Alibaba Singles Day Goes Global With Record $25 Billion in Sales

Alibaba’s Singles’ Day generated a record 168.2 billion yuan ($25.3 billion) in sales, as the e-commerce giant worked with more traditional retailers to market goods to shoppers from at least 225 countries and regions, according to Bloomberg.

The annual frenzy posted a 39 percent increase in sales, exceeding Citigroup estimates and defying concerns of an economic slowdown. The event helped at least 82 brands top 100 million yuan in sales with Nike, Xiaomi and Uniqlo coming out as some of the biggest winners. About 90 percent of transactions were done via mobile. At its peak, the company’s processors handled 256,000 transactions per second.

Citigroup has predicted transactions will rise by more than 30 percent to 158 billion yuan this year. While that’s only half the growth rate last year, the event still dwarfs others such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Billionaire founder Jack Ma is using it as a testing ground for his plans to revamp China’s $4 trillion traditional retail sector with technology.

“The work that’s been done in the integration of offline and online, not just in terms of the technology integration, but the data and efficiencies for brands and the consumer through personalization has been enormous,“ Alibaba President Mike Evans said in an interview. “We see the impact of it in our day-to-day business.“

“On the back of 11-11, we will probably have to distribute north of 700 million packages,“ Evans said. “That is a massive, massive number of packages that requires a robust logistics network both in China and outside of China, and we will continue to invest in that business, and by moving to a controlling position, we will be able to ensure the right degree of quality.“