Increasing awareness
Wang Xing, manager at Shenzhen Geekbuy E-commerce Ltd based in South China's Guangdong Province, which operates some stores on Alibaba's global online retail business AliExpress, said he expects the daily revenues of some companies operating on the day of Double 11 to surpass the total revenues they generate in half a month. Some could even surpass their total monthly revenues on just that one day, he predicted.
"Our targeted market is Russia. We have been tapping into major Russian websites and other social media platforms, and have also planned to ship some of our products to overseas bonded warehouses in advance," he told the Global Times.
Currently, the overseas market most impacted by AliExpress is Russia, said Jack Chuang, partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants.
During the seven years that Wang has operated with AliExpress, he never once shifted his focus to foreign counterparts like Amazon, which marks similar sales promotion events, namely Prime Day and Black Friday.
Besides Russia, many stores have been targeting Southeast Asian markets since the beginning of this year. Xia Lei, brand operator at AliExpress, said his company has signed five Vietnamese brands recently and will launch them on the platform before Double 11 commences.
''Globalization'' has become the key word for Alibaba's Tmall business during the Double 11 event over the past two years, with the company now serving 500 million domestic customers while pushing to serve 2 billion users beyond China's borders in the future, according to the e-commerce giant.
However, Alibaba is still "sourcing global, selling China" as the reach and localization of AliExpress still hasn't resonated with global markets, Chuang noted.
"The reputation of Double 11 has become global, mainly because we see global companies prepare for the event, although it is still not a global event for overseas consumers," the analyst said.
Logistics limitations
For merchants, the upcoming shopping event is more like an annual exam rather than a promotional activity.
"It will test every aspect of our e-commerce business including our supply chain, IT system, logistics and so on," Wang the manager told the Global Times.
While more and more packages get set to ship to foreign countries, it will test local logistics conditions as well as transport capacity.
"In some countries, which lack in infrastructure and have inadequate express delivery services, users would only receive their packages ordered on Double 11 six months later, like what happened before in Brazil," said Zhou Zhiyong, a business operator at AliExpress.
Only partial shipping access has been arranged for deliveries outside of the Chinese mainland. Current offerings from Alibaba and JD.com are still focused on the mainland, although free shipping is available to Hong Kong and Taiwan, Chuang noted.
He also said that there are still some logistical and cost limitations and that it requires tremendous efforts to be cost efficient meeting high quality international delivery standards.
Also, merchants now face challenges such as rising protectionism and increased tariffs in the international e-commerce world, Wang noted.
"But we still hold an optimistic view on this event as well as its global development. As for now, there are 100 million buyers registered on AliExpress," he added.
