Alibaba Group reports big numbers for 6.18 shopping event

Alibaba Group’s 6.18 mid-year shopping festival officially came to a close this week.

The event, which stretched from 24th May to 20th June, is pitched as an important bellwether for Alibaba’s 11.11 festival as brands pilot and fine tune their strategies ahead of November.

2021 highlights include a record 250,000 merchants and brands participating, bringing more than 13 million products in front of Chinese consumers.

Alibaba Group’s 6.18 Mid-Year Shopping Festival officially came to a close this week, in what may have been the buzziest, most competitive yet in the event’s history. Click to read some highlights from this year's 6.18. https://t.co/qX6FOP75xx
— Alibaba Group (@AlibabaGroup) June 23, 2021

Brands on Alibaba’s platforms added a combined total of more than 60 million new members during the festival.

And livestreaming played a major role. During 6.18, sales generated through merchant led livestreams grew 100% year-over-year, while the number of stores that achieved RMB10 million in sales doubled, including Lancôme and Estée Lauder.

On the first day of sales, GMV generated from the first hour of livestreaming exceeded the full day livestream GMV in 2020.

“Shopping festivals are not just about selling goods. They are opportunities to build our capabilities as an ecosystem, to train ourselves and improve for the better,” says Tmall Vice President Yang Guang.