11.11, Singles' Day of 2015: news & updates

[AndrewJin]

Alibaba sales to equal to fifth-largest economy
By Chen Qingqing Source: Global Times
Published: 2016/11/14 0:13:39

Challenges remain in cross-border trade and regulations

Source: askci.com Graphics: GT

After setting a new record at the annual "Singles' Day" online shopping event, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding will generate value that is equivalent to the fifth-largest economy in the future. Industry experts lauded the feat as "unprecedented" but also cautioned about future challenges.

The company surpassed 3 trillion yuan ($440 billion) in annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) for fiscal year 2016, a year-on-year increase of 27 percent, and it is expected to generate more than tens of billions in its daily GMV, mainly driven by this year's "Singles' Day," also known as double 11, shopping festival, Alibaba said in a press release sent to the Global Times during the weekend. Based on the current growth rate, the company will help create a "new economy" that combines billions of individuals and millions of enterprises worldwide, and size up to the equivalent of a GDP just behind the US, China, the EU and Japan, the release noted, without providing a timeframe.

A company's output can't be compared to a country's GDP, as the company still faces uncertainties in its corporate operations, but the business model that Alibaba has created will certainly have a significant impact on enterprises not only in China but also overseas, Zhang Yi, CEO of Guangzhou-based market research firm iiMedia Research, told the Global Times on Sunday.

"In the past decade, the e-commerce model has been playing a major role in solving the problem of asymmetric information in the marketplace, but it will focus more and more on how to better integrate online and offline sectors in the future, which will reshape global economic and trade landscape," he said.

Alibaba's business-to-consumer platform Tmall recorded a daily sales volume of 120.7 billion yuan on Friday. The 24-hour event this year covered 235 countries and regions, and 94 brands broke sales records of over 100 million yuan, the press release showed. For example, Japanese retailer Uniqlo surpassed 100 million yuan in online sales in less than three minutes, and multinational luxury goods conglomerate LVMH also exceeded expectations, for example its affiliated brand Guerlain broke monthly sales record in 12 minutes on the day.

Alibaba will maintain its growth momentum in the next five years as online retail has not reached the "growth ceiling" yet, said Liu Dingding, a Beijing-based independent industry expert. "Meanwhile, Alibaba is helping create hundreds and thousands jobs, which could also be seen as a contribution to the world development," he told the Global Times on Sunday.

Challenges remain

However, global trade has been sliding in recent years, and this year the growth will be the slowest since the financial crisis, according to the WTO estimates in September. To boost cross-border transactions, Alibaba included "buy globally, sell globally" in its strategy for this year's Double 11 shopping razzmatazz, which is in line with the group's founder Jack Ma Yun's proposal of building an electronic world trade platform (eWTP).

The eWTP would help small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) overcome complex regulations, processes and barriers that hinder their participation in global commerce.

While pushing forward this idea, Alibaba has been facing mounting pressure from foreign regulators. For example, the US Securities and Exchange Commission has recently probed the counterfeit goods on its platform, which could be seen as a result of the trade frictions between the countries, Liu said, noting however that there is no need to exaggerate the aftermath of this conflict, as the current success of Alibaba will eventually help the real economy, or the SMEs, to upgrade their business models and generate more profits.

Alibaba is not the only e-commerce giant that aims at connecting the world and trying to build a global business cycle, "US e-commerce platform Amazon has been doing the same thing for years, but the outcome is not as good as expected," Zhang Yi said.

Zhang noted that like Amazon, the Chinese company's overseas business still accounts for a small part of its overall business due to barriers in international trade.

"Finding complementary areas for doing business is crucial for Alibaba, as shown by JD.com, another Chinese online supplier, which has purchased some of overseas retail marketplaces to better serve the diversified demand in China," he said.

The next trend, VR shopping, convergence of online and offline shopping, logistics upgrading to a higher level.

Something doesn't add up. Alibaba's annual GMV is only $440 billion, less than 1/4 of India's GDP, how can it be the 5th largest economy?

to the fifth-largest economy in the future

 

[Dungeness]

The next trend, VR shopping, convergence of online and offline shopping, logistics upgrading to a higher level.

 

[ahojunk]

Singles' Day data shows online shoppers prefer mobile to computers
2016-11-13 17:16 | Editor: Wang Fan

More Chinese are using mobile devices to shop online than ever before, with more choosing to shop from their handsets than their computers during Friday's Singles' Day shopping event.

Chinese splurged more than 120 billion yuan (17.6 billion U.S. dollars) online on leading online market place Alibaba in the annual buying spree, with about 82 percent of all transaction made on mobile terminals, rising from about 70 percent last year.

The country's second largest e-commerce giant, JD.com, saw about 85 percent of all its orders made on smart devices Friday. Users in the less developed central and western region posted the strongest growth in this regard, suggesting that many went straight to these devices without having first used PCs.

A recent global survey by KPMG said Chinese consumers lead the global transition to m-commerce, with nearly a quarter of Chinese shoppers preferring to use mobile phones to make their online purchases, compared to 5.2 percent of U.S. customers and 8.5 percent globally.

