Singles’ Day in China is a huge event. And while it may be hard for us to believe, Singles’ Day dwarfs Cyber Monday for sales volume by a ratio of nearly 3 to 1.
What is Singles’ Day? Each year, it is celebrated on 11-11, representing 1-1-1-1 for singledom. According to Laura Stampler for Time magazine:
“As the lore goes, students at Nanjing University started Singles’ Day in 1993 as a way to celebrate being single, largely by buying themselves presents. But just as Valentine’s Day was embraced by Hallmark and other corporations in the U.S., China’s anti-Valentine’s Day has been co-opted by Chinese E-commerce giant Alibaba, which latched onto the event in 2009 and turned it into a day of massive online sales.”
On November 11, 2014, Singles’ Day records were set. Mike O’Brien, writes for Multichannel Merchant that:
“As midnight passed and Nov. 11 slipped into Nov. 12 in China, E-commerce giant Alibaba reported that Singles’ Day, the world’s largest shopping day, brought in more than $9.3 billion in sales, an increase of 62% over the $5.75 billion logged in 2013, as thousands of merchants offered deeply discounted items to consumers worldwide.”
“Despite the huge marketing push by Alibaba to make Singles Day a sensation in the U.S., including deals with major brands like Costco, American Eagle Outfitters, and Calvin Klein, many shoppers here remain unaware of the increasingly global sales extravaganza.”
Below is a video on Singles’ Day 2014.
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