We went to Alibaba's 24-hour shopping extravaganza that is like nothing in America, featuring a Mariah Carey performance and an online-shopping-themed Cirque du Soleil act. Here's what it reveals about the future of retail.
Singles' Day kicks off with a four hour "gala." Imagine Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade had quadruplets with Prime Day, and you've got the general idea.
Most people watch the gala — basically a variety show featuring singers, performers, and Allan Iverson overseeing a basketball competition — on TV or on their phones. People on their phones can shop deals on Alibaba sites such as Taobao and Tmall as they watch the show.
I am, however, actually at the gala — and experiencing the side effects of a mix of jet lag, cold medicine, and a truly wild production.
Sitting with other reporters and Alibaba communications staffers, I'm immediately overstimulated, even without the ability to shop online.
The drama is intentional. Over the last 10 years, Alibaba has worked to transform Singles' Day from a day of deals to what CMO Chris Tung calls a sort of Christmas for brands and customers.
"It has evolved dramatically over the last 10 years to become a true festival," Tung told me over the weekend.
Among the celebrities at the gala, at least one was doing double duty as an Alibaba merchant: Miranda Kerr.
Kerr launched KORA Organics on Alibaba's Tmall earlier this year.
"It's such a unique event that combines shopping and entertainment in a way that I haven't seen before," Kerr told me on Saturday.
Our interview was conducted via telephone, with me sitting in the back of a parked car 200 feet from where Kerr was located backstage at the gala. Again, it was a hectic scene before the gala even started.
Within the arena, fans were lapping up the action.
Boy bands!
Romantic duets!
An endless stream of celebrities!
Considering that Alibaba only kicked off the gala in 2016, it was slightly shocking how much enthusiasm and star power the company packed in.
It isn't uncommon for American retail giants to get celebrities to perform at events like investor days — Walmart shareholders' day stars have included Katy Perry and James Corden — but with the potential exception of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, I had never seen something like this.
And, that was before Mariah Carey showed up.
But, alas, I had already left the gala before the great diva performed.
I had moved onto the nearby media center, where a robot was mixing cocktails and coffees.
Alibaba's showiness didn't stop with the showcase. Hundreds of journalists from around the world were invited to report from the media center, which also served as a showcase for Alibaba's various tech innovations.
In addition to making lattés, these robots could also bring food to tables in restaurants and deliver room service for hotels.
The waiter bots are already in use in restaurants within locations of Hema, Alibaba’s supermarket chain.
Additionally, the robots were almost uniformly cute — crucial to gaining customers' trust.
However, the robots aren't the main event.
That would be the mega screen displaying GMV, or gross merchandise volume. In other words, the screen keeps track of how much money is being spent in online sales through Alibaba platforms various on Singles' Day.
An emcee of sorts conducts a countdown until midnight. Then, 11/11 itself finally begins.
It is a swift start. With sales from preloaded shopping carts going through in the seconds after midnight, the GMV figure explodes. Within 10 minutes, Alibaba hits $4.68 billion, already eclipsing estimated sales figures for Amazon's 36-hour Prime Day event.
Alibaba continues to highlight massive numbers well after I stumble back to the hotel in the wee morning hours.
Alibaba's emphasis on GMV is a blessing and a curse for the company, according to some experts. While the sheer magnitude of the figure helps generate attention, the company's own self-celebration doesn't allow for much wiggle room if growth slows.
"The whole world is looking at it — which puts a lot of pressure" on Alibaba, Daniel Zipser, a McKinsey & Company senior partner who leads its consumer and retail practice in Greater China, told me.
Yet, 11/11 must go on.
November 11, as a reporter, was a blur of visiting Starbucks (an Alibaba partner), speaking with certain executives, and waiting for some others to show up. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s famous founder, showed up at the media center both nights but didn’t speak to press. Instead, he merely smiled at the GMV screen, snapping a photo on his phone as the company crossed another landmark.
Through it all, the GMV chart just kept climbing.
At the end of the day, Alibaba set another Singles' Day record. But, more than that, the company did it with a sense of drama that no modern American company could replicate.
The GMV marker topped $30 billion at the end of 11/11. For comparison, online sales on Black Friday reached $5 billion in 2017, according to Adobe Analytics data. Cyber Monday sales were roughly $6.6 billion.
As frantic Black Friday masses lose momentum to online shopping, Alibaba has figured out how to bring the hectic over-stimulation to e-commerce.
Alibaba is increasingly emphasizing its plans to bridge the gap between online and offline retail with initiatives like the adorable robot waiter. American companies would be well served to pay attention to the spectacle that will likely follow — after all, next year is 11/11's 11th anniversary.
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