(Yicai Global) Oct. 22 -- China's Alibaba Group Holding expects to boost its user numbers by about one-quarter in the world's largest shopping bonanza this year to surpass the record-breaking last year.

The 11.11 Global Shopping Festival should reach more than 500 million consumers, about 100 million more than last year, the Hangzhou-based e-commerce giant said at a press conference yesterday. The target is about three-quarters of the number of annual active consumers that Alibaba's retail marketplaces had during the 12-month period ended in March, according to its earnings.

Last year, the gross merchandise value of the one-day festival, formerly known as Singles Day, rose by more than one-fifth to USD30.8 billion from 2017, with the first billion dollars reached in one minute and 25 seconds. This year's event has over 10 percent more brands at 200,000, and one million new products.

Since yesterday, some goods have already started pre-sales on Tmall with discounted prices, said Jiang Fan, president of Taobao and Tmall. The platforms will send vouchers to users over the next twenty days till Nov. 11, helping them to save about CNY50 billion (USD7.1 billion) through promotions, Jiang added. 

Alibaba will seek to make this year's shopping frenzy less environmentally damaging by initiating a recycling program. Cainiao, Alibaba's logistics affiliate, will provide 40,000 recycling stations for cardboard boxes and its partners will add 35,000 stations to that figure.

China's Black Friday has grown into a massive event from Alibaba's first Double 11 in 2009 with only 27 merchants offering discounts on Taobao and Tmall. 

Editor: Emmi Laine