China Business: New Zealand products selling well on 11:11 (NZ Herald)

Alibaba’s 2017 11.11 Global Shopping Festival attracted a high demand for New Zealand brands.

The festival comes from Single’s Day in China (the date is 11.11 — four singles) and is also known as Double 11 Day.

Over the 24-hour sale period, Alibaba Group reported RMB168.2 billion (NZ$36.81b) of transactions through Alibaba’s retail marketplaces. As evidence for China’s phenomenal uptake of mobile devices, mobile sales accounted for 90 per cent of the total sales figure.

Alibaba now offers more than 400 New Zealand brands through its B2C platforms Tmall.com and Tmall Global.

Maggie Zhou, Alibaba’s Managing Director of Alibaba Group Australia & New Zealand, says there is a rapidly increasing demand from Chinese consumers to source the highest quality products from all over the world. Brands from Australia and New Zealand have seen excellent sales figures during the shopping festival.

“Australia and New Zealand products are perceived as high quality and continue to outperform in China.

“We are working closely with New Zealand merchants and partners to further encourage this growth.
“When we launched Alibaba Group’s Australia and New Zealand office earlier this year, one of our key goals was to show the outstanding performance of New Zealand brands in previous 11.11 Global Shopping Festivals,” she says.

“We are thrilled New Zealand brands have continued to see success on the world stage, adding further proof of the growing appetite for high-quality New Zealand goods among Chinese consumers.”

Zhou says Alibaba’s Chinese shoppers are drawn to products from Downunder, particularly skincare, health supplements, and high-quality organic goods such as fruit and wine. Rapid improvements in logistics mean that fresh items such as beef, seafood and dairy are also becoming more sought after.

Some of the highest performing brands on the Chinese e-commerce giant during the shopping festival were ecostore and Antipodes.

“The opportunity for ecostore to expand its consumer base is significantly increased through sale days such as 11.11,” says Pablo Kraus, managing director of ecostore.
“Chinese consumers are very sophisticated and their demand for an eco-friendly lifestyle continues to grow, so ecostore is honoured to be a brand that consumers choose for its reliability, authenticity, and being safe for all the family.”

CEO and founder of skincare company Antipodes, Elizabeth Barbalich, says: “11.11 presents and amazing opportunity for us to raise awareness of Antipodes in the China market.

“The Chinese market is key for us, with traditional plant remedies long considered an essential part of Chinese medicinal and beauty practices.”

Offshore companies that participate in the 11.11 Shopping Festival are required to store their products in Alibaba’s warehouses ahead of time, so customers receive their products as soon as possible after purchasing.

After midnight marked the start of Double 11 Day, the first package was in the hands of the buyer 12 minutes later. “This delivery speed makes for a far better shopping experience,” says Zhou.