Alibaba has turned Singles’ Day in China a one to be remembered. In 2009, the company turned the day as the United State’s version of Black Friday. Now more than right years later, sales from the Chinese e-commerce event has nearly doubled from Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US combined. That’s astonishing, to say the least.
Comparing this to US sales that happen between Thanksgiving until Cyber Monday, that accounted for $12.8 billion in 2016. To put it into perspective, market experts are saying that the massive growth is due to retailers competing for share of consumer spending in China’s growing economy. Reporting on Singles’ Day, Alibaba states that sales amounted to $25.3 billion, which is a 40 percent jump from last year’s sales figures. The Chinese retailer reports that it hit a record $18 billion in just 13 hours on Saturday, which is above the $17.8 billion the company recorded last year in 24 hours.
Much like US holidays where products are put in discounts, Alibaba did the same thing by offering discounts on a variety of goods, ranging from electronic gadgets to clothing to household items.
Alibaba also provided customers “where customers can pay for expanded cart capacity.” Traditionally, Chinese retailers have put limits on how much shoppers can put in their cart to “easy operations,” reported by The Sixth Tone. This is to help encourage buyers put everything in one order instead of multiple order processing.
