Singles Day, the yearly bargain festival of Chinese web shop Alibaba, has once again become a great commercial success. A total of 498 billion yuan (almost 64 billion euros) worth of goods were traded.
11-day span
This year, for the first time in its twelve years of existence, Singles Day was spread over two weekends, partly to ease the burden on logistics services. This turned out to be a successful move, because in the period from 1 to 11 November, the gross volume of trade was 26% higher than during the same period last year. Almost 64 billion euros’ worth of goods were sold.
This year, Singles Day reached as many as 800 million consumers, Alibaba is proud to say. More than 250,000 brands were represented. Of the foreign brands, American products from Apple and Nike proved to be particularly popular. But European brands such as Adidas and Lancôme also did good business.
Singles Day originated in the 1990s in Chinese student environments. Since 2009, Alibaba has linked a shopping event to it, which in a short period of time grew into a grandiose commercial success.
