Alibaba Records Year-Over-Year Growth for Singles Day Sales

Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company, reported a successful Singles Day sales season this year, with rival JD.com also celebrating record-breaking sales volumes. Data analytics firm Syntun estimated that cumulative sales across multiple e-commerce platforms rose by approximately 2.08% to 1.14 trillion yuan ($156.4 billion). This figure, however, marked a slight decrease in growth when compared to last year’s 2.9% increase.

Originally an online shopping event held on Nov. 11 each year in China, Singles Day has evolved into a weeks-long shopping festival spanning numerous e-commerce platforms and physical retail stores. Despite economic challenges stemming from the pandemic, the festival, which serves as an indicator of consumer confidence, has continued to thrive. Alibaba, while not providing specific figures, confirmed positive sales for its e-commerce platforms, Tmall and Taobao.

At the start of this year’s Singles Day, Alibaba encouraged its merchants to offer aggressive pricing, declaring that it would present 80 million products at their highest discount for the year. Analysts suggest this move was designed to maintain competition against rivals Douyin and PDD Holdings’ Pinduoduo, which have changed the dynamics of Chinese e-commerce by offering discounted items year-round. As a result, discounts of 40%-50% were more common during this year’s festival.

Alibaba kept the specifics of its sales performance by product or brand under wraps during the entire period of the shopping festival. Xiaomi, on the other hand, announced that its recently released Xiaomi 14 smartphone nabbed the top-seller spot on Alibaba’s Tmall from Nov. 4 to 11. Not only that, but Xiaomi also trumped other Chinese brands in various smartphone sales categories across different online shopping platforms.

HSBC analysts expressed their optimism for Xiaomi in a Nov. 6 report, stating, “Much better-than-expected Mi14 sales creates earnings accretion and potential valuation re-rating ahead.” Following this, they increased their smartphone shipment forecasts for Xiaomi by 7% in 2023, approximating 150 million units, and by 6% in 2024, with a projected 160 million units. A survey conducted by Bain and Company revealed that a significant 77% of Chinese consumers had no plans to increase their spending ahead of this year’s shopping festival.

Despite this subdued spending intent, livestreaming sales have been a ray of hope in the online sales domain. Livestreaming and short videos on platforms like Alibaba’s Taobao and ByteDance’s Douyin have become increasingly popular sales channels. According to Syntun and Morningstar senior equity analyst Chelsey Tam, GMV from livestreaming increased by 19% during the shopping festival this year. Tmall dominated the sales, accounting for 60% in a category Syntun defined as “comprehensive e-commerce platforms.” JD trailed behind with a 28% share, while Pinduoduo held a 7% share. Additionally, Kuaishou, a short video and livestreaming app, reported nearly 50% growth in orders during the Singles Day shopping period.

More insights into the Singles Day results, as well as trends among Chinese consumers, are expected to emerge during corporate earnings calls later this week.