Arguably the world’s largest shopping event, Alibaba’s 11.11 Global Shopping Festival will this year be spread across two days.
Alibaba Group will be hosting its 12th annual 11:11 Global Shopping Festival next month, but according to chief marketing officer Chris Tung, this year’s event will be twice as big. « We have a very particularly special year this year, » Tung told media on Thursday. He said Alibaba has seen a dramatic and fundamental change in customer shopping behaviour due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as a great amount of work done on the merchant side to accelerate their digital transformation. While the world is still facing the challenges brought on by the pandemic, Tung said China is lucky that it has seen a fast, rapid recovery. « Alibaba is more committed than ever to empowering our merchants for their digital transformation and to capture the growth of particularly the China market through 11.11, » he said. « This really gives 11.11 a different layer of meaning this year in light of the pandemic. » See also: The technology enabling Alibaba to sell $30.8 billion in Double 11 goods Tung said every year, Alibaba « plays the numbers ». « 11.11 you have four 1s in a row, you cannot be more single than that. There’s an old joke about how we get started as a singles day… and because of the love for 1 and 11, we really think that the past 11 11.11s already completes a cycle, so this year we’d like to kick it off with some different thinking, more innovation, a little bit about redefining 11.
