Alibaba Group today announced the launch of its 2016 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, unveiling more than three weeks of marketing promotions, entertainment programs, and new product offerings from around the world to engage Chinese consumers on the world’s busiest and largest shopping day. Sources Business Wire
From mobile live streaming, virtual reality shopping, interactive games, to an eight-hour live-streamed fashion show and a star-studded countdown gala, Alibaba is pioneering a variety of innovative ways to enable almost 100,000 merchants to build their brands, market, engage, and sell to the hundreds of millions of Chinese consumers shopping on Alibaba’s marketplaces throughout the festival.
At a press conference in Hong Kong attended by dozens of representatives from international brands, including Macy’s, Costco, Metro, Watson’s, Swisse, Kanebo, and eMart, 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.”
Zhang continued, “11.11 has evolved far beyond a 24-hours sales event. From today through November 11, consumers will discover, explore, play, watch, comment, share, recommend and shop across our entire ecosystem with our merchants both online and offline. Leveraging our robust infrastructure, global merchants have been empowered with unprecedented capability to seamlessly engage and serve customers through new technology and new environments.”
The 2016 11.11 Global Shopping Festival will unfold with a primary focus in the following four areas, in order to support the global growth strategy of Alibaba and scale of the event:
- Entertainment and Interactive Engagement
Entertainment and interactive content will play a significant role in engaging all consumers this year which will help merchants explore new and creative ways to market their brand and products. Some activities include:- On October 23, Tmall will host an eight-hour fashion show in Shanghai, the largest of its kind in China with 50 international brands and 160 models participating. The show will be streamed live via the Tmall and Taobao mobile apps, during which viewers can pre-order items in real-time as they appear on the catwalk.
- From October 21 to November 11, more than 600 international brands will be streaming live broadcasts on Tmall to educate and excite targeted consumers about their brand and 11.11 product offerings.
- Alibaba will pilot “Buy+”, the world’s first complete virtual reality (VR) shopping experience, during this year’s 11.11 festival. Shoppers will be virtually transported to select retail stores internationally, and experience the entire shopping process from product selection to payment, all through VR.
- The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival Gala on November 10 will feature a series of interactive activities between brands and consumers to drum up excitement towards the countdown of 11.11. Katy Perry will be the headline performer and global ambassador of the event, as well as a line-up of other international celebrities which will be announced at a later date.
