Alibaba opens online festival with 100,000 wines

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Alibaba has started its first online wine and spirits sales festival, giving Chinese consumers the chance to buy 100,000 wines and spirits from 50 countries, said the company.

Tmall wine shopping festival. Image credit Alibaba
Image credit Alibaba

Alibaba is holding its wine and spirits sales festival from 1 to 9 September, the retailer announced today (30 August). It is set to include deals on some wines and also flash sales.

The online sales festival is expected to feature 100,000 wines and spirits from 50 countries. ‘Nearly a thousand’ alcoholic drinks from 35 countries are being sold in China for the first time, said ZHANG Yong, CEO of Alibaba.

Alibaba expects around 100 million shoppers to take part.

The move is evidence to the company’s intention to duplicate its success on the 11 November ‘Single’s Day’ online shopping festival to a segment market.

These wines and spirits are imported directly, and many have been sourced with help from regional trade bodies, including Wine Australia and New Zealand Wine bureau, said Zhang Yong.

Supermarket groups including the Metro are also taking part in the online sales day.

Alibaba plans to feature live broadcasting sessions hosted by wine producers, educators and critics. It also promised to push ‘individualised’ promotions to its mobile app users.

Related article:

China’s online wine buying landscape

62% of imported wine consumers in China read about wine online, and 47% buy wines online, according to a research announced today by the China Business Network (CBN), a financial media company partially owned by Alibaba.

Women are more prone to buy wines than men, the research showed.

Those aged between 23 to 25 are the most likely wine consumers, because they’re more interested in fashionable lifestyles and products that may have a beauty effect, according to CBN Data.

Thirty percent of the total sales of wine and spirits in China happens online, and Alibaba is responsible for half of that amount, said Chris Tung, chief marketing officer of the Alibaba Group.

Forty-eight million ‘urban upper middle-class’ consumers in China are drinking wines more than twice a year, according to China Landscapes 2016 survey released by Wine Intelligence (click to read more about the report).

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