The Strategist

Alibaba Group breaks another record on Bachelor’s Day



11/12/2018 - 11:49



Chinese company Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd. set a new sales record on the tenth anniversary of the sale on the occasion of the Day of Bachelors, which is celebrated in China on November 11th. However, the growth rates were the lowest in the entire history of this holiday shopping.



leighklotz via flickr
leighklotz via flickr
The volume of goods sold on Alibaba platforms on this day reached $ 30.8 billion, which is 21.7% higher than the figure recorded a year earlier, the company’s blog says. In 2017, sales increased by 39%.

The 2017 sales record ($ 17.8 billion) was broken a few hours before the end of the first day of sales.

For the first 85 seconds of sales at the company's sites, goods worth $ 1 billion were sold, and almost $ 10 billion found their owners by the end of the first hour, reports the BBC.

As for trade in RMB, Alibaba set a new record even earlier, since the Chinese national currency this year has significantly fallen in price against the dollar. In total, goods worth 213.5 billion yuan were sold per day against 168.2 billion yuan a year earlier, which is an increase of 27%.

Compared to 2010 - the first year when Alibaba recorded net profit after listing in New York - gross sales volume on the Bachelors Day jumped 179 times. However, some analysts believe that the rise in annual revenue over this period was much weaker - it increased 21 times, while net profit - 54 times. From this, they conclude that sales records for one day do not have such a significant impact on financial performance, as one would like to believe investors.

More than 180 thousand brands took part in the sales day against 140 thousand a year earlier.

Despite the fact that all previous records have been broken this year, observers believe that the activity will decline as people get used to this event. In addition, Alibaba faced new challenges in 2018, such as emergence of serious competitors in the market, a slowdown in the economy and a drop in stock prices due to the trade war between China and the United States.

The Bachelor Day is not exactly a traditional Chinese holiday. According to Renmin Ribao, Chinese students invented it in the 1990s in opposition to Valentine's Day. The date November 11 was not chosen by chance. According to Chinese figures who believe in magic, the number 11.11 resembles “bare branches”, and this is how single men and women are called in China.

Alibaba arranges large-scale sales on November 11th since 2009. Despite the fact that this tradition was picked up by competing companies, including JD.com, sales on the Bachelor Day are associated with Alibaba.

source: bbc.com