China’s online shopping holiday ‘Singles’ Day’ has broken all previous records, lead by ecommrce giant Alibaba, with a shopping total was bigger than Facebook’s entire revenue last year.
Chinese shoppers bought $14.3 billion of merchandise through e-commerce giant Alibaba alone, and that figure doesn’t include billions more on competing websites.
That $14.3 billion figure blew through expectations, and beat last year’s number by 60%.
In comparison, sales on Cyber Monday, which is the biggest online shopping day in the US, hit $1.35bn, according to data analytics firm ComScore.
Singles Day is held every year on 11 November. The day is also referred to as Double Eleven because of its date.
Singles’ Day was originally a mock celebration in China for people not in relationships, but in 2009 Alibaba co-opted the event and turned it into a consumer-fest for all, featuring steep discounts and other promotions aimed at attracting droves of online customers. Alibaba’s sales data has also been closely watched as a gauge of Chinese consumption as economic growth slows.
One of the new sales channels pumping up Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales this year was Suning Commerce Group, in which it bought a 20% stake in August. Suning’s in-store sales will count towards Alibaba’s total gross merchandise volume, as long as they go through final processing online, an Alibaba spokesman said.
The company also stressed its focus on international e-commerce this Singles’ Day. “Within the next five years, we expect China will become the world’s largest e-commerce market for imported products,” Alibaba’s president, Michael Evans, told reporters on Wednesday.
Singles day coming to UK?
ParcelHero’s Head of Public Relations, David Jinks MILT says: “Currently Singles Day is overwhelmingly centred on China, but sales of $14.3bn will not go unnoticed in the west. In contrast Cyber Monday, which is the biggest online shopping day in the west, reached a ‘mere’ $2.68bn last year.”
Explains David: “This year experts were predicting Singles Day sales of around $10.4bn. This figure was smashed and we believe it won’t be long until UK and US shoppers are as familiar with Singles Day as we now are Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Alibaba’s charismatic CEO Jack Ma said last year he hopes Singles Day will be “a global shopping day for the U.S., Europe, anywhere in the world” within five years, and we think he is correct.’
Reminds David: ‘Don’t forget that Alibaba has hired former Tesco executive Amee Chande as its first UK boss, as the Chinese ecommerce giant expands its presence in Europe. Amee won’t be slow to see its potential in the UK. Sainsbury’s has already joined in the event, selling Singles day bargains to customers in China via Alibaba’s Tmall site. Tmall is setting up partnerships with other UK and global brands to manage logistics and sales from outside of China and use Tmall as largely a front-end. Beyond China, bargain conscious UK Consumers yesterday were already hitting the AliExpress site for bargains!’
David continues: ‘Singles Day is supremely well timed. If it catches on it will take the heat out of the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, which is straining some retailer’s supply chains to breaking point. You only have to turn on the TV and it’s already wall-to-wall Christmas advertising, by November 11 shoppers are already in full-on Christmas mode. For consumers, small traders, and everyone wishing to buy gifts and send parcels in good time for Christmas, Singles Day presents a chance to purchase and send bargain gifts weeks ahead of the Black Friday madness.’