Singles Day 2019 rakes in US$1bn in first minute

Alibaba’s 11.11 global shopping festival, or Singles Day, has kicked off with a bang – bringing in over US$1 billion in the first minute and eight seconds, and reaching US$18.32 billion in the first two hours. 

According to the marketplace, the event so far has peaked at 544,000 orders per second.

“We are dedicated to helping organisations of any size easily do business anywhere,” said Alibaba managing director of Australia and New Zealand Maggie Zhou. 

“This year we will be stimulating consumption demand and supporting lifestyle upgrades in China by supporting lifestyle upgrades in China by supplying all new brands and products and we are excited to see how large and small Australian companies engage with consumers.”

Chinese consumers have access to over 200,000 participating brands, and more than one million new products, during the event. Alibaba expects over 500 million customers to shop during the day, beating out last year’s figure by more than 100 million.

During last year’s Singles Day sales event, Australia ranked third in terms of selling to China by gross merchandise volume, behind Japan and the United States. 

Last year, four out of the top five Australian brands purchased during the event were health and supplement brands, with Swisse number one, and Devondale, Bio-Island, Blackmores, and Healthy Care following.

“I think the prevalence of those products [is due to] Australia having a strong country image – clean, natural, those kinds of things are very attractive to the Chinese consumer,” Zhou recently told Inside Retail

“So for things to eat, to drink, to use on your skin, [Australian products] are really well thought of by the Chinese consumer.”

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