Alibaba has logged another record-breaking Singles’ Day, but the year-on-year growth of its sales in gross merchandise volume (GMV) for the event is on the decline. According to the trade publication Sportstextiles, this year’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, spread over 11 days, brought in for the Chinese e-commerce giant about $84.5 billion in GMV, for an increase of 8.5 percent. This is the first time the event has failed to achieve double-digit growth. It notes, however, that during the sale’s first three days, Nov. 1-3, the volume of purchases from China’s small cities and rural areas was up by 25 percent from last year.
On the other hand, China’s largest sports group, Anta Sports Products, enjoyed Singles’ Day sales of $40.8 million, all e-tail platforms combined, for a 61 percent increase year-on-year. In fact, the group’s brands appear to have accounted for about 22 percent of sales on Alibaba’s Tmall platform. In addition to its eponymous brand, Anta controls the distribution in China of Fila , Descente and Kolon Sport. By category the group came in first in domestic brands and second in athletic shoes and apparel.
JD Sports, whose promotion ran from the evening of Oct. 31 to Nov. 11, achieved its highest sales total yet, $54.6 billion, for an increase of 28 percent year-on-year. Like Alibaba, the U.K. group notes an increase in sales from outside China’s vast cities. Indeed, 77 percent of the JD’s customers during the sale made their purchases from small Chinese cities, which the group believes constitute a rich and under-tapped market.
Overall, more brands than ever – 290,000 of them – took part in Singles’ Day, along with 900 million Chinese customers, 45 percent of whom were Millennials or Gen Z. Some 200 designer brands – among them Yves Saint Laurent, Max Mara, Thom Browne and Van Cleef & Arpels – sold through the Tmall Luxury Pavilion, and some 400 brands – like Apple and L’Oreal – sold more than $15 million each.
This year’s sale was unusually low-key for Alibaba. The group has been under scrutiny from China’s government, which in April levied on it a record-breaking fine of $2.8 billion for monopolistic behavior. Moreover, its co-founder and former executive chairman, Jack Ma, vanished from public view for months after he criticized China’s regulators.
