International : Alibaba Singles Day sales touch $9.3 bn

  

PTI Shanghai 12 Nov 2014

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba said consumers spent a record $9.3 billion during its 24-hour shopping promotion Singles Day, cementing its position as the world’s biggest online retail event.

Shoppers had yesterday spent $3.5 billion or 60 per cent more than the $5.8 billion sales recorded for the same day last year, the group had said in a statement today.

It also dwarfed the major shopping days in the US in terms of transaction value, toppling the combined online sales of $5.3 billion recorded on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday through to Cyber Monday last year, according to data compiled by Internet analytics firm comScore.

Alibaba has been pushing November 11 as Singles Day — so named for the number of ones in the date —since 2009 as it looks to tap an expanding army of Internet shoppers in China, which has the world’s biggest online population.

The day was originally marketed as an “anti-Valentine’s Day” in China, featuring hefty discounts to lure the country’s singletons and price-sensitive buyers.

It was expanded globally this year to include more than 27,000 overseas brands and merchants as well as customers from more than 217 countries and regions.

Deals settled on Alibaba’s China and international retail market places reached $9.3 billion for the day, the group said in the release.

The number of transactions made per minute peaked at 2.85 million, it added.

“We are very happy with the results of this year’s 11.11 shopping festival,” said Alibaba chief executive Jonathan Lu.

“We are particularly encouraged by the growing trend of consumers embracing mobile shopping on a global stage.”

Approximately $4 billion of deals or 42.6 per cent of total were made via mobile devices, according to the company.

Some 278.5 million packages were expected to be shipped after the event, it said.

The strong set of figures came against the backdrop of a growing online retail market in China and increasing spending power of consumers, analysts said.

Nonetheless Alibaba shares, which have risen strongly since its record-breaking $25-billion initial public offering two months ago, dropped 3.87 per cent to $114.54 in New York yesterday.

International :Alibaba says `Singles Day’ shoppers spend $2 bn in first hour

The logo of the Alibaba Group is seen inside the company's headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province November 11, 2014. The "11.11 Shopping Festival", which Alibaba says is the world's biggest 24-hour online sale, began in 2009 when just 27 merchants on the company's Tmall.com site offered deep discounts to boost sales during an otherwise slack period.


PTI Shanghai Nov 11,2014

Alibaba said a record $2 billion of goods were sold in the first hour of its Singles Day shopping bonanza in China today, maintaining the day’s dominance as the world’s biggest retail event as it went global for the first time.

The e-commerce giant said that amount was more than a third of the $5.8 billion full-day sales recorded on the same day last year and analysts say this year will blow that out of the water.

Alibaba has been pushing November 11 as Singles Day — so named for the number of ones in the date — since 2009 as it looks to tap an expanding army of Internet shoppers in China, which has the world’s biggest online population.

Singles Day already surpassed major shopping festivals in the U.S. in terms of transaction value last year, toppling the combined online sales of $3.7 billion recorded on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to an estimate by Internet analytics firm comScore.

The day was originally marketed as an “anti-Valentine’s Day” in China featuring hefty discounts to lure the country’s singletons and price-sensitive buyers.

It has been expanded globally this year to include overseas merchants and customers.

Within the first hour and 12 seconds, more than $2 billion) of deals were settled on both domestic and international retail marketplaces, Alibaba said in a statement, adding that 45.7 per cent of the transactions were made via mobile devices.

Headquartered in the eastern city of Hangzhou, Alibaba debuted its shares in New York two months ago with a record-breaking $25 billion initial public offering.

The giant operates China’s most popular online shopping platform, Taobao, which is estimated to hold more than 90 per cent of the online market for consumer-to-consumer transactions.

The company does not sell products directly but acts as an electronic middleman. It also owns other marketplaces, including business-to-consumer platform Tmall.

More than 27,000 brands and merchants are participating in this year’s Singles Day, while consumers in more than 220 countries and regions will be able to join the 24-hour spending spree, the statement said.

Cities hold key to healthier GDP

By Emily Kaiser: Reuters :WASHINGTON | Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:05pm EDT

 The only question about the rate of U.S. economic growth right now is which adjective fits best: sluggish or slumping.

The answer may lie in city halls and governors' mansions across the country, where budget constraints are forcing cuts that could be putting a bigger drag on national growth than many economists currently believe.

The first look at third-quarter gross domestic product data on Friday is likely to show the economy expanded at a 2.0 percent annualized pace, according to the consensus view of economists polled by Reuters, slightly faster than in the second quarter but still not robust enough to put a dent in high unemployment.

"The U.S. economy remains stuck in a sub-potential growth rut," said Michael Gregory, an economist with BMO Capital Markets in Toronto.

The range of forecasts, however, is wide, stretching from 1.0 percent to 3.6 percent. State and local government spending is one big wild card, said John Silvia, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Charlotte, North Carolina.

(For a graphic on state and local government spending and jobs, see r.reuters.com/cex79p)

State and local governments normally account for a little more than 12 percent of GDP, outpacing the federal government, which has been clocking in just above 8.0 percent since last year (and had been closer to 7.0 percent before the recession).

Most states and municipalities have balanced budget rules, which means when revenues fall, something has to go. In September, it was jobs.

State and local governments shed 83,000 workers last month, a huge surprise that made the overall employment picture look considerably darker than economists had expected.

This suggests a significant spending pullback that could reduce third-quarter GDP. In the second quarter, state and local government added a tiny fraction to growth, but it had subtracted from GDP in five of the previous six quarters.

Figuring out precisely how it might affect GDP in the latest quarter is tricky. Economists have plenty of data on major economic categories such as consumer spending and exports, but there is little detailed information available on monthly or quarterly municipal budgets.

DIFFERENT STORIES, SAME ENDING

British GDP figures are also due this week and are likely to tell a very different story, with third-quarter growth slowing dramatically to just 0.4 percent after a surprisingly strong second-quarter jump of 1.2 percent.

(Unlike the United States, Britain does not report its GDP data as an annualized rate. Multiplying by four gives a close approximation to the U.S. method.)

Government spending is becoming an increasingly important growth factor in Britain, too. It plans to cut 500,000 public sector jobs and slash public spending as part of a push to get government finances back in order.

"A key issue is how consumer and business confidence respond to the (budget cutting) plans, the question being whether fears of austerity provoke a rise in precautionary saving or whether a sense that the deficit problem is being addressed provides a boost to confidence," Barclays Capital economist Simon Hayes said.

With government spending slowing in both regions, central banks are under increasing pressure to pick up the slack.

This week's GDP report will be the last major piece of economic data that the U.S. Federal Reserve weighs before its next policy-setting meeting on November 2-3.

Wall Street is convinced the Fed will announce another round of money printing to try to reinvigorate the recovery at the conclusion of that meeting.

As for the Bank of England, the next policy move is less clear because its members remain deeply divided on the path of economic growth and inflation.

Barclays' Hayes said the GDP report on Tuesday "could be instrumental, with a very weak outturn potentially galvanizing those in the middle of the... pack into action."