Alibaba Group taps innovative retail technology for latest 11.11 Global Shopping Festival
Alibaba Group concluded its 14th annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival on Friday and delivered results in line with last year’s GMV performance as it deployed robots, virtual influencers, and doubled down on cloud computing clean energy.
Last year, Alibaba said it generated GMV of RMB540.3 billion ($84.54 billion at the time).
1.11 pre-sales kicked off on 24th October at 8:00pm China Standard Time, versus 20th October last year, and sales ran from 8:00pm on 31st October to 10th November 11:59pm, climaxing on Friday with 17 million products on offer to over one billion consumers in China.
The campaign took place this year against a backdrop of macroeconomic volatility, Covid-19 outbreaks and supply chain disruption.
Alibaba says that its marketplaces responded by streamlining logistics, offering faster payment transfers and equipping merchants with digital tools to reach consumers interested in even the most niche categories, from collectible toys to surfskating.
The e-commerce giant dispatched over 700 autonomous delivery robots, called Xiaomanlv or “Little Donkey” in Mandarin, twice as many as last year.
Many brands deployed virtual idols during 11.11, part of a broader push to attract China’s digitally native and novelty seeking younger generations. Forrester predicts that a fifth of B2C brands in China will use digital idols by 2023.
Alibaba’s digital influencers, Ayayi and Noah, helped retailers, from Chinese electronics giant Haier to American fashion house Tommy Hilfiger, attract followers.
Tmall Luxury Pavilion launched a virtual influencer called Timo to showcase digital collectibles from luxury brands.
“We want virtual idols to help brands with the digital upgrade and reach out to younger consumers,” says Rocker Hu, Manager of Digital Marketing at Alimama, Alibaba’s digital marketing arm.
More than 300 million people have tuned into Taobao Live, a livestreaming commerce channel, since 24th October to watch virtual and real-life hosts hawk products.
All this is only possible with cloud computing, with Alibaba Cloud’s five datacentres across China doubling the amount of clean energy used to support this year’s 11.11 compared with 2021.
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