Taobao and Tmall Group, Alibaba Group's retail operations in China, have announced strong growth in gross merchandise volume (GMV) and reached a record number of active buyers during the 16th annual 11.11 Shopping Festival, the longest to date. The top-performing product categories in the five-week long festival were home appliances, consumer electronics, beauty and apparel.
The festival, which started in 2009 with only 27 participating merchants, has evolved into a major e-commerce shopping maraton. For detailed coverage of insights and trends, you can read Campaign's coverage here.
Key highlights:
Brand performance: This year, not a single platform has announced the exact GMV rate. However, a record 589 brands surpassed RMB 100 million (US$13.8 million) in Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV), a significant increase from 402 in 2023. This includes 45 brands exceeding RMB 1 billion (US$ 138 million) in GMV, a group that includes major players such as Apple, Haier, Midea, Xiaomi, Nike, and Wuliangye.
88VIP loyalty programme: The 88VIP membership program now has over 42 million members (as of June 2024), and it was instrumental for large sales. Orders from 88VIP members saw an increase of by over 50% year-on-year. The members in this programme are highly engaged, averaging 25 Taobao app visits per month and spend nine times more annually than non-members.
High-performaing categories: Traditional power categories performed exceptionally well. By midnight on November 11th, 66 apparel brands, 79 beauty brands, and 34 consumer electronics brands each surpassed RMB 100 million mark in GMV. With government subsidies and platform discounts, the home appliances and furniture sector got a boost:139 brands exceeded the RMB 100 million mark.
No more 'walled gardens": The breakdown of the "walled gardens" needs to be talked about. Taobao and Tmall now accept WeChat Pay, JD.com accepts Alipay, and both platforms share logistics services through Cainiao and JD Logistics. Furthermore, eBay's partnership with Antom means Alipay is now integrated as a payment option on its platform, and UnionPay International cards issued abroad now support Alipay and WeChat Pay.
| Metric | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| Brands > RMB 100M | 402 | 589 |
| Brands > RMB 1B | 30 | 45 |
| Apparel Brands > RMB 100M | 50 | 66 |
| Beauty Brands > RMB 100M | 60 | 79 |
| Electronics Brands > RMB 100M | 20 | 34 |
| 88VIP Members | Not specified | 42 million |
| 88VIP Order Growth | Not specified | 50% increase |
| Home Appliances Brands > RMB 100M | Not specified | 139 |
| Sports & Outdoor Brands > RMB 100M | Not specified | 34 |
However, on the morning of November 11, Ant Group's online payment platform and Alibaba Group's fintech system, Alipay, Ant Group's Alipay experienced a partial service outage hitting payment processing for users. While Ant Group stated the issue was resolved within a few hours but users reported getting a range of error messages, including "payment failed," "transaction creation failed," and "service abnormal." Furthermore, some users also reported that Alipay failed to credit their account balances after successful transactions, raising concerns about the security of the system.
While Ant Group issued a Weibo statement (see below) claiming the issue was resolved within a few hours and funds remained secure, they have not responded to Campaign Asia-Pacific's queries on the reasons. The scale and duration of the disruption raises questions about the platform's ability to handle peak demand during major shopping events.
Reports of similar payment failures on Xiaohongshu in late October have also surfaced. Issues relating to instances where pre-sale prices on Tmall were higher than final order prices, have led to customer dissatisfaction and refunds at the time. Chinese media outlets have pointed out, that in such instances, Tmall's customer service provides minimal assistance and only offers the option of refund or re-order.
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