Alibaba Kicks Off 2019 Double Eleven 11.11 Shopping Festival

China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group kicked off its 2019 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, taking the annual celebration into its second decade with a focus on “new consumption,” “new business” and contributing to a greener society.

“Our goal is to stimulate consumption demand and support lifestyle upgrade in China through new brands and products,” said Fan Jiang, president of Taobao and Tmall. “We will enable merchants in China and around the world to grow their businesses through data-driven product innovation and consumer insights, as well as leverage our recommendation technology and content-driven user engagement to delight consumers in urban coastal cities and less-developed areas of China.”

“Given its scale, minimizing environmental impact is essential and our technology will ensure it is a green 11.11 Global Shopping Festival,” Jiang added.

SEE ALSO: Alibaba’s Shopping Festival Breaks Sales Record

Alibaba stated that over 200,000 brands will be participating in this year’s annual gala with one million new products on offer and participation from more than 500 million users expected – about 100 million more than last year. Estimated consumer savings from brand and platform promotions and coupons are around 50 billion yuan.

Of the 200,000 participating brands, more than 22,000 are international brands from 78 countries and regions.

To celebrate the occasion, Alibaba held a concurrent kickoff event for the first time in the northeastern city of Harbin, underscoring its focus on serving consumers and small businesses in China’s less-developed markets. In the last quarter, over 70% of Alibaba’s new annual active consumers came from lower-tier cities.

“The success of our focus on less-developed markets in China is reflected in our new customer acquisition growth,” said Alibaba Group CMO Chris Tung. “We are equally driven to help local enterprises and factories digitize, which improve their operational efficiency and ability to engage with customers across the country.”

A star-studded gala in Shanghai will count down to the world’s busiest 24 hours of shopping on the evening of November 10.