KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 31 — Alibaba’s 13th annual 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2021, the largest global event ever conducted by China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, enriches the e-commerce ecosystem with a sustainability and inclusiveness approach this year.
Alibaba Group chief marketing officer Chris Tung said this year marks the largest festival to date with an emphasis on sustainability and inclusiveness for retailers, merchants and public consumers.
“This year, the festival focuses on inclusivity and sustainability featuring more than 290,000 participating brands, with over 14 million deals for more than 900 million consumers in China. This is an opportunity for more consumers to be engaged with more brands from all over the world.
“This will make it an even more meaningful one for all while aiming to play a vital and influential role in encouraging sustainable action and promoting inclusivity in society,” he said.
He said this in a press conference via zoom, in conjunction with the upcoming Alibaba 11.11 Global Shopping Festival 2021.
Tung said the group currently focuses on building up its value system for the community and the society at large with new initiatives centering on the sustainability of eco-friendly approaches and social good through the ‘Goods for Good’ programme.
“For the very first time, Tmall (an open business-to-consumer (B2C) platform) will be featuring a dedicated vertical to showcase energy-efficient and low-impact products. This includes issuing RMB100 million worth of ‘green’ vouchers, developing new products with lower carbon footprints with brand partners and creating plastic-free and recyclable packaging.
“Over the past 15 years, the Goods for Good programme has helped people more than 43 million times.
“Some of its noticeable projects included providing more than three million times of medical support, installing water purification systems in more than 200 rural schools, and providing nearly half a million free meals to elderly citizens living alone across the country,” he added.
Alibaba’s Goods for Good programme raises funds for good causes by enabling customers to donate a portion of the sales profit from their purchases to their chosen charitable organisation or project.
He added this year the group is also focusing on customer relationship management to provide members with better deals, services and access to different content and programmes in the e-commerce ecosystem.
“There are three main initiatives driven to support the merchants in the celebration, through livestreaming upgrade, improving the content marketing features on Taobao platform and launching new membership programmes as well as management capabilities to create more engagement opportunities with brand members,” he said.
Moreover, this year’s celebration provides bigger discounts and deals, earlier pre-sale orders and the debut of social sharing features to create more interactivity and impactful retail experiences.
Commenting on the success metrics for this year, Tung said Alibaba Group has been shifting its focus from pure Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) growth to sustainable growth.
“We are indeed optimistic about the overall results, but more importantly, we are committed to building the future for the economy and online consumption.
“We want to leverage the influence and reach of 11.11 to not only sell products but also to emphasise the importance of shifting to more sustainable consumption lifestyles,” he said. — Bernama
