Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. kicked off its annual Singles’ Day shopping bonanza, logging $1 billion in gross merchandise volume within the first two minutes.
Shoppers from at least 192 countries and regions swarmed the e-commerce giant to scoop up discounted lobster, iPhones and refrigerators. The Chinese company hosted a star-studded gala enlisting tennis star Maria Sharapova and American rapper Pharrell Williams to pump sales. As the event got underway, 93 percent of transactions were done via mobile.
Analysts are expecting another record day on Alibaba’s platforms, with Citigroup Inc. predicting a 31 percent rise in transactions to 158 billion yuan. While that’s only half of last year’s growth rate, it still dwarfs other events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Billionaire founder Jack Ma is using this year’s event as a testing ground for his plans to revamp China’s $4 trillion traditional retail sector with technology, an experiment that could help the behemoth gain an edge in China’s saturated retail market.
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