11 Amazing Facts on Crossborder – and Alibaba’s 11.11 Shopping Festival

By Jim Tompkins
CEO, Tompkins International

Alibaba sold $14.3 billion dollars worth of consumer goods on November 11, 2015. This is 54% higher than the unbelievable sale Alibaba had last year on November 11, 2014. A key question to ask is how did Alibaba increase sales by 54% this year on Singles Day? Michael Evans the new President of Alibaba was asked this question and he responded, “invite the world.” Singles Day is no longer a Chinese Shopping Festival, but a Global Shopping Festival. In fact, the theme of its four-hour gala kickoff for Singles Day was GLOBALIZATION / CROSSBORDER COMMERCE.

11 Amazing Facts

1. Crossborder Commerce is already a crucial strategy for Alibaba, but it is even more important going forward than it has been in the past.
2. Alibaba has the goal of connecting billions of consumers with millions of merchants so that the world’s consumers can buy anything, anywhere, at anytime.
3. Alibaba has a dual Crossborder Commerce strategy: to bring non-China brands to Chinese consumers and to expand the global products being offered to non-Chinese consumers.
4. Crossborder Commerce will be over 1 trillion dollars globally by the year 2020.
5. By the year 2020 China is expected to be the world’s largest eCommerce market for imported goods.
6. This year’s Alibaba Global Shopping Festival featured more than 20,000 non-China retailers.
7. On 11/11/15 Alibaba did more Crossborder Commerce Gross Merchandise Volume (GMV) in the first two minutes of this year’s Global Shopping Festival than it did during the entire 24 hour period last year.
8. To enhance Alibaba’s Crossborder Commerce reach Alibaba is expanding its physical presence in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Asia, Russia, New Zealand, and Australia; and this year had 12 Country Pavilions involved with Singles Day.
9. The Alibaba Global Shopping Festival kickoff event included representatives of more than 39 countries, 40 international brands, and nearly 30 fresh food associations from around the world.
10. The 11.11.15 Global Shopping Festival included global fresh food that Chinese consumers crave such as cherries from the Pacific Northwest, Washington State apples, seafood from Ireland, avocados from Mexico, wine from California, blueberries from Chile, oysters from New Zealand, oranges from Spain, dragon fruit from Vietnam, lobster from Canada, and much more.
11. In the past Alibaba was measured by how much impact they had only on China.

Going forward Alibaba will be judged by how much they change the world.

I hope you enjoy understanding these 11 amazing facts, but if you stop here you will be making a major mistake. Every company that makes or sells products needs to have a Crossborder Commerce strategy. In my newest thought leadership video, The Titans: Alibaba, Amazon, and Walmart: Game Changing Strategies: Time FOR YOU TO Respond!, I spend 13 minutes explaining the importance of Crossborder Commerce and how you must respond. I strongly urge you to watch the video. Once you watch the video get ready to respond, you must be engaged in Crossborder Commerce!