Alibaba launches 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

Alibaba has today (20 October) announced the launch of its 2016 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. Speaking at press conference in Hon Kong, Daniel Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Alibaba Group, said: “11.11 Shopping Festival has become the global retail benchmark over the past seven years, and we have raised the bar again this year to redefine the retail experience for consumers together with our merchants from around the world.”

Alibaba said that will be “pioneering a variety of innovative ways” to enable almost 100,000 merchants to sell their goods to the “hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers shopping on Alibaba’s marketplaces throughout the festival”.

In its official statement about the event, Alibaba emphasised that this year’s 11.11 will take the group “another step forward in its globalization strategy with its ‘Buy Globally, Sell Globally’ initiative. –

Alibaba explained that “Buy Globally” is the gateway to China for international brands, while the “Sell Globally” refers to a new pilot programme to help global merchants sell beyond China.

“The company is in its early phases of expanding its infrastructure, including logistics and payments, in order to allow consumers overseas to purchase international products through Tmall,” said Alibaba. “Hong Kong and Taiwan are the first markets outside mainland China where this will be available.”