Over 200,000 brands took part in this year’s Alibaba 6.18 Mid-Year Shopping Festival, with over 100 brands achieved a new sales record, the retailer has reported.
This year’s festival also saw a rising demand from consumers in less-developed cities for quality products.
“We are very pleased to see that our strategy to help brands penetrate the less-developed markets has paid off,” said Jiang Fan, president of Taobao and Tmall.
“Customers in the emerging cities are very receptive to innovative products and promotion campaigns such as programs on the Juhuasuan platform.”
Product preferences from lower-tier city consumers ranged from Apple to imported fruits such as durian from Malaysia, and daily necessities, including socks and toothbrushes.
Alibaba reported that consumers in China’s less-developed areas are becoming a crucial driver of China’s solid consumption and were “a main engine powering this year’s 6.18 Shopping Festival”.
Tmall Global increased by 153 per cent from the year before. The top five countries on Tmall Global were Japan, the US, South Korea, Australia and Germany.
