Around 100 million people ‘took part’ in a mass wine shopping festival dubbed ‘9/9’ in China and organised by online retail giant Alibaba.
The campaign began on 1 September and culminated on Friday 9 September on Alibaba’s Tmall website.
Some analysts have speculated that the inaugural wine shopping festival failed to meet expectations, because Alibaba has not yet released full sales figures.
It did so in less than 24 hours after last year’s record-breaking ‘singles day’ shopping festival in China, held every 11 November.
SEE ALSO: Alibaba reflects booming e-commerce sector
But, Alibaba said the 9/9 festival achieved the 100 million participants that it set out to attract. Nearly half of those people had never bought wines or spirits on Tmall before, it added.
And on the first day of the festival’s climax, 9 September or 9/9, sales between 9am and 10am were ten-fold higher than on the same day of last year.
Early feedback from trade sources in China suggests that famous wines sold well during the festival, which is the brainchild of Alibaba’s billionaire founder Jack Ma.
Wines from estates including Lafite-Rothschild, Penfolds and Changyu are believed to have done well. Lesser known brands found it harder to win over consumers, according to initial trade analysis.
(Source: Decanter China)