As Singles’ Day drew to a close in China, Alibaba reported another day of record breaking sales.
As total sales edged toward US $13 billion by 9.45pm (CST), Alibaba Group CEO, Daniel Zhang briefed the media, “We are very happy that Singles’ Day has become the consumers’ day in China,” Zhang said, calling the not-yet-final sales results “very solid evidence for the power of Chinese consumers.” (Alizila.com)
By eight minutes past midnight (CST) on 11 November, more than US $1 billion had been spent by eager Chinese online shoppers. The shopping frenzy continued well into the night and within the first hour, Alibaba had made US $3.9bn in sales, almost double the amount spent in the same time period last year (BBC).
With last year’s sales results of US $9.3 billion exceeded by just 1pm (CST), the total spend Alibaba report this Singles’ Day is likely to completely eclipse total Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales records (CNBC).
(The Telegraph)
Singles’ Day, now the biggest online shopping event globally, originated from a mock celebration for singletons in the 1990s and is widely referred to as Double Eleven, or Eleven/Eleven (The Guardian).
Having started as a solely Chinese phenomenon, global brands are now cashing in. “Eleven/Eleven is going global,” said Daniel Zhang, Alibaba CEO, “Chinese consumers will be buying an unprecedented assortment of international brands and products from around the world. Chinese consumers associate quality and prestige with American and European brands, and both have very solid presence on Eleven/Eleven in response to strong consumer demand” (The Guardian).
Although Alibaba is often credited with the commercialisation of Singles’ Day, many other online retailers in China profit from this huge shopping event. The second biggest retailer, JD.com, also said it broke past last year’s full-day total just before noon (Reuters).
The future of Singles’ Day
Despite the extraordinary spending on Singles’ Day, new data supports nagging concerns about the economy. Inflation is down: non-food prices dropped 0.3 percent in October, indicating that consumption continues to fall in China – a long-term trend that Singles’ Day will not fix (BBC).
Some analysts even suggest that Singles’ Day is actually damaging to the consumer industry, “I think it’s a disaster for the Chinese consumer industry because people aggregate and delay their purchases until this day,” said Hao Hong, Chief Research Strategist and Managing Director of Research, at the Bank of Communications International (CNBC).
However, it is highly unlikely these concerns will be noted by the ecommerce giant Alibaba. Following even greater profits this year, Alibaba’s plans for future Singles’ Days will become more ambitious and global.