AliExpress' Mid-Year Shopping Festival Indicates a Recovery Across the Globe

HANGZHOU,China,June 24,2020 --AliExpress,a global retail online marketplace under Alibaba Group,hosted its first large-scale sales event after the pandemic - global mid-year 'Summer Sale' Shopping Festival. Sales generated in the first 10 hours of the festival was equal to the sales yielded for the entire first day in last year's sales event – an indication showing a recovery with consumers across the globe,as they recuperate from the pandemic. With nearly 100,000 sellers and 70 million items involved in the shopping festival,total sales on the first day of the mid-year sales festival achieved a year-on-year growth of 50%.

Countries from Europe and Asia have shown an outstanding year-on-year sales growth,indicating that shoppers are eager to spend. South Korea recorded the highest sales growth of 113% on the first day,followed by Spain,Russia,Poland,Brazil and France. With people across the world inclined towards remote working/work-from-home,the shopping festival also registered more than 100% year-on-year growth for the sale of home appliances,furniture,computers and telecommunication devices.

Driven by social commerce and the ability to engage the audience with great content,livestreaming took the festival by storm during the summer sale. Customers from 213 countries and regions watched 1,844 livestreaming sessions to purchase products from the sale. Over 1,300 brands and 109 influencers participated in the sessions,covering 32 languages. Russia,Spain,France,Brazil and Poland were the top 5 countries that led the livestreaming viewership and Xiaomi,Huawei,Umidigi,Calk Official Store and Soocas were the top five brands that recorded the maximum sales from the sessions.

"We are thrilled to see consumers,brands and influencers from all over the world riding the Mid-Year Shopping Festival's buzz and creating exciting content. Livestreaming-driven sales has become one of the hottest trends in ecommerce,reshaping the retail industry by developing a 'see-now,buy-now' trend that offers consumers instant gratification," said Wang Mingqiang,the General Manager of AliExpress.

He added that "Looking at the huge success of the festival across the globe,we see livestreaming as a global phenomenon that can help stimulate the economy. We are focused on building a community of influencers,sharing experiences and best practices to take the trend worldwide,eyeing Europe as the next hub."

AliExpress taking the social commerce trend worldwide

To take the trend worldwide,AliExpress has launched a unique platform called the AliExpress Connect to nurtures the growth of content creators and helps businesses engage and sell better. As a one-stop-shop for brand assignments and educational content,and a digitalized settlement platform that helps influencers and agencies easily scale their businesses,AliExpress Connect is designed to create opportunity for both brands and influencers and set to become an important tool for content creators worldwide.

AliExpress riding new trends given rise by changed consumer behavior together with its seller network

Mid-year shopping festival is AliExpress' first large-scale sales event after the pandemic outbreak and it has come at a perfect time to reignite growth for sellers worldwide. Businesses are poised to see encouraging sales results as consumers become more accustomed to online retail worldwide post-lockdown.

Despite the pandemic,AliExpress has seen a surge in sales in fitness products in France,Spain and Italy during lockdown. A noticeable trend that came into the spotlight was the resurgence of personal transport equipment as well. As lockdown measures relax and people start going out,consumers are taking an interest in buying their own bikes and electric scooters instead of banking on public transport.

About AliExpress

Launched in 2010,AliExpress (www.aliexpress.com) is a global retail marketplace that enables consumers from around the world to buy directly from manufacturers and distributors primarily in China. Top consumer markets where AliExpress is popular are Russia,the United States,Brazil,France and Poland. AliExpress is a business of Alibaba Group.