"Although desktops and laptops are still the most commonly used devices for shopping globally, with smartphone use in China skyrocketing, we expect m-commerce to become the preferred medium for many consumers throughout their entire shopping journey, encompassing initial product research, purchase and final payment, as well as product review," said Jessie Qian, Partner-in-charge with Consumer Markets of KPMG China.

China had over 650 million mobile Internet users by the end of June this year about 710 million people were Internet users.

In addition to the large mobile Internet community, another key driver for m-commerce growth is confidence in the security of third-party payments.

About one-third of Chinese respondents said payment options were the most important factor when deciding where to shop online, the survey pointed out.

Singles' Day data released by Alibaba showed that over 10 billion orders were paid via its third-party payment service Alipay, an increase of about 50 percent year on year, while mobile payments accounted for about 83 percent of all orders of Suning.com, another e-commerce player.

International accounting firm PwC revealed in a global survey that nearly one-third of Chinese respondents preferred mobile payment.

Figures for 2015 showed that 32 percent of Chinese respondents preferred mobile payments, double the previous year.

PwC attributed the the rise to explosive growth of mobile payment options and methods, as well as the development of mobile network systems and e-commerce.

"As the market competition intensifies, we see that technology continuously changes the way consumers assess and purchase products. Mobile payment market players are attracting users with continuous innovation of technology and business models designed to seize access to mobile payments, foster beneficial user habits and establish a closed loop from Online to Offline," said Guo Yuqing, PwC China PwC Financial Service Consulting Partner.

There are challenges, however. Over 60 percent of respondents were about the safety of their personal information when using mobile phone payment apps, the PwC report showed.

PwC expects China's retail industry to post a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 percent between 2016 and 2020 while future growth in the mobile payments sector will continue to increase as smartphone use and technology advance.

 

[TaiShang]

China to promote innovative transformation of offline retail sector

The State Council released a circular to promote the innovative transformation of the offline retail sector, in a bid to alleviate pressures from mounting operation costs and the threat from thriving online retailers.

The document set up nine major tasks in the sector’s innovative transformation from the perspective of adjusting commercial structure, innovating development mode and promoting cross-sector integration. In addition, seven measures were laid out to build a better market environment and provide policy support.

**

A good government tends everybody's interests by balancing them out. One's absolute gain should not come another's absolute loss.

Good initiative by the government of China.

gov.cn

 

[Jlaw]

If I am jack ma. I will not be so actively promoting single day next year.

I make singles day every day

 

[Place Of Space]

Singles' Day data shows online shoppers prefer mobile to computers
2016-11-13 17:16 | Editor: Wang Fan

More Chinese are using mobile devices to shop online than ever before, with more choosing to shop from their handsets than their computers during Friday's Singles' Day shopping event.

Chinese splurged more than 120 billion yuan (17.6 billion U.S. dollars) online on leading online market place Alibaba in the annual buying spree, with about 82 percent of all transaction made on mobile terminals, rising from about 70 percent last year.

The country's second largest e-commerce giant, JD.com, saw about 85 percent of all its orders made on smart devices Friday. Users in the less developed central and western region posted the strongest growth in this regard, suggesting that many went straight to these devices without having first used PCs.

A recent global survey by KPMG said Chinese consumers lead the global transition to m-commerce, with nearly a quarter of Chinese shoppers preferring to use mobile phones to make their online purchases, compared to 5.2 percent of U.S. customers and 8.5 percent globally.

"Although desktops and laptops are still the most commonly used devices for shopping globally, with smartphone use in China skyrocketing, we expect m-commerce to become the preferred medium for many consumers throughout their entire shopping journey, encompassing initial product research, purchase and final payment, as well as product review," said Jessie Qian, Partner-in-charge with Consumer Markets of KPMG China.

China had over 650 million mobile Internet users by the end of June this year about 710 million people were Internet users.

In addition to the large mobile Internet community, another key driver for m-commerce growth is confidence in the security of third-party payments.

About one-third of Chinese respondents said payment options were the most important factor when deciding where to shop online, the survey pointed out.

Singles' Day data released by Alibaba showed that over 10 billion orders were paid via its third-party payment service Alipay, an increase of about 50 percent year on year, while mobile payments accounted for about 83 percent of all orders of Suning.com, another e-commerce player.

International accounting firm PwC revealed in a global survey that nearly one-third of Chinese respondents preferred mobile payment.

Figures for 2015 showed that 32 percent of Chinese respondents preferred mobile payments, double the previous year.

PwC attributed the the rise to explosive growth of mobile payment options and methods, as well as the development of mobile network systems and e-commerce.

"As the market competition intensifies, we see that technology continuously changes the way consumers assess and purchase products. Mobile payment market players are attracting users with continuous innovation of technology and business models designed to seize access to mobile payments, foster beneficial user habits and establish a closed loop from Online to Offline," said Guo Yuqing, PwC China PwC Financial Service Consulting Partner.

There are challenges, however. Over 60 percent of respondents were about the safety of their personal information when using mobile phone payment apps, the PwC report showed.

PwC expects China's retail industry to post a compound annual growth rate of 7.5 percent between 2016 and 2020 while future growth in the mobile payments sector will continue to increase as smartphone use and technology advance.

Me hundred percent are made from mobile end.