Alibaba Singles Day Sales and Advice from Retail CEOs

Halfway thought “Singles Day” sales, Alibaba has out-paced their last year revenue. Chinese consumers spent fast and spent a lot on Singles’ Day deals. As of midnight in China, sales through Alibaba hit $14.3 billion.

Halfway through the 24-hour online sales bonanza in China, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. had blown past last year’s total of 57.1 billion yuan ($9 billion) sold through its online channels Tmall and Taobao, reports InternetRetailer.com today. When will Amazon and Alibaba own 100% of online sales?

Global market places to own nearly 40% of online retail market in 2020

According to an elaborate research study conducted by the Ecommerce Foundation and Nyenrode Business University, Adobe, Informatica, Lengow and LiveWords, retailers from all over the world expect that global market places, such as Amazon and Alibaba, will own 39% of the global online retail market in 2020. This indicates that the influence of market places on retailers and brands continues to grow considerably over the next few years.

For more information about the Rise of the Global Market Places study, please download the online version or order the full version.

What can Retailers do to succeed? Advice from Retail CEOs

Through the qualitative interviews with CEOs around the globe, three recommendations emerge regarding dealing with market places.

1. Partner with marketplaces: Retailers and brands should definitely use marketplaces to increase their domestic and international sales and also learn them. Not only from their success, but also from their mistakes.
2. Focus or Long Tail: Retailers have to migrate towards the vertical and/or specialist retailer model.
3. Emotions: Companies should build a brand with a heart. Or as Paul Greenberg, Executive Chairman of the Australian e-commerce association NORA, puts it in his interview: “Pure players are typically smart brain companies. Retailers can also offer a heart. They will have to start, however, internally by building an emotional relationship with their employees and other stakeholders before they can build up a real relationship with their customers.”

Let me  close with a quote from the survey mentioned above:

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