Sunday, 13 November 2016

Is This The Single Biggest Sale Event In The World?



Alibaba turned over more than $20b (yes, that is 20 billion dollars) in their 2016 Singles Day sales event held annually on 11th November.

Singles Day started as a marketing exercise to offer young singles an excuse to spend on themselves - a sort of a anti-Valentines Day movement. It involves a large dose of razzmatazz including celebrity endorsement and TV coverage. Essentially Singles Day is a discount shopping day like the US's biggest online day, Cyber Monday, which incidentally reached only $3.97b last year.

There are many staggering statistics surrounding this Asian event, but probably the most interesting is that 82% of purchases are made on mobile phones.


Australian retailers have been among the winners, with Chemist Warehouse leading the way after selling almost $2 million worth of stock in the first 13 minutes of the 24-hour sale.