Alibaba Kicks Off 2021 'Singles Day' Global Shopping Festival: What You Need to Know

Singles Day, observed on Nov. 11, is an unofficial Chinese holiday and it has evolved as the largest physical retail and online shopping day in the world. Chinese retailers capitalize on the shipping frenzy associated with the day to perk up their bottom line.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA) announced Wednesday its plans for the 2021 Singles Day.

What Happened: For its 13th annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, Alibaba is focusing on sustainability and inclusiveness.

The company sees this year's event as the biggest to date with a record 290,000 brands expected to participate. Tmall, Alibaba's business-to-consumer online retail platform, is offering more than 14 million deals to over 900 million consumers in China.

The Singles Day festival will have two sales windows this year, the first one from Nov. 1-3 and the second on Nov. 11, the day of the main event.

Starting on Oct. 20 and going throughout the festival, Alibaba's Taobao Live will feature 700 leading KOLs, celebrities and brand representatives in livestream sessions. In addition, Taobao, the company's online shopping platform, will roll out a new feature for users to share their shopping cart items with friends and family, creating a more social shopping experience.

Related Link: Is Alibaba's Stock Overvalued Or Undervalued?

"Green" Focus: To promote a green lifestyle, Tmall plans to feature a dedicated vertical to showcase energy-efficient and low-impact products, as well as issuing 100 million yuan ($15.64 million) worth of "green" vouchers to incentivize shopping decisions that contribute to an environmentally friendly lifestyle.

With the increased use of green technology, Alibaba expects to further reduce the carbon emission per order during this year's 11.11.

Why It's Important: In 2020, Alibaba's Singles Day promotions ran from Nov. 1 to midnight of Nov. 12, and during these 11 days, the total value of orders across Alibaba's shopping platforms, was 498.2 billion yuan, nearly double that of the previous year's 268.4 billion yuan.

The event assumes more importance this year because of the softer macroeconomic fundamentals in China that are threatening to derail consumer sentiment and spending.

Citing softer macroeconomic conditions, sell-side analysts have tempered their expectations for Alibaba, while retaining their bullish long-term view.

At last check Wednesday morning, Alibaba shares were rising 0.92% to $178.63.

Related Link: Alibaba's Institutional Messaging App DingTalk Ups The Ante As The Ecommerce Giant Plays Catchup To Tencent's WeChat

Photo: 2020 11.11. Global Shopping Festival courtesy of Alibaba