Black Friday and Cyber Monday have nothing on China’s Singles’ Day. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (ticker: BABA) has turned the anti-Valentine’s Day holiday in the country, celebrated every Nov. 11, into a 24-hour online shopping bonanza, reports Business Insider.
Last year it made $14.3 billion in sales, according to Fung Global Retail and Technology. This year, it’s expected to hit $20 billion. One in every 12 people in China purchased something on Alibaba’s website Tmall on last year’s Singles’ Day, per Fung Global Retail and Technology. There were 467 million delivery orders, compared to 278 million the year prior.
This makes the combined Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending by Americans online last year look paltry at just $5.8 billion.
Alibaba says more than 40,000 brands will participate. American retailers like Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST), Macy’s Inc. (M) and Target Corp. (TGT) are involved this year, an Alibaba spokesman told Business Insider.
Alibaba’s Singles’ Day rise has been swift. Business Insider notes that seven years ago, roughly two dozen companies featured Singles’ Day discounts. In 2009, Alibaba joined the fray. Nike ( NKE) and Adidas were among last year’s most popular brands on Singles’ Day.
This event underscores the growing power of e-commerce that’s warped the retail industry. The trend rang true in Alibaba’s most recent earnings. Despite the deceleration in Chinese economic growth, consumers are flocking to Alibaba sites and ditching brick-and-mortar retailers, reports The New York Times.
The New York Times notes, however, that the value of Alibaba’s goods has started stagnating. It’s been looking toward adjusting advertising targets and alluring international brands to its offerings (where it can charge them to sell) to fix this sales growth issue. Also, analysts have been paying more attention to the company’s other businesses, like its cloud services.
Alibaba’s stock is up about 27 percent this year.
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Thanks to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA), Singles’ Day Trounces Black Friday, Cyber Monday originally appeared on usnews.com
