Rural consumers accounted for 10% of Alibaba’s $9 billion Singles Day haul

Yes, a full week later we’re still digesting data from China’s massive Singles Day online shopping bonanza. But the latest info nugget to emerge from Alibaba might surprise you. According to Techweb, at a Beijing event on Sunday the company divulged that rural consumers accounted for about 10 percent of Alibaba’s US$9.3 billion haul for the day.

At first glance, that number might look small, given that nearly half of China’s massive population still lives in the countryside. But China’s frequent internet users and online shoppers are still overwhelmingly urban, so getting even 10 percent of the country’s rural residents to chip in isn’t bad.

See: After Singles Day, Alibaba delivered 40 million packages in 3 days

Perhaps not surprisingly, China’s rural residents have slightly different desires than their urban comrades. Alibaba VP Wang Yulei said at the event that the top ten products China’s rural residents bought via Alibaba’s online marketplaces this Singles Day were, in order of popularity:

1. Mobile phones
2. Flatscreen TVs
3. Boots
4. Wool coats
5. Women’s down coats
6. Men’s down coats
7. Low-top shoes
8. Bedsheets/sets
9. Facial skin products
10. Washing machines

According to Wang, there are some significant differences between that and the urban top ten list, on which flatscreen TVs rated lower and washing machines didn’t rate at all, among other differences.

Over the next three to five years, Alibaba plans to as many as 1,000 county-level operations centers and 10,000 village-level service centers to expand its rural reach. Of course, it will have to contend with competitors interested in doing precisely the same thing. JD has put a lot of effort into rural expansion over the past couple of years and other local players are also eyeing the market.

(Source: Techweb)