Singles Day Celebrated in China

According to Tech Crunch, total U.S. Thanksgiving shopping topped $1 billion and Black Friday topped $1.5 billion, representing a year-over-year growth rate of 32 percent and 26 percent, respectively. During an earnings call in September, executives noted Alibaba is creating a stronger presence in Beijing to try to gain a bigger foothold in northern China, where e-commerce rival JD.com already has a significant presence.

Singles Day has become a Chinese tradition since students at Nanjing University in the 1990s chose the date as an antidote to Valentine’s Day, so single people could have a day to buy things for themselves.

Alibaba secured $5 billion in sales at the end of the first 90 minutes with 72% payments through its affiliate, Alipay.

 Huge demand from China caused a shortage of premium organic baby milk formula in Australia.

Last year, it took 38 minutes to hit the 10 billion yuan mark and the company is expected to easily break last year’s one-day sales record of 57.1 billion yuan (USD 10 billion). The company says more than 70 percent of its orders came via mobile.

Alibaba’s sales can be credited not only to its heavy advertising and promotion spends, but also to the vendors on its T-mall and Taobao e-commerce sites, who offer steep discounts on everything from diapers to mobile phones. This year, the company is expecting more than 40,000 merchants and 30,000 brands from 25 countries worldwide. Alibaba’s CEO Daniel Zhang also said in a statement:”the whole world will witness the power of Chinese consumption on November 11″.

Known as the world’s biggest 24-hour online shopping event, Singles’ Day falls on November 11th every year.

This year, Alibaba Group has transformed 11.11 into an unprecedented mobile shopping experience.

In a bright spot, October retail sales – a key indicator of consumer spending – jumped 11.0% from a year earlier, the fastest increase since December last year, official figures showed Wednesday.