China’s answer to the online Cyber Monday and America’s post-Thanksgiving «Black Friday» generated US$30.8 billion (NZ$45.76 billion) this year for Alibaba during its Singles’ Day shopping promotion.
Singles’ Day, also known as 11:11, celebrates single people, giving them permission to buy themselves or others a present. It has become the largest offline and online shopping day in the world.
On Alibaba, New Zealand was the ninth best performing country out of 230 participating countries and regions, up from its 14th placing last year by volume.
Japan was the top-selling country, followed by the United States, Korea and Australia. Australian vitamin and nutraceutical brands Swisse and Bio Island were the first and fifth top-selling imported brands.
Milk company A2 was the sixth best performing «cross border» brand, and sales of New Zealand lamb jumped 917 per cent in the first hour of the event, compared to the same period last year.
It was a good day also for Ecostore, an environmentally friendly home and body products company.
Ecostore has been a part of Singles’ Day for three years, and this year made $2.36m in sales, doubling last year’s efforts.
The company sold nearly 310,000 units within 24 hours, many of them in the first 10 minutes.
Alibaba’s chief executive Daniel Zhang said Singles’ Day showed how strong Chinese consumer power was.
«Today we witnessed the strength and rise of China’s consumption economy and consumers’ continued pursuit to upgrade their everyday lifestyles,» he said.
«Participation from the entire Alibaba ecosystem enabled our brand and merchant partners to engage with consumers like never before.»
In the hours leading up to the shopping event, Alibaba’s video streaming platform Youku hosted a gala countdown to mark the festival.
The gala featured international celebrity appearances and performances from Miranda Kerr, Mariah Carey and Cirque du Soleil, which viewers were able to watch via two major TV stations as well as Youku’s site.
Over 40 per cent of consumes bought international brands.
The top 10 imported goods by volume to Chinese consumers on Singles’ Day via Alibaba were:
* Health supplements
* Milk powder
* Facial masks
* Nappies
* Serums
* Infant and toddler nutrition
* Emulsion
* Face wash
* Make up remover
* Toner