SHANGHAI — Alibaba wrapped its Singles’ Day sale with a haul of 268.4 billion renminbi, or $38.4 billion, easily outstripping last year’s gross merchandise value record of $30.7 billion. Largely held up as a testament of consumer power in China, the world’s largest shopping event, which falls every year on Nov. 11, has also increasingly become an occasion to showcase Chinese creativity and the country’s growing influence around the world.
While the growth in GMV is not an apples-to-apples comparison — from year to year Alibaba has expanded the scope both by lengthening the pre-sales period and by launching the festival in new markets outside China; and the returns rate, while not disclosed, is understood to be high — it’s industry wisdom that many brands can make more in the one day during the sale than in a whole year.
This year’s sale was important for several reasons: It was the first held since cofounder Jack Ma stepped down. Then there were concerns the U.S.-China trade war could drag on the event as it has on national retail figures, and of overall consumer sales fatigue in what would be shopping festival’s 11th year running.
“Definitely there are a lot of sales in China,
While the growth in GMV is not an apples-to-apples comparison — from year to year Alibaba has expanded the scope both by lengthening the pre-sales period and by launching the festival in new markets outside China; and the returns rate, while not disclosed, is understood to be high — it’s industry wisdom that many brands can make more in the one day during the sale than in a whole year.
This year’s sale was important for several reasons: It was the first held since cofounder Jack Ma stepped down. Then there were concerns the U.S.-China trade war could drag on the event as it has on national retail figures, and of overall consumer sales fatigue in what would be shopping festival’s 11th year running.
“Definitely there are a lot of sales in China,