File photo shows two staff members walking past the logo of Alibaba at Alibaba Group's Xixi base in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. (Xinhua/Ju Huanzong)
BEIJING, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's domestic market is stimulating global momentum, with the sales of overseas small and medium-sized brands achieving growth on this year's Double Eleven shopping spree. From November 1 to 11, 235 overseas brands achieved sales of more than 10 million yuan on Tmall Global, with the number of brands achieving sales of more than 1 million yuan growing by 46 percent, according to Alibaba.
Tmall Double Eleven shopping spree has a strong appeal for overseas merchants. More than 29,000 overseas brands participated in this year's shopping spree, among which there were more than 2,800 new overseas brands participating in the event for the first time through Tmall Global. Consumers purchased goods on Tmall Global from 87 countries and regions.
-- New supply meets new demand with new trends emerging in import and consumption
Consumers loaded their "global shopping cart" with imported luxury perfumes, Japanese second-hand luxury goods, overseas sourced fresh products, fashionable toys and handmade products to meet their exquisite and personalized consumption experience, as well as their expectations for a better life.
As outbound tourism is restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, overseas physical stores and small and medium-sized brands are accelerating their expansion into the Chinese market. Japanese second-hand luxury stores such as "Daikokuya" and "Brand Off", which were once on the must-see list when traveling there, entered Tmall Global in advance. During the Double Eleven shopping spree, all popular products in Daikokuya's stores in Osaka, Shibuya and Shinjuku were all fully ordered by Tmall consumers.
This year's Double Eleven shopping spree happened to run concurrently with the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE). The small and medium-sized enterprises of overseas characteristic industries that attended the CIIE joined the consumption season and sold their new products through Tmall Global one after another. Great Mountain Ginseng Co, Ltd., a Canadian ginseng brand with the largest number of retail stores in North America, entered into cooperation with Tmall Global at CIIE and the sales volume of its overseas flagship store in the first six hours of Double Eleven exceeded that of the first three days of last year.
"Despite the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic, we are increasingly aware that the pursuit of the 1.4 billion Chinese consumers for a better life is the most certain trend facing the future and the profound driving force for China's sustained economic growth," said Liu Peng, president of Alibaba's B2C retail business group, also stating that the import retail platform of Tmall Global will continue to introduce overseas brands and innovate import models to improve the stability of cross-border supply chains.
-- Online consumption of imported products accelerated during the global pandemic
As a new form of business, cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly and become an important force for stabilizing foreign trade. By the end of October 2021, Tmall Global witnessed the increase of new overseas brands by more than 120 percent year on year.
With the support of national policies and customs, cross-border e-commerce platforms have accelerated the improvement of import infrastructure, innovated cross-border models, and introduced measures to reduce costs and improve efficiency to set up fast lanes for small and medium-sized overseas brands to enter China.
Since 2020, Tmall Global has been promoting the new factory model of "bonded import + retail processing", which is the first of its kind in China. At present, it has established such factories in Hangzhou, Suzhou, Hainan and other free-trade areas, covering cosmetics, coffee, bird's nest, skincare products, and other categories.
Tmall Double Eleven shopping spree is also a global event. Merchants at home and abroad share the Chinese market, and the growth in import consumption reflects the potential of domestic demand.
In the future, Alibaba will continue to improve the import infrastructure involving logistics, warehousing and supply chains, to facilitate the new development pattern of dual circulation, and further release domestic demand on import products.
(Edited by Gao Jingyan with Xinhua Silk Road, gaojingyan@xinhua.org)
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