On November 11, 2014, Chinese consumers spent $9 billion in online sales, up from $5.75 billion on November 11, 2013, and $3.1 billion in 2012. It’s nearly the size of total online spending during the Thanks Giving shopping season.
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Alibaba has completely shattered the record for online sales, recording a total of $14.3 billion during its Singles’ Day sale this year.
China’s bargain-hunting shoppers spent billions Wednesday, smashing records on “Singles’ Day”.
Haoyu Shen, CEO of JD.com’s business-to-consumer group JD Mall, told CNBC on Wednesday that categories including consumer electronics, apparel and baby products were some of the most popular this year.
Its rival JD.com said it has also beaten last year’s sales by midday but declined to give figures.
This year on “Singles Day”, Alibaba showed the world yet again how companies can make billions off a clever marketing ploy in a matter of few hours.
And without any surprise, on 11:50 am, Tmall broke last years sales record of 57 billion yuan. The e-tailer began celebrating the day, a “folk holiday” on which China’s many single people buy gifts for themselves, in 2009 with just 27 merchants.
As 16,000 brands participated in the mega sale, 1.7 million couriers, 4 lakh vehicles and 200 planes will be delivering products.
This year, Alibaba Group has transformed 11.11 into an unprecedented mobile shopping experience. As the facilitator of an ecosystem with 386 million annual active buyers, Alibaba manages the high volume of orders and packages through a robust partnership of logistics networks and delivery companies. “China’s consumption power will rise quickly and that will not only drive China’s economy, but also the world’s economy”, Alibaba founder, Jack Ma, said.
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Today, Singles Day is a phenomenon in China in which the Chinese go on an online shopping spree on that day. The company, which is headquartered in the eastern city of Hangzhou, operates Taobao, a consumer-to-consumer platform that is believed to account for 90 percent of China’s online retail market, according to the Guardian.
