Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) announced on Thursday morning that the total gross merchandise volume (GMV) on its platforms reached RMB 498.2 billion (USD 74.1 billion) between November 1 and November 11 in an extended Singles’ Day shopping festival. It marks an increase of 26% compared to the same timeframe last year, according to the company. In 2019, when “Double 11” was still a one-day event on November 11, GMV on Alibaba’s platforms reached RMB 268.4 billion.
Rival JD.com meanwhile recorded RMB 275.1 billion (USD 40.9 billion) in GMV in the November 1–11 period, compared with RMB 204.4 billion last year, which represents a 34.6% increase.
“Alibaba’s result looks rather good for a company with such a large size, especially as it did not perform that well in the first and second quarter of this year,” Li Chengdong, CEO of the Dolphin think tank, told KrASIA on Thursday.
“The final GMV data fully mirrors the vitality of Alibaba and the Chinese economy,” said Weng Yi, a researcher with the China Digital Economy Institute. “The data itself is not that important. What matters is that a wide variety of merchants online and offline, at home and abroad have participated.” Weng pointed out that in the past 12 years, the Double 11 festival changed the boundaries of e-commerce in people’s eyes, restructured production and consumption, and in fact turned to be an indispensable part of China’s digital economy.
“More than 5 million merchants participated in this years’ shopping festival, marking the widest involvement from vendors,” said Jiang Fan, president of Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall platforms.
Jiang added that the event has also drawn the widest participation so far from buyers, as 800 million individuals worldwide shopped on Alibaba’s platforms. Taobao, Tmall, Kaola, Lazada, AliExpress, Hema, Ele.me, and Fliggy all offered discounted goods, including groceries, hotel stays, and large-ticket items. The GMV, however, did not include transactions for houses and cars, a first at this year’s event.
Out of 250,000 participating brands, over 470 sellers achieved more than RMB 100 million (USD 15 million) in GMV. Alibaba’s logistics unit Cainiao Network processed more than 2.32 billion delivery orders during the 11-day period.