Alibaba's online marketplace launches annual shopping festival

HANGZHOU -- Tmall, Alibaba's online marketplace, will launch its annual shopping bonanza known as the Singles Day sale on Wednesday, the company announced Tuesday.

A total of 250,000 brands and 5 million sellers are expected to participate in the 21-day sale festival until Nov 11. The number of discounted products offered will reach 14 million, 1.4 times that of last year.

Business owners have higher expectations from this year's Singles Day sale as it is the first major shopping festival since the pandemic started, said Jiang Fan, president of Taobao and Tmall, adding that Tmall has added three more days to the event this year to meet demand.

To meet Chinese consumers' increasing need for international products, the sale will also introduce over 2,600 new overseas brands, and products from 89 countries and regions to Chinese consumers.

A total of 300,000 new foreign trade companies will join the event, Jiang added.

Top live streamers, about 400 company executives and 300 celebrities will also join Tmall on its livestreaming platform to boost sales of products ranging from cosmetics and electronics to cars and houses.

Alibaba turned Nov 11 into a shopping bonanza in 2009. The day is celebrated by many young Chinese people as Single's Day. The date was chosen because 11-11 resembles four "bare sticks," a Chinese term for the bachelor.

Since then, the festival has become a nationwide sale holiday. In 2019, the Singles' Day sale on Alibaba's online shopping platform reached a record 268.4 billion yuan ($40.2 billion).