AliExpress Gets Ready for 2019 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

AliExpress, a global retail online marketplace under the Alibaba Group, said today it is inviting consumers worldwide to take part in the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, making it a truly global celebration.

This year, AliExpress will for the first time enable overseas local merchants from Italy, Spain, Turkey and Russia, to participate in the world’s largest shopping event. This demonstrates AliExpress’s commitment to enabling small and medium businesses (SMEs) around the world and to creating value in the key markets where AliExpress operates.

“AliExpress is dedicated to becoming a lifestyle platform for consumers and for merchants worldwide,” said Wang Mingqiang, general manager of AliExpress. “The introduction of overseas local SME merchants that registered on AliExpress to Alibaba Group’s flagship 11.11 Global Shopping Festival is just the beginning of our commitment to bring more local SMEs to the platform and help them grow and succeed in international markets.”

AliExpress will unveil its red-hot deals on Oct. 28, with all items ready for purchase on Nov. 11.

“Self-gifting” evolves into something bigger

In China, 11.11 is known as “Singles’ Day” because the date resembles four “sticks,” a term commonly used to refer to bachelors and bachelorettes. In the early 1990s, a group of Chinese college students popularized November 11th as a celebration aimed at fighting negative attitudes toward of being single. Alibaba Chairman and CEO Daniel Zhang chose to use this little known holiday to market Alibaba’s new business unit at the time Tmall, encouraging single people to treat themselves and buy something on this day. 

Over the past decade, 11.11 has evolved into a nation-wide shopping event leaving its origins as a day for singles behind. It is the largest 24-hour sales event in the world, surpassing the combined sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the U.S. International merchants have, for many years, used 11.11 to sell to Chinese consumers on the Tmall and Tmall Global platform. More recently, 11.11 has also attracted more overseas Chinese and other shoppers outside China.

Now, in the event’s 11th year, even more consumers from all around the world can participate and enjoy the best deals of the year through AliExpress. AliExpress serves more than 200 countries and regions around the world including Russia, Spain, France, the United States, Brazil, Poland, Middle East and more. This year local merchants from Russia, Spain, Italy and Turkey can participate for the first time, making the festival truly global. 

Transcending boundaries to unleash local SMEs potential

This year’s 11.11 will focus on “new consumption,” “new business” and building a greener society. There will be pop-up promotions, as well as other online and offline activities in 35 cities in 15 countries and regions. 

“11.11 is not just a festival for consumers in China,“ said Jiang Fan, president of Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao platforms. “It is a celebration for customers around the world who are part of our Alibaba digital economy.” 

In line with Alibaba Group’s globalization vision, AliExpress believes SMEs play a key role in developing e-commerce around the world. That’s why it strives to nurture their growth and development, breaking down trade barriers around the globe to make it easy to do business anywhere. With support and data insights from AliExpress on brand optimization and marketing strategies, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival is an excellent opportunity for local sellers to launch products and build connections with consumers, both locally and globally. 

About 11.11 Global Shopping Festival

Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, hosted annually on November 11, is the world’s largest 24-hour online shopping event in terms of GMV. The event began in 2009 with a total of RMB 52 million (US$7.8 million) in sales. Last year, nearly 180,000 merchants participated in the global shopping event, with consumers spending RMB 213.5 billion (USD 30.8 billion) during the 24-hour period.