Alibaba Wine Day sets new records, more than 100 million participate

A preview of the landing page Tmall created for JamesSuckling.com

Alibaba Group’s inaugural September 9 Wine Day shattered all records, cementing its status as China’s biggest online wine and spirits festival. Just one hour after its official launch at 9 a.m. on September 9, online sales on Alibaba’s retail platform Tmall had already reached more than 10 times of its whole day sales on the same day last year, according to a report by the People’s Daily.

In an effort to drum up Italian wine sales, Tmall partnered with James Suckling and signed an agreement with JamesSuckling.com earlier in August. JamesSuckling.com provided exclusive contents including interviews, Q&A’s, and top wine picks by James for the event. You can view the dedicated landing page for JamesSuckling.com here. As it turned out, Italy had the second largest number of wines on sale on Tmall. Just a few months after Alibaba founder Jack Ma’s announcement of Wine Day at Vinitaly, the total number of Italian wine brands has grown from a few to more than 50. Bolstered by Italian wines’ growing presence on Tmall, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi met with Jack Ma at Alibaba Headquarters during the G20 Summit to personally make a push before the Wine Day.

All wines from Domaines Barons de Rothschild Lafite Legende R were sold out within one hour. By noon, three hours into the event, sales of beers on Tmall equaled a month sales made at Munich Beer Festival in Germany. Comparing the buying frenzy on the Wine Day can to the new iPhone 7, which was released on the same day, many younger consumers stayed overnight and set their alarms for 9 a.m., the official starting time for the event, to snatch up bottles, wrote People’s Daily.

According to figures released by Tmall so far, more than 100 million consumers participated in the Wine Day event, and about half are first time wine and spirits buyers. The event features an extensive selection of wines, spirits, beers and accessories. 

JamesSuckling.com homepage slider on Tmall’s mobile app