On November 11, 2009, Alibaba’s first Singles’ Day, also known as Double 11, began as a modest online shopping event with just 27 brands participating on the group’s e-commerce platforms. Fast-forward to today, and it has become the world’s largest annual retail extravaganza that features about 300,000 brands of various sizes, including a multitude of small and medium-sized enterprise merchants.

As the digital retail landscape continues to shift, Taobao and Tmall Group (TTG), Alibaba Group’s domestic e-commerce arm, is determined to remain the industry leader by investing in initiatives that offer users an elevated shopping experience, thereby creating a virtuous cycle that benefits both consumers and merchants.

“We are making unprecedented investments to provide incentives for consumers, support brands and merchants, and drive high-quality growth,” says Bo Liu, vice-president of Alibaba Group and president of Tmall, reaffirming TTG’s commitment to a “user-first” strategy and supporting its merchants.

Winning consumers through improved user experience

Faced with ever-changing consumer demands, Chinese e-commerce platforms must find innovative solutions to navigate the evolving market landscape. For TTG, this means adopting a strategy that prioritises the user experience through quality product offerings, competitive pricing and good services.

For example, TTG has implemented a series of initiatives for this year’s Singles’ Day that offer the more than 42 million members of 88VIP, China’s largest paid e-commerce loyalty programme, many exclusive benefits. These customers – who spend nine times more than non-members and make purchases in five times more product categories – have enjoyed more than 20 billion yuan (US$2.78 billion) worth of coupons, exclusive interest-free instalment payment privileges and premium return services.