The company’s total sales for Singles’ Day a year ago amounted to the same figure, meaning that the online giant surpassed its record in just over half the time.
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According to research firm IDC, this year’s sales could rise to as much as $13.8 billion, a growth of nearly 50% from last year’s total. This compares with total “desktop” sales of $6.56 billion (£4.3 billion) made during the entire four-day period in the U.S. from Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday, the largest online shopping period in the US. This is way faster than past year where the company took an hour to generate sales of $1.8bn. Singles’ Day was further publicized on Tuesday night with Asian and Chinese celebrities, as well as Hollywood stars, going to a gala event to launch the sales holiday.
China’s Singles’ Day shopping frenzy is adding confusion to the country’s growth debate.
More than 130 million users have already visited its marketplace app, Taobao, which exceeds the peak from previous year.
He assured consumers “a fresh surprise every hour” over the 24 hour marathon, particularly cellular users.
Perhaps one of the biggest e-commerce companies in the world, Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA), recently completed its “Singles Day”. JD.com (JD – Get Report), a longtime rival of Alibaba, is also capitalizing on Singles Day this year with its own sales and promotions.
The day was originally invented by students in the 1990’s to celebrate single life, it was a kind of ‘anti-Valentines Day’.
For more on this year’s double 11 shopping spree, CRI’s Wang Mengzhen earlier spoke with Professor Liu Baocheng, from the University of global Business and Economics.
Alibaba, on leading the online shopping festival, aims to tap more local Chinese in its market and make deliveries there.
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Alibaba, a collection of businesses that concentrate on online shopping, saw more than 70 percent of those sales come from its mobile sites, showing that both online shopping and smartphone use have become ingrained habits among Chinese consumers. “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.
