HANGZHOU, CHINA - Media OutReach Newswire - 14 October 2024 - Taobao and Tmall Group ("TTG"), Alibaba Group's domestic commerce business, is kicking off its 16th 11.11 Global Shopping Festival ("11.11" or "Festival") today by putting users first with unprecedented shopping incentives. TTG will offer RMB30 billion ( ~US$4.2 billion) worth of vouchers and red packets in anticipation of the record-high volume of users participating in this year's Festival.

"This year's 11.11 is unfolding as Chinese consumer sentiment is improving. TTG serves China's largest and most valuable consumer base, and is well positioned to capture and further boost rising consumer confidence and activity," Bo Liu, Vice President of Alibaba Group and President of Tmall, said. "We are making unprecedented investments to incentivize our users and support our brands and merchants to drive high-quality growth. We are excited about the high level of merchant participation and robust product offerings, which have exceeded expectations. We have strong confidence in branded products sales growth this 11.11."

The presale of 11.11 will begin at 8:00 p.m. Beijing time on October 14. There will be two checkout periods: the first one from 8:00 p.m. on October 21 until the end of the day on October 24 and the second one from 8:00 p.m. on October 31 until the end of the day on November 11.

For consumers: doubling down on 88VIP membership

Driven by our user-first strategy, TTG is accelerating user investment this 11.11. The platforms will offer RMB30 billion worth of spending incentives through coupons and red packets, on top of a 15% discount and "RMB50 off every RMB300" promotion.

TTG will double down on exclusive benefits and services for its 88VIP members, currently the largest paid e-commerce membership in China with over 42 million paying members. 88VIPs will receive exclusive high-value coupons, the total value of which will be greater than the RMB20 billion distributed last year. They will also enjoy exclusive interest-free installment payment privileges and premium return service.

The value and frequency of product categories vouchers and red packets distributions will progressively increase throughout the Festival. For example, Taobao Live, the live-streaming commerce channel, will distribute RMB2 billion worth of red packets in conjunction with merchants and partners. Each user can collect up to RMB1,500 daily across the live stream rooms.

The RMB10 Billion Subsidy program features the best deals for branded products and offers discounts of up to 80% off. To date, this program has over 500 million active users.

User experience has been further improved this 11.11 with easy-to-understand product information and a new payment option. TTG team will work with merchants to ensure simplified pricing on the product listing page so users can easily see the final sale price. The introduction of WeChat Pay in late September also offers mainland China users an additional payment option for their purchases.

For merchants: Robust measures to capture the most significant growth opportunities

This year's Festival will host around 300,000 brands and a multitude of SME merchants, with the number of products on offer exceeding expectations. In the September quarter, the number of newly launched brands on Tmall increased by 70% quarter-over-quarter. This is a strong testimonial for TTG's latest industry-leading support initiatives to help merchants achieve quality growth within a cost-efficient and optimized operating environment.

For this 11.11, TTG will invest RMB10 billion to boost cross-platform traffic and RMB3 billion to subsidize merchants' marketing costs. Commissions will be waived for Taobao store owners participating in 11.11.

These investments are in addition to previously announced merchant support initiatives introduced ahead of the Festival, including:

• Optimization of "refund-only" policy: Since the launch of the upgraded policy in August, Taobao has intercepted over 400,000 unreasonable "refund-only" transactions daily. At the same time, the proportion of merchants with high Store Experience Scores (4.8 or above) has increased to 36%. The increase in high-quality merchants has reduced Taobao's intervention for refund-only scenarios.
• Reduction in Return Logistics Costs: Tuihuobao, a new return service launched in September, has served ~1 million merchants. It has reduced merchant return order logistics costs by 23% in the past week. TTG will also offer discounts for SMEs during this 11.11, further reducing their logistics costs for return orders.
• Upgraded AI Tools for Merchants: The AI-powered analytics platform Business Advisor has served over three million Taobao SMEs since April. TTG's AI tools for image and text generation are frequently used by over one million merchants weekly. 74% of merchants using TTG's AI image generation tools have reported savings equivalent to hiring a full-time graphics designer.

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