Why Singles’ Day in China Is the Biggest Shopping Spree Ever
Alibaba Singles Day Could Bring in $24 Billion
Singles’ Day is the biggest shopping event of the year. In less than a decade, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has turned a quirky celebration for young adults in China into a global extravaganza drawing in thousands of retailers and shoppers of all ages, married as well as single. It’s spread from Alibaba to draw in other e-commerce operators and this year will spill over into brick-and-mortar stores as well. Drawing inspiration from the Black Friday tradition of special discounts in the U.S., Singles’ Day has created a new set of traditions and even a U.S. imitator, Amazon’s Prime Day.
When Nov. 11 is written numerically -- 11/11 -- the four 1s evoke “bare branches,” the Chinese expression for the unattached. On Chinese university campuses in the 1990s, 11/11 evolved into a student celebration of being single in a culture that emphasizes relationships -- an antidote to Valentine’s Day. The country’s rising middle class turned that into a phenomenon.