Alibaba and JD.com Impress With Presales Figures For Singles' Day

China’s leading e-commerce platforms reported solid sales for the first checkout window of 2022’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, despite a cooling economy and weakening consumer sentiment, the SCMP reports.

Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA said 102 brands on its retail network surpassed 100 million yuan ($13.8 million) in GMV within an hour after the first round of sales opened for payments on October 31.

Those brands include homegrown white goods maker Haier Group, Midea Group, subsidiary Little Swan, and TCL Technology, which crossed the 100 million yuan mark within the first second.

Haier surpassed the 1 billion yuan mark in five minutes, while its live-streaming channel on Tmall crossed 100 billion yuan in the first 20 minutes. Live stream views on Taobao Live in the first hour rose 600% from last year.

Rival JD.Com, Inc JD also reported brisk sales. Several smartphone brands, including Apple Inc AAPL, Xiaomi Corp XIACF XIACY, Huawei Technologies Co, and Honor, saw turnover surpass 100 million yuan within a second after the platform’s checkout window opened on Monday night.

Turnover of home appliances exceeded 1 billion yuan within the first minute. 

TikTok owner ByteDance Ltd’s Douyin’s presales saw products recording a 447% jump in exposure during the first four days of the shopping event compared with last year.

Total retail sales in the country increased just 2.5% year on year in September, compared with a 5.4% rise in August.

Alibaba kicked off its Singles Day extravaganza for the first time in years without its two mega sales stars on October 24. Alibaba’s extravaganza, built up from a one-day November 11 sale to a nearly two-week festival, will begin with seven days of presales.

Lately, Li Jiaqi and Viya, known respectively as China’s livestreaming sales king and queen, headed the presales from lipstick to rocket launchers on Taobao Live, Alibaba’s livestreaming channel.

Price Action: BABA shares are trading higher by 1.20% at $66.65 on Wednesday.