In the past few years, Black Friday was a sales season for many U.S. and British retailers. Black Friday was the second day after the U.S. Thanksgiving (November 23, this year), followed by a weekend shopping boom culminating in Cyber ​​Monday. Its promotional efforts disrupted many consumers' pre-Christmas shopping plans.

Unlike "Black Friday," China's November 11 "Singles Day" is mainly focused on domestic consumers and is dominated entirely by the e-commerce giant Alibaba. The popularity of Singles in Western countries is not high, but in 2016, Chinese consumers shocked the world with spending of 17.8 billion U.S. dollars on Alibaba within 24 hours.

This sales exceeded the total sales in the United States on Black Friday and Cyber ​​Monday. Black Friday online sales in the United States in 2016 only exceeded 3 billion US dollars, but also set a record.

Origin

Singles originated in Nanjing University, spread through the Internet and other media, and gradually formed a Singles Culture. Today, more and more people choose to get married in Singles, at the same time, is also the major businesses in order to strip the discount promotion period.

Now Singles Day has become a shopping holiday, people like to buy their own gifts on this day. The popularity of mobile phones has also greatly promoted this shopping boom. China has 1.3 billion smart phone users, mobile phone shopping market is huge. About 37% of Chinese consumers buy their products via mobile phones, compared with a global average of 13%.

Alibaba sales in amazing Singles, and its growth rate is also surprising. The chart below shows how Alibaba double 11 sales have changed over the past seven years. Last year alone, sales increased 32% over the previous year.

According to Alibaba, during the Singles Day in 2016, they handled more than 1 billion payment transactions, processed 120,000 transactions per second at peak time and handled more than 657 million order packages in distribution systems.

Analysts predict that while China's economy will slow down this year, Alibaba will have sales of more than $ 20 billion on Singles' Day, in part because of its broader audience.

Western retailers have also joined the double 11 promotions

This huge amount of spending has also drawn the attention of Western retailers. During double 11 in 2016, 37% of consumers bought products from international brands or retailers. U.S. retailers Goodworld and Macy's, as well as British retailers Top Shop and Fraser House, have all entered the Alibaba Lynx platform.

For Singles' Day 2017, Alibaba plans to bring more than 100 Chinese brands to overseas markets for the first time, offering special promotions to more than 100 million overseas Chinese consumers in Asia and the world.

However, Singles Day introduced a rather sensitive barrier to the UK. On November 11, Britain commemorates the end of World War I on the Armistice Day, and people will observe silence on this day. Shopping is clearly outdated. However, as David McCorquodale, director of retail operations at KPMG, puts it: "China Double 11 is the largest promotional day in the world, and it may not be able to move into the UK for the time being but will not go forever."

With most retail trends rapidly becoming globalized and e-commerce giving consumers instant access to millions of products from thousands of manufacturers, Singles Day will undoubtedly somehow extend to Western consumer groups .