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Bryan Galvan

Ka-ching!
Singles’ Day sales for Alibaba alone were almost double the combined revenue of US retailers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday last year. The Chinese company had revenue of US$25.3 billion, and rival JD.com recorded sales of US$19 billion, according to Reuters. In comparison, sales events during the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States garnered a paltry US$14.49 billion.
Technology
Technology such as payment via facial recognition is being used to facilitate Singles’ Day sales. Alibaba, for example, added facial recognition payment systems to 100,000 stores in China for 2017’s Singles’ Day.

Facial recognition technology has been developing at a rapid pace in China, and has begun to transform various sectors.
Speed
Speed is king during Singles’ Day. JD.com reported US$71.9 million in sales of air conditioners in 30 minutes, and US$14.3 million in television sales in just one minute in 2017. While those numbers seem impressive, they pale in comparison to Alibaba, which took US$1 billion in the first two minutes and a further US$12 billion in the next two hours.

Speed has become part of the experience of Singles’ Day, with shoppers preparing hours or days in advance to snatch up deals and discounts during the short 24-hour period they’re available. Since they make sales through their phones, which are connected to mobile wallets provided by WeChat Pay and Alipay, consumers don’t need to worry about logistics or physical obstacles.
Forecasts
Sales keep growing at an exponential rate. Alibaba’s revenue during the 2017 event was 39 per cent higher than in 2016, according to Reuters, and analysts expect growth to continue.
Only 39 per cent of Chinese citizens are connected to the internet, according to the World Bank, but that figure is growing each year. With more people connecting their bank accounts to their phones and taking part in Singles’ Day events, sales are likely to grow in proportion.

Compare those numbers to figures from Cyber Monday 2017, during which retailers raked in US$6.59 billion in sales – making it the largest online sales day in the US, according to a report from Adobe Analytics. Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day sales tallied US$5.03 billion and US$2.87 billion in revenue respectively.
She-commerce
While the event ostensibly started as a way for people to celebrate being single, it has morphed into an e-commerce splurge that has become increasingly popular with women.

JD.com reported double the number of women shopping during Singles’ Day in 2017 than the previous year. Sales of cosmetics, mother and child products and similar categories grew as a result.
E-commerce analysts at Azoya Group have also said that women account for more than 70 per cent of customers on foreign e-commerce sites.
Alibaba owns the South China Morning Post.


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Apple’s iPhone sales fall during China’s Singles’ Day shopping festival, report shows

Singles' Day (11.11)

Five ways Black Friday and Cyber Monday differ from Singles' Day

This picture taken on November 10, 2016 shows Chinese actress and singer Li Yuchun (2nd R) performing during the 2016 Tmall 11:11 Global Shopping Festival gala in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong province. - Chinese shoppers spent more than 1 billion USD in the first five minutes of Singles Day on November 11, e-commerce giant Alibaba said in the world's biggest online shopping promotion. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

A shopper takes advantage of the Black Friday sales the day after Thanksgiving in New York City November 24,2017. - The Christmas shopping season kicks into high gear on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, with bricks and mortar retailers using innovative methods to attract customers in the face of exploding e-commerce. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

C8WK34 Application centre of Alipay ,  China's leading third-party online payment solution.

Workers prepare packages for delivery at a sorting center in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province during the Singles Day online shopping festival on November 11, 2016. - Chinese shoppers unleashed a record deluge of cash online for Singles Day on November 11, Alibaba said, spending RMB 120.7 billion (USD17.8 billion) with the e-commerce giant in the world's biggest online shopping promotion. (Photo by STR / AFP) / China OUT

Staff pose for photos in front of a screen at a gala event in Shanghai showing total sales of over 168 billion yuan on Singles’ Day 2017. Photo: AFP

Alibaba pledges ‘largest ever’ Singles’ Day as shopping festival marks 10th anniversary, goes international

Subsidiary Lazada to hold Singles’ Day promotions in Southeast Asia
               Tmall to engage 180,000 Chinese and global brands

Daniel Zhang Yong, chief executive of Alibaba Group Holding, said this year’s edition of Singles’ Day will be bigger and more successful than in previous years, following the initiatives taken by the company under its New Retail strategy. Photo: Simon Song

Lifestyle

Singles’ Day rings up more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, helped by tech such as facial recognition
The speed of sales on Singles’ Day is of a different magnitude – US$1 billion in the first two minutes in 2017


Singles’ Day rings up more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, helped by tech such as facial recognition; the speed of sales on Singles’ Day is of a different magnitude – US$1 billion in the first two minutes in 2017


Five ways Black Friday and Cyber Monday differ from Singles' Day

Singles’ Day rings up more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, helped by tech such as facial recognition The speed of sales on Singles’ Day is of a different magnitude – US$1 billion in the first two minutes in 2017

Singles’ Day rings up more sales than Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined, helped by tech such as facial recognition

The speed of sales on Singles’ Day is of a different magnitude – US$1 billion in the first two minutes in 2017