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BEIJING / SHANGHAI: Alibaba and JD.com said the United States was the top seller of goods to China during the Singles Day shopping extravaganza that generated about $ 116 billion in merchandise volume for the couple.
Singles Day is usually a one-day sales event, the largest in the world that dwarfs Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the United States. Many online companies offer deals at the event.
This year, companies such as Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and JD.com Inc offered promotions for several days, and the sales were widely interpreted as indicative of the recovery of China’s post-virus economy.
Customers, who were unable to travel abroad due to the COVID-19 pandemic, secured agreements with brands such as Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Uniqlo of Fast Retailing Co Ltd.
Alibaba generated a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of 498.2 billion yuan (75.28 billion US dollars). JD.com, which registered 271.5 billion yuan in GMV, told Reuters on Wednesday that top-selling products include iPhones from Apple Inc, Lancome toner from L’Oreal SA and 60-inch smart LCD TVs from Sharp Corp.
Alibaba offered two-window promotions starting on November 1, but calculated GMV at 11 days. JD.com offered deals from November 1 to 11.
The event was overshadowed by news that China was aiming to propose antitrust rules for internet platforms.
Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares, which took a beating when regulators blasted fintech subsidiary Ant Group, fell another 10% on Wednesday. It was up 3 percent around noon Thursday.
Alibaba said that other countries with the highest sales this year include Australia, Germany, Japan and South Korea. More than 470 companies exceeded 100 million yuan in GMV. Last year, Alibaba simply named Japan and the United States among the biggest sellers.
Alibaba posted a GMV of $ 38.4 billion in a single day last year and said 299 brands surpassed 100 million yuan at GMV, including Nestle SA and Under Armor Inc.
(US $ 1 = 6.6181 Chinese renminbi yuan)
(Reporting by Brenda Goh and Josh Horwitz in Shanghai, and Sophie Yu in Beijing; written by Sayantani Ghosh; edited by Christopher Cushing)
