Alibaba plans new shopping festival
Updated: 2015-11-13 08:21
By Meng Jing(China Daily USA)
|
|||||||||
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd said on Thursday that it will create another online shopping event in the next two months to tap further into rural consumption.
The e-commerce giant, which generated a gross merchandise volume of 91.2 billion yuan ($14.3 billion) in the 24-hour sales event on Wednesday, said it will hold a similar festival to coincide with the upcoming Spring Festival in February.
Zhang Yong, chief executive officer of Alibaba, said like urban residents, many rural consumers have also become online shopping enthusiasts. "The soon-to-be-launched shopping event will better serve rural consumers and bring more agricultural products to the dining tables of urban consumers," he said.
The Hangzhou-based firm said the Spring Festival event will be launched by its customer-to-customer site Taobao and its Rural Taobao business unit, which is dedicated to online shoppers in rural areas.
Sun Lijun, vice-president of Alibaba who is in charge of Rural Taobao, said the Spring Festival shopping gala will help narrow the gap between urban and rural consumers.
"We want villagers to celebrate Lunar Chinese New Year with seafood from New Zealand and wine from France. That said, we also want urban residents to enjoy high-quality fresh produce delivered directly to their doorsteps," he said.
Alibaba has made globalization and going-rural its top priorities for further development. Last year, it said it will invest 10 billion yuan over the next three to five years to provide e-commerce services in about 100,000 villages.
Rural shoppers proved their buying power by pouring more than 10 million yuan in the first eight minutes of the Nov 11 online shopping festival. People in 8,000 villages participated in the 24-hour sales on Wednesday. The most expensive order of the day was an order for a Porsche at about 500,000 yuan.
Alibaba didn't disclose the specific purchases made by rural shoppers, but said that items such as TV sets, air conditioners, shampoos and oil were very popular in villages.
Top rural spenders on Nov 11
Dongwangmiao village, Suqian, Jiangsu province
Xiewei village, Suqian, Jiangsu province
Zhongzhen village, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province
Dasi village, Rizhao, Shandong province
Xiaojie village, Suqian, Jiangsu province
Yanzhuangjie village, Luoyang, Henan province
Yongan village, Hangzhou, Zhejiang province
Xiayangdun, Taizhou, Zhejiang province
Dongjie village, Longyan, Fujian province
Laotun village, Dunhua, Jilin province
SOURCE: ALIBABA GROUP HOLDING LTD
mengjing@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily USA 11/13/2015 page18)
- Veterans Day marked across the United States
- Antalya: Beautiful place where G20 will be held
- Interesting trends revealed by Singles Day
- 10 delicious soups you can't miss in cold winter days
- Xi-Ma meeting lauded in US
- Kunming's parade float: set in stone
- All-nighters pulled for Single's Day shopping festival
- Victoria's Secret Fashion Show
Most Viewed
Editor's Picks
8 highlights about V-day Parade |
Glimpses of Tibet: Plateaus, people and faith |
Chinese entrepreneurs remain optimistic despite economic downfall |
50th anniversary of Tibet autonomous region |
Tianjin explosions: Deaths, destruction and bravery |
Cinemas enjoy strong first half |
Today's Top News
Obama, Netanyahu at White House seek to mend US-Israel ties
China, not Canada, is top US trade partner
Tu first Chinese to win Nobel Prize in Medicine
Huntsman says Sino-US relationship needs common goals
Xi pledges $2 billion to help developing countries
Young people from US look forward to Xi's state visit: Survey
US to accept more refugees than planned
Li calls on State-owned firms to tap more global markets
US Weekly
Geared to go |
The place to be |