SEAFOODNEWS.COM  [SeafoodNews] with Amy Zhong November 29, 2016

Alibaba has achieved gross merchandise value of 120.7 billion yuan within the Singles Day (11/11). Though the company has not disclosed its sales of aquatic products yet, below is a review of some aquatic companies’ performance during the festival.

    Fresh Life, a fresh e-commerce company, has chosen to promote its products on the T-mall platform of Alibaba within that day. And the main products include Canadian lobsters, Vietnam’s basa fillets, Irish crabs, Argentine red shrimps, etc. The company’s sales during the Singles Day is ten times of its daily sales. And its best-selling aquatic products are red shrimps and basa fillets. But some products don’t sell well even with discounts on that day, which shows that consumers are becoming more rational now, said Li, the company’s founder.

    Zhangzidao has also worked hard to promote its products like scallop products certified by the MSC, imported shrimps, sea cucumber products and Canadian lobsters on that day. And it has received 116,356 orders for live Canadian lobsters, 58,952 orders for live Boston lobsters, 39,315 orders for its sea cucumbers and 33,458 orders for scallop products, according to Shuichan News.

    Qingdao Beiyang Jiamei Seafood has set up an online store called Seamix Premium Seafood on T-mall platform. And on average the store receives one order per minute during the festival. Their sales value and volume on that day are about 15 times of their daily ones. And its Canadian coldwater shrimps, Ecuador shrimps and Norwegian codfish are widely received among consumers, said Yang, the manager of the online store.

As the statistics show, shrimp products are one of the most popular products on Singles Day.

Seamix’s customers have been mostly from Shandong, Beijing, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai on the past Singles Days. And this year consumers from Heilongjiang have also begun to purchase seafood from Seamix. Imported seafood are getting more popular among VIP customers of T-mall this year.

Most consumers of Fresh Life are still from Zhejiang and Jiangsu, though the value of each order has been in decline. This year the store has promoted a new product called Viking Cod from the Atlantic ocean on T-mall platform.

    Wireless equipment is changing people’s lifestyle. Online stores can filter information based on consumers’ shopping experiences and preferences. And live streaming has also brought great changes to online shopping. These all pose great opportunities to e-commerce, said Yang. During this festival, about 90% of Seamix’s orders have been placed through wireless equipment.

    B2B e-commerce companies have also fought to expand sales during the festival.

    In the early November, Gfresh, an online B2B company, has inked cooperation agreement with Miao.Tmall branch of Alibaba. The agreement reads that Gfresh will provide all live Boston lobsters that Miao.Tmall needs on the Singles Day. And it has sold at least 3,000 Boston lobsters. Although the company doesn’t sell products directly to individual consumers, the sales show that imported seafood are getting more and more popular, said Zhang, the director for Gfresh’s market development.

Sunkfa, another B2B company, chooses to cooperate with JD. And JD has received 2,483 orders for Sunkfa’s Boston lobsters and 1,852 orders for its salmon sashimi on the Singles Day. And Ewfresh, Sunkfa’s online platform, has achieved the sales value of 7.6 million yuan by 10 pm of the Singles Day. The total sales value is over 33 million yuan for Sunkfa, while it is over 2.8 million for its seafood gift baskets at that point.