in e-commerce in China.

By exercising more control over procurement and ensuring the authenticity of goods purchased on their sites, they are able to offer a measure of security that the individual seller-dominated Tmall Global and similar platforms cannot.

Read part 2 here.