Chemist Warehouse posted its best ever online sales result clocking up $20.9 million in just over three hours
Australia the fourth most popular origin of imported products for China’s biggest retail event
13 November 2019 | Richard Coleville
Australian products have ranked fourth globally, outselling every European country, in China’s 2019 Singles’ Day online sale. The annual sales event, also known as the “Double 11” festival, proved a boom for established Australian brands, with supplements and complementary medicines far and away the top categories.
Alibaba Group reported US$38.4 billion of gross merchandise volume (GMV) for its annual global shopping festival, an increase of 26 percent from 2018. Since launching Singles’ Day in 2009, overall sales growth has been exponential starting with around $US10 million in sales for the first event.
Australian supplement brands Swisse and Bio Island both ranked in the top five sellers of imported products, while Chemist Warehouse posted its best ever result for a digital platform sale. The company reached 100 million Yuan (A$20.9 million) in sales in a just over three hours, less than half the time it took to achieve that milestone in 2018.
Nancy Jian, head of Chemist Warehouse China told Inside Retail, “The environment has been quite different to last year. Our team did a live-streaming marathon leading to Singles Day, and we also worked with a lot of KOLs (key opinion leaders) to push more sales.”
Chemist Warehouse, which has the biggest cross-border store on Tmall Global, sold 80,000 units of Swisse Calcium and 300,000 units of Bio Island milk calcium in just two hours.
Elsewhere, it’s been reported that both Penfolds wines and a2 milk and formulas posted record sales.
Two thousand Australian products sold across Alibaba platform
Says Maggie Zhou, Managing Director Australia and New Zealand, Alibaba Group. “Alibaba is proud to see local Australian brands and retailers have another record-breaking year during this year’s festival.
“Chinese consumers have a strong desire for clean and green products and, as such, Australian products are highly regarded… many of the 2000 Australian brands selling via our B2C platforms have seen very strong growth during this year’s event.”
Where they ranked
The top ten Australian brands for Singles’ Day (by number of buyers) were:
1. Swisse
2. BioIsland
3. Maxigenes
4. Blackmores
5. Devondale
6. Bellamy’s
7. Healthy Care
8. Penfolds
9. LifeSpace
10. Nature’s Way
The top countries of origin for imported goods were (1) Japan, (2) United States, (3) Korea, (4) Australia, (5) Germany, (6) France, (7) United Kingdom, (8) New Zealand, (9) Italy and (10) Canada.
While the top five brands bought by Chinese consumers were, (1) YA-MAN (Japan) beauty appliances and cosmetics; (2) Swisse (Australia) supplements; (3) KAO (Japan) cosmetics, healthcare, household cleaning products; (4) A.H.C (Korea) cosmetics; and (5) Bio Island (Australia) supplements.
