Feature: How does "Double Eleven" create new opportunities for e-commerce in Macao

MACAO, Nov. 11 (Xinhua) -- Yuki, an e-commerce streamer in China's Macao Special Administrative Region (SAR), has been busy preparing for the "Double Eleven" shopping carnival for over 20 days.

"As I speak Cantonese, I mainly serve residents living in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area by sharing products for new mothers, infants, children, as well as home decoration and household electrical appliances," she told Xinhua.

The shopping festival, also known as "Double Eleven" for being celebrated on Nov. 11, is now one of the largest online shopping sprees worldwide that can serve as a barometer for China's consumer confidence.

With the number "1" to resemble a single man, it was initiated as a shopping festival by Alibaba in 2009 for bachelors. Later other e-commerce platforms followed suit.

The growing influence of the "Double Eleven" has not only enriched shopping experiences for Macao residents, but also brought chances for mainland consumers to buy made-in-Macao products and travel to the Macao SAR at lower costs.

As a city highly dependent on tourism, some hotels in Macao have offered promotional deals on accommodation while the major airliner Air Macao put on sale discounted tickets. Aomi, a major online platform for food delivery in Macao, offered 11,111 blind boxes for food at the price of 1 pataca (about 0.12 U.S. dollar) each.

Jiang Haitao, founder of Aomi, said the platform witnessed transactions topping 31 million patacas (about 3.86 million U.S. dollars) during this year's "Double Eleven," an increase of over 30 percent from the same period last year.

China's e-commerce platform giants Taobao and Tmall have joined hands with businesses both in the mainland and Macao to bring about new experiences online and offline for Macao consumers with all-round discounts including for logistics. Residents in Macao usually have to pay extra delivery charges when purchasing goods from the mainland due to customs clearance.

Vincent Chow, founder of a cross-border e-commerce company in Hengqin, Zhuhai, the mainland city which is just across Macao, said traditional foods from Macao such as egg tarts and dried meat usually sell the best during "Double Eleven" shopping festivals.

Imported electronic devices and cosmetics are also popular among mainland consumers, Chow added.

Besides taking a ride in the national shopping bonanza, Macao is also creating its own e-commerce festival. From Nov. 11 to Dec. 31, Macao SAR is set to host its fourth e-commerce festival spanning across the "Double Eleven" and "Double Twelve," two nationwide shopping sprees, as well as Christmas, a traditional shopping season, in an effort to promote e-commerce platforms in Macao and across its border with the mainland.

Rainbow Lei, president of the Macao International Industrial Technology Development Association, said the application and development of science and technologies have fully demonstrated their importance during the epidemic, adding that this year's e-commerce festival is aimed at pushing for small- and medium-sized enterprises to adopt electronic services.

For Macao, businesses operated in Hengqin is unique and innovative in this year's "Double Eleven." In September this year, the central authorities issued a general plan for building the Guangdong-Macao In-depth Cooperation Zone in Hengqin as a major arrangement to enrich the practice of "one country, two systems" in Macao and boost the SAR's appropriate economic diversification.

Silver Secret, a company specializing in materials technology, sells fabric containing up to 18 percent of pure silver, which, as the brand's e-commerce streamer said, can help fight bacteria, deodorize and remove mites.

The company said its sales volume for three days leading up to the "Double Eleven" had more than doubled the overall revenue during last year's shopping festival.

Chow said with more and more e-commerce talents nurtured, Macao can take its advantage of close ties with Portuguese-speaking countries, and innovate service trade models in Hengqin to develop cross-border e-commerce industry, so as to help products from those countries enter the mainland market more conveniently.

The cross-border e-commerce platform in Hengqin can serve small- and medium-sized enterprises in Macao as well as the international market, he added.