China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. isn’t getting much rest these days.

The largest e-commerce operator in the world by sales on its online platforms and stock market value, raked in $9.3 billion in sales on its e-commerce marketplaces Nov. 11 on the massive Chinese shopping holiday known as Singles’ Day. That’s more than double the online sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in 2013 combined. It did that in part with its efforts to promote Singles’ Day outside China’s borders, encouraging merchants selling on its global marketplaces to expand Singles’ Day to international shoppers by offering promotions and sales, and by helping with international marketing and logistics.

Now, it’s flipping the coin by promoting Black Friday in China.

After signing several big-name U.S. retailers and brands to its Alipay ePass service in recent weeks, Alibaba is now working with U.S. retailers and merchants to promote to Chinese online shoppers Black Friday, the major U.S. holiday shopping day that occurs on the day after Thanksgiving. Launched under the umbrella of Alibaba’s PayPal-like Alipay used by Chinese consumers, ePass enables U.S. merchants to accept Alipay and offers foreign currency settlement. It also helps U.S. merchants get goods to Chinese consumers using the China Smart Logistics Network. Alibaba owns 48% of the logistics company, which works with 14 carriers across China on fulfillment and shipping technology, helping deliver packages across the sprawling country.

Stateside merchants participating in the China Black Friday promotion include Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s Inc., and iHerb Inc., Gilt Groupe, Ashford, Ann Taylor, American Apparel Inc. and Aéropostale Inc. All of these retailers offer the Alipay ePass payment option that allows Chinese shoppers to purchase directly from them in China’s currency, the yuan, via Alipay. Most also use Alipay ePass logistics as well, Alibaba says.

As part of the Black Friday push, Alibaba is now working with cross border e-commerce vendors in the U.S., including Borderfree Inc., to launch more U.S. merchants on Alipay ePass. Retailers participating in the Black Friday promotion that use Borderfree include Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Ann Taylor and Aéropostale. Borderfree, which displays shipping fees, duties and taxes to foreign shoppers at checkout on U.S. e-commerce sites, is working with Alipay ePass to enable merchants to accept Alipay, for Chinese deliveries, and for pricing in Chinese yuan.  The pilot between Borderfree and Alibaba began this quarter and will continue through the holiday season. If it is successful, Borderfree will add the service to the additional 175 U.S. merchants using Borderfree, says Michael DeSimone, CEO of Borderfree.

“Although Black Friday is not a traditional shopping day in China, as consumers in China begin to have more exposure to U.S. retailers and can shop internationally using the familiar Alipay ePass service, Alipay believes that the time is right to introduce the holiday to Chinese online shoppers,” Alibaba says in a statement.

U.S. merchants can sell their wares to Chinese consumers on their own sites using Alipay ePass or can sell through Alibaba’s marketplaces: Taobao, a wide-open bazaar popular with smaller sellers, or Tmall, a higher-end marketplace that attracts such large brands as Nike and Apple.

Alibaba, which has its hands in just about all aspects of e-commerce, will help U.S. merchants reach Chinese shoppers by posting U.S. merchants’ Black Friday sales on its Chinese comparison shopping site eTao and through Alibaba Group’s digital advertising arm Alimama. As part of its North American push, Alibaba this year opened its Alimama digital advertising network to U.S. retailers. Alimama serves targeted ads on Alibaba sites and Chinese news and media sites based on what Chinese shoppers search for and its ads produce billions of impressions daily, Alibaba says.

To help make Black Friday, which is foreign to many Chinese consumers, resonate with shoppers in China, Alibaba and some U.S. merchants will promote the day with digital red envelopes. In China, red envelopes containing money are given to children and unmarried young people by their elders during the Chinese New Year as a sign of good luck and prosperity. With the rise of e-commerce in China, Alibaba introduced digital red envelopes for Singles’ Day. The envelopes contain cash shoppers can store in their Alipay accounts and use for purchases.

On Black Friday, Alipay will issue a limited number of red envelopes in denominations of 500 yuan ($81.71) on its eTao and Taobao platforms. Shoppers who secure one can use the money for purchases over 1,000 yuan ($163.41). Alipay will also give shoppers a red envelope that will earn them 20 yuan ($3.27) to spend when they share Black Friday promotions on Chinese social network Weibo or other social media. Alibaba also is using direct marketing to target Alipay account holders with Black Friday deals from U.S. merchants.

Gilt Groupe, No. 59 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide is one merchant participating in the Chinese Black Friday promotion. The flash-sale retailer, which began accepting Alipay in October, is offering free shipping to China via its e-commerce site on orders over $100 on Black Friday. Since beginning to accept Alipay less than two months ago, Gilt says nearly half of all Chinese sales are paid for with Alipay.

“[Chinese] Gilt members will have special sales and receive a dedicated e-mail regarding the sales,” says Marshall Porter, senior vice president and general manager of international for Gilt. “Whereas the U.S. will receive e-mails Friday morning, the Chinese audience will receive e-mails at midnight, early afternoon in Asia,” he says. 

Gilt Groupe offers what Porter calls “a tailored experience” for Chinese consumers visiting its e-commerce site. It translates the static content on the site into Chinese and offers different brands to Chinese shoppers than it does to consumers in the U.S. Additionally, many sales start at a more appropriate local time, not the U.S. time of 12 p.m. eastern, which is 1 a.m. China time.  

“China is a market that we’re studying very closely,” Porter says. “It’s one our fastest-growing markets at over 100% year over year growth. Gilt says its Singles’ Day revenue increased 1,150% this year over the holiday a year earlier.

DeSimone of Borderfree adds that, on average, retailers participating in the Borderfree and Alipay ePass pilot are seeing a 33% lift in sales from Chinese consumers. He expects the percentage to increase throughout the holiday.

Gilt also expects more sales from China as the holiday shopping season ramps up. “As we continue to refine the customer experience, like localization and merchandising, we continue to see greater levels of engagement with Chinese customers,” Porter says. “Last year, we saw a spike in sales from the Chinese market (on Black Friday) yet we did not have a tailored message and the site was not translated.  This year we are treating this market similar to the U.S. site where we have heavy promotion and a great brand line-up.”

Gilt says it is using its relationship with Alibaba to help get the word out about its Black Friday sales. “[Alibaba will] help us motivate people to Gilt with the right creative and messaging.  Once they are on Gilt, the site’s sales and promotions will do a great job of conveying the message that Black Friday is a unique day,” Porter says. Gilt is also working with Alibaba on red envelope promotions to drive Chinese shoppers to Gilt.

According to Borderfree data, Chinese sales stemming from U.S. e-retailers last holiday season grew 279% year over year.

“We expect to see a similar level of growth this year as Chinese shoppers look to take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales from U.S. retailers,” DeSimone says. “The five participating retailers have already seen encouraging early results by offering the service.”

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