The biggest shopping day in the world takes place this Saturday. In China, the 11 November is known as Singles’ Day or Double Eleven (11/11). Its origins stem from people who are single celebrating the day but has since become the biggest online shopping day in the world.
Record-Breaking Figures
Singles’ Day in 2016, was the biggest Singles’ Day ever recorded surpassing even Alibaba’s owner, Jack Ma’s predictions of 200 million packages being shipped. In the 24-hour period, orders had been shipped worth over $17.8bn — up 32% from 2015. Wow!
According to research firm Fung Global Retail and Technology, Alibaba is expected to generate $20 billion in sales on Singles’ Day this year.
Last year, David Beckham and Kobe Bryant were amongst the celebrities Jack Ma used to help make Singles’ Day the biggest shopping day ever.
The most popular brands sold on Singles’ Day last year were Uniqlo, Nike, Adidas, and New Balance.
Singles’ Day Origins
Singles’ Day was invented by a group of Chinese students in the 90’s and was originally dubbed Bachelor’s Day, where single people would hang out and meet prospective partners. Some actually use it to pop the big question, but not all are successful!
Alibaba only started marketing 11 November as Singles’ Day as recently as 2009, and in that short time turned it into the single biggest global online shopping event by discounting many products. Sales on Singles’ Day are more than ten times that of a normal shopping day in China.
Alibaba Group’s executive vice-chairman, Joe Tsai said, “You’re seeing the unleashing of the consumption power of the Chinese consumer” before adding, “We really are witnessing history here because we are seeing the shift of the economy – from a focus on the state sector to consumption.”
Black Friday and Cyber Monday
Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend, 27 November this year, and is traditionally the biggest US shopping day.
So how do Singles’ Day sales compare to Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales in the US?
Last year, figures from Comscore, reported sales on $17.8 billion on Singles’ Day eclipsing sales of $4.6 billion on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.
These statistics confirm that Singles’ Day is a bigger online shopping holiday than Black Friday and Cyber Monday together, with the gap getting bigger every year.
Amazon Sellers
Of course, for many Amazon sellers, all this news is music to their ears, as they know some really big shopping days and periods are coming up which will positively impact sales for the year. And, whilst many already have repricing strategies in place to ensure prices remain competitive and products visible in search results, unfortunately, many sellers will simply hope and pray that the busy period will shift stock.
It’s certainly a busy time for us too at RepricerExpress, with many more Amazon sellers signing up to use our repricing software in time to capture their fair share of Buy Boxes and higher sales this quarter. With a 30 second sign-up process and 15-day trial, it’s not too late to get your Amazon inventory priced competitively for the Christmas rush!
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