Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (NYSE:BABA)’s Single’s Day sales could break all previous records and write a new history this year due to an increasing number of people using internet services, believe analysts. Also the number of retailers participating in the event is higher than before, which further strengthens analyst views.
Single’s Day more important for Alibaba than Cyber Monday
Young Chinese created Single’s Day, which is held on November 11 and also known as 11/11, to celebrate or lament being single. This has now evolved into a big shopping event in the world that lasts for 24 hours. Total transactions booked by Alibaba last year on the day were $5.8 billion, and this was higher than those booked on Cyber Monday, which falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving and is the biggest online sales day for the U.S., says a report from CNBC.
Barclays predicts that the number of packages to be delivered between November 11 and 16 will go up by 50% over last year and be in the range of 500 million. Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research Group, expects Alibaba sales to grow by 40% over last year’s and fall somewhere in the range of 50 billion yuan ($8.17 billion).
“In terms of products, the most popular items will probably be various food products like baby formula and consumer and home electronics,” said Cavender.
Excitement around 11/11
The majority of e-commerce players are participating in the event and are competing with each other for attracting the maximum number of customers and driving the maximum amount of traffic to their sites through the launch of aggressive online promotional campaigns. During mid-October, pre-orders for Singles Day promotions were started by Alibaba, during which customers could reserve a product for themselves by paying an upfront deposit for it and the remaining balance on Nov. 11.
The majority of buyers are already flocking e-commerce websites like Taobao and Tmall to get a feel of the products that they will be interested in buying on the day. The delivery staff at Alibaba is preparing for a busy day, as they expect orders to come in huge quantities and wish to meet customers’ expectations.
