JD.com and Alibaba reach highest GMV in Singles' Day 2021

Chinese tech companies concluded their Singles' Day promotion as both JD.com and Alibaba recorded the highest gross merchandise volume (GMV) over the years, despite Alibaba's growth having slowed down. 

JD.com said its transaction volume amounted to ¥349.1 at the midnight of 11 November, increased by 28.6% year-on-year. Transaction volume of 31 brands surpassed ¥1 billion with Apple surpassed ¥10 billion. The company's growth mainly came from lower-tier markets, with customers from lower-tier markets accounting for 77% of all users for JD’s Singles' Day Grand Promotion this year. The company has seen rapid growth of consumption from these markets in the categories of home appliances, medicine and home decoration. The transaction volume of dishwashers and sweeping robots increased by up to three times in these markets, with some smart home appliances even increasing up to 10 times.

The tech company also leveraged e-CNY to engage customers, offering red envelopes for customers in 11 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Dalian, Xi’an, Chengdu. Users located in these cities who have never opened an e-CNY account, can search “e-CNY” on JD’s app to get access to the activity page. The red envelopes can be used on JD.com's eCommerce app to purchase first-party products. According to JD Technology, over 100,000 customers used e-CNY on JD’s app during the promotion period. When it comes it environmentally friendly measures, the company said through the use of new energy vehicles, solar power system, recyclable packages and more, it reduced carbon emissions by 26,000 tons during this Singles' Day period compared with last year. For example, recyclable packages were used 11.35 million times during the promotion this year.

Meanwhile, Alibaba's Tmall generated ¥540.3 billion in GMV during the 11-day campaign, increase by just 8.5% year-on-year. However, the growth was down from 26% in 2020. A total of 78 brands went from ¥10 million in GMV to ¥100 million in GMV, while 698 brands went from ¥1 million to ¥10 million in GMV in this year's Singles' Day. Moreover, more than 45% of consumers that made purchases were born in the 1990s and 2000s. Consumers born in the 2000s increased by 25% year-on-year.

Alibaba added that a record 290,000 brands participated in the shopping festival this year, of which 65% were small and medium-sized businesses and new brands. Also, more than 1.3 million new products were offered by over 29,000 overseas brands that participated via Tmall Global this year, with some 2,800 overseas brands joining for the first time.

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