This article has been updated on October 28 to include the latest sales performance of Taobao Fashion brands.

This week, the 2025 11.11 Shopping Festival opened with impressive brand performance, as Taobao and Tmall partnered with merchants to offer innovative experiences and consumer benefits. Boutique fashion brands cultivated on Taobao distinguished themselves with original designs, supported by the platform’s runway-style livestream show. Beyond e-commerce, Alibaba Cloud also partnered with the Group on Earth Observations and Haina to protect cities from extreme heat.

11.11 Opens with Record-Breaking Momentum

The 11.11 checkout period began at 8 p.m. on October 20, with Taobao and Tmall witnessing impressive brand performance. By 9 p.m., 80 brands surpassed RMB100 million in GMV while over 30,000 brands doubled their first-hour sales , both outpacing last year’s opening results.

Beauty brands drove early momentum. In less than 10 minutes, eight brands crossed RMB100 million. Premium skincare labels SK-II, Clarins, and Clé de Peau Beauté each yielded double-digit growth within the first hour.

Sportswear brands experienced similar success. FILA hit RMB100 million in just 6 minutes, with Nike, Lululemon, adidas, Anta, Camel, and Descente all hitting the milestone within half an hour. Descente, ASICS, and PUMA each recorded double-digit growth in the first hour.

In consumer electronics, Apple’s official Tmall flagship store saw its iPhone sales in the first two hours surpass last year’s entire Day 1 total. Top-performing gadgets – AirPods 4, Apple Watch Series 11, iQOO 15, the Nintendo Switch console, and Xiaomi 17 Pro Max – each crossed RMB 10 million in GMV within an hour.

The festival runs through November 14. Stay tuned for more updates from the 11.11 campaign and check out photos from Alibaba’s campus as well as the kickoff event!

Spotlight: Boutique Original Design Brands On the Rise

During the 11.11 kickoff, apparel SMEs focused on original designs, verified under Taobao’s iFASHION label, experienced strong momentum. Their combined sales jumped by 50% in the week of October 20. Five boutique brands achieved over RMB100 million in weekly sales, while nine brands surpassed RMB10 million milestones.

Merchants are increasingly leveraging Taobao’s exclusive livestreaming IP, Super Live, which provides professional production capabilities for fashion show-style runway livestreams. Among them, homegrown brand MSBEAST generated over RMB50 million during its October 20 live session, more than doubling last year’s performance.

CHICJOC , now with physical stores in Los Angeles and Paris, then sets a new record for a single livestream by Chinese apparel brands, with its 30-hour nonstop Super Live Session on October 25 and 26. The brand achieved over RMB100 million in sales, breaking the RMB60 million record it set during last year’s 11.11 Super Live event.

Meanwhile, brand-operated livestreaming continues to expand, with nearly 50 brand-run channels each surpassing RMB10 million in sales during the week of October 20.

Global Collaboration in Harnessing AI to Combat Extreme Heat

By 2050, more than 5 billion people worldwide are projected to face health-threatening extreme heat, with urban populations particularly at risk due to the urban heat island effect. In response to this escalating crisis, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has urged immediate action to address extreme heat. To support this call, the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) convened the Global Heat Resilience Service—an initiative designed to empower cities with timely, data-driven insights to mitigate local heat risks.

From 2025 to 2027, the Global Heat Resilience Service will be piloted in cities around the world, reaching an estimated 12 to 20 million people.

Building on this momentum, GEO has recently partnered with Alibaba Cloud and the Shanghai Haina Academy of Engineering (Haina) to accelerate the development and implementation of the Global Heat Resilience Service, leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced technologies to enhance urban climate resilience.

The first phase of the collaboration will focus on pilot implementation of the Global Heat Resilience Service in selected cities, beginning with Hangzhou and Shanghai.
 
Using a scenario-based approach, the three parties will integrate data on risk, exposure and vulnerability – including Earth observation data and Alibaba Cloud’s urban management capabilities – to assess and manage heat risks.
 
GEO will specify and coordinate access to diverse datasets spanning environmental, climate, demographic, and socio-economic dimensions for comprehensive risk assessment; Alibaba Cloud will contribute expertise in AI, cloud computing and large-scale analytics; and Haina will co-design a prototype, drawing on its experience in urban digitalisation.
 
Insights, tools and community campaigns developed through pilots in China’s Yangtze River Delta region are expected to inform the expansion of the service to other cities worldwide, particularly those in developing regions with limited access to heat resilience infrastructure.