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RAPAPORT... The Alibaba Group processed $9.3 billion in merchandise sales for the annual 11.11 online shopping festival, also referred to as Singles Day, in China. Alibaba stated that it shipped 278 million orders today, 42.6 percent of which were placed through mobile devices. One year ago, Alibaba generated sales of $5.8 billion on November 11 and shipped 150 million orders. “On behalf of our entire ecosystem — from millions of buyers and merchants both here and abroad — we are very happy with the results of this year’s 11.11 shopping festival,” said Jonathan Lu, the CEO of Alibaba Group. “We are particularly encouraged by the growing trend of consumers embracing mobile shopping on a global stage. Alibaba is humbled to play a role in making it easy for people to do business anywhere." The 11.11 festival began at Alibaba in 2009 with 27 merchants at the company's Tmall.com to raise awareness about online shopping. This year, more than 27,000 brands and merchants participated in the event, including Costco, Muji, Desigual, ASOS and The North Face.
To compare China's 11.11 with Cyber Monday, which falls after Thanksgiving weekend and was the biggest U.S. online shopping day of 2013, comScore Inc. tallied ecommerce sales of $1.74 billion on December 3, 2013.
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