Ahead of this years’ ‘Singles day’ shopping spree next month, Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba gathered 80 top Chinese and international fashion and lifestyle brands in Shanghai to pull off an interactive, large-scale fashion show.
The close to 200 top models and celebrities hitting the catwalk drew attention from around the world as part of the Alibaba Group 2016 11.11 Global Shopping Festival.
Up to 80 top brands, including Burberry, Vidal Sassoon, Adidas and Gap took part in the event, which featured around 200 models, among them Maye Musk and Sui He.
This was the first time that such a show had been staged with a global audience, across multichannels and embracing the ability to “See Now Buy Now.”
Chris Tung, Chief Marketing Officer of Alibaba Group, said: “The Tmall Global Fashion Show is a key event that kicks off our 11.11 Global Shopping Festival and one that underscores Tmall’s tremendous growth in the past few years. For big-name fashion brands across the globe, Tmall has become not only a distribution channel, but also a branding powerhouse as well as a global gathering place for lifestyle and fashion trends. We expect the event today to become a lifestyle trendsetter for Chinese consumers and virtually a ‘fashion week at their fingertips.”
Launched in 2008, Tmall (www.tmall.com) is now China’s biggest online B2C platform for apparel and accessories, capturing close to 80% of the market share, according to the newly released 2016 Global Trend and Lifestyle Spending Report by CBNData. With access to more than 400 million consumers across the Alibaba platforms and housing more than 50,000 apparel brands, Tmall is set to grow alongside China’s online apparel and accessories industry, which is expected to exceed RMB1 trillion in sales in 2017.
At the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center, globally-renowned style guru Nick Wooster, the image consultant of this year’s show, led a dazzling line-up of top models including Sui He and Maye Musk, celebrated photographer Tommy Ton and top performers such as Chris Lee to appear in front of the live and online audience.
Streaming live on Mobile Taobao, Tmall.com and Youku, the show combined entertainment with a demonstration of Alibaba’s latest technological capability, to help brands engage with consumers in a fun, entertaining and intimate fashion.
Both the live and online audiences were offered the opportunity to pre-order the items that were in the show, by viewing the products on the Tmall and Taobao apps and tapping the “buy now” button. Orders placed during the eight-hour show and successfully executed on November 11 during the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival were in line to enjoy steep discounts.
Popularly known as the Singles Day, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival has grown in seven years to become a global online shopping phenomenon. Bigger than the U.S.’ “Black Friday” and “Cyber Monday” combined, the festival attracted over 40,000 merchants and 5,000 global brands from 25 countries last year.