{"id":990,"date":"2017-10-11T09:26:26","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T01:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/2017\/10\/11\/chinas-11-11-is-the-worlds-biggest-shopping-day\/"},"modified":"2025-01-05T14:27:25","modified_gmt":"2025-01-05T06:27:25","slug":"chinas-11-11-is-the-worlds-biggest-shopping-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/chinas-11-11-is-the-worlds-biggest-shopping-day\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s 11\/11 Is The Worlds Biggest Shopping Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s that time of the year again. China\u2019s \u2013 and the world\u2019s \u2013 biggest online shopping<\/a> event is about to take place on 11 November. Known as Singles’ Day, Alibaba and its founder, Jack Ma<\/a>, transformed the de facto holiday from an \u2018anti-Valentine’s Day\u2019 for<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s that time of the year again. China\u2019s \u2013 and the world\u2019s \u2013 biggest online shopping<\/a> event is about to take place on 11 November. Known as Singles’ Day, Alibaba and its founder, Jack Ma, transformed the de facto holiday from an \u2018anti-Valentine’s Day\u2019 for Chinese singletons to a global shopping<\/a> festival.<\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172131.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo:propakistani.pk<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

How did it start?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172133.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo:soso<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Singles’ Day, also known as ‘bare sticks holiday,’ started in 1993 at Nanjing University as a day for students to celebrate their singledom. The date 11:11 was chosen as it resembles<\/a> 4 solitary bare sticks.<\/p>\n

What is it about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172136.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Alibaba Chairman Jack Ma speaks on stage during at the Tmall 11:11 Global Shopping Festival gala in Shenzhen<\/a>, in south China’s Guangdong province on November 11, 2016.\u00a0Photo:Forbes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The annual event kicks off on the midnight of 11 November and runs for 24 hours featuring steep discounts that are driven by the main Alibaba-owned platform, Tmall. Essentially, think of it as the Asian version of America\u2019s Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping sales<\/a> \u2013 but bigger than the two combined.<\/p>\n

Who\u2019s participating?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172138.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A large screen shows the final sales figures, after 24 hours of Singles Day sales, at the Tmall 11:11 Global Shopping Festival gala in Shenzhen, in south China’s Guangdong province early on November 12, 2016.\u00a0 \u00a0Photo:Forbes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This year, Alibaba says over 15 million products from more than 140,000 brands, including 60,000 international<\/a> brands, will be offering discounts on Tmall \u2013 up from 100,000 last year. Besides the e-commerce giant, other platforms like JD.com have become a key competitor and will be pushing equally hard to attract shoppers.<\/p>\n

How much is spent?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172141.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Chinese workers sort through boxes of goods at a delivery company in Lin’an, east China’s Zhejiang province on November 11, 2016.\u00a0\u00a0Photo:Forbes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

In terms of sales, Singles’ Day is known for racking up record numbers \u2013 more so than Black Friday, Cyber Monday or Amazon Prime Day sales. In 2016, Alibaba made a staggering $17.8 billion ($5 billion in the first hour alone) and intends to break that record this year.<\/p>\n

How is the high demand met?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172144.jpg\"<\/p>\n

David Beckham (C) and his wife Victoria Beckham (3rd L) attending the 2016 Tmall 11:11 Global Shopping Festival gala in Shenzhen, south China’s Guangdong province. Photo:Forbes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Shoppers purchase everything \u2013 home appliances, electronics and even cars \u2013 on the day. To manage the high volume of deliveries, Alibaba opened its\u00a0first automated, robot-managed warehouse. JD.com isn\u2019t resting on its laurels either. It has teamed up with Walmart to simplify shopping processes<\/a> and speed up deliveries.<\/p>\n

Increased focus on luxury<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172147.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Women’s shoes sit on display inside a Christian Dior SE store in Shanghai, China, on Saturday, June 10, 2017.\u00a0Photo:Forbes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This year, through strategic partnerships with international fashion luxury brands like Jason Wu, Opening Ceremony and Robert Geller, Alibaba is focusing heavily on the luxury sector. Similarly, JD.com is appealing to high-end consumers by launching a new luxury e-commerce site, TOPLIFE, which will go live on Singles’ Day.<\/p>\n

The \u2018New Retail\u2019 strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172150.jpg\"<\/p>\n

A customer stands for a facial recognition device at the entrance to a JD.com Inc. Unmanned Convenience Store inside the company’s headquarters in Beijing, China, on Monday, Oct. 23, 2017. Photo:Qilai Shen\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

This year also marks the one-year anniversary of Alibaba\u2019s \u2018New Retail\u2019 strategy launch. The term coined by Ma aims to depict the increasingly blurry lines between offline and online shopping. As such, Alibaba is\u00a0partnering with 52 shopping mall<\/a>s\u00a0to set up 60 pop-up stores across 12 cities in China. 100,000 stores will also become \u2018smart stores\u2019 with tech features ranging from facial recognition-powered payment solutions, scan-and-deliver O2O shopping feature and AR beauty tutorials to create a much more immersive experience.<\/p>\n

Entertainment will be big<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172152.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Jack Ma, Alibaba Group founder and executive chairman, singing a song during the Music Festival of the Computing Conference 2017 in Hangzhou in China’s eastern Zhejiang province. Photo:Forbes<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

To kickstart the event, Tmall will host a four-hour star-studded countdown gala on the night before, where Pharrell Williams is expected to perform alongside other Chinese celebrities. Last year, the glitzy show attracted over 400 million viewers \u2013 three times the number of those who watched this year\u2019s Super Bowl.<\/p>\n

Going global<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172155.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Members of the media wear virtual reality headsets featuring the Tmall Cat, mascot for Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s Tmall online market<\/a>place, at Alibaba’s annual November 11 Singles’ Day online shopping event in Shenzhen, China, on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. Photo:Qilai Shen\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe want to make this a global holiday, a global festival for every consumer\u2026 We want [to] help global small business<\/a>\u2026\u201d\u00a0Ma told\u00a0CNN\u00a0in 2016. To demonstrate it, this year Tmall will bring\u00a0100 Chinese brands overseas\u00a0offering special promotions to target millions of consumers around the world.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re in China\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172158.jpg\"<\/p>\n

An attendee walks through a display booth for Aliyun, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s cloud computing<\/a> unit, at Alibaba’s annual November 11 Singles’ Day online shopping event in Shenzhen, China, on Friday, Nov. 11, 2016. Alibaba broke its $14 billion Singles’ Day sales record with room to spare, offering assurances about the strength of the Chinese consumer despite the nation’s economic slowdown.\u00a0 Photo:Qilai Shen\/Bloomberg<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Timing is everything, so be sure to prepare your shopping list early instead of browsing the entire site once the sale starts. While you’re checking out, also look out for additional promo vouchers that you can use to gain further discounts. Payment can be made with Alipay, UnionPay or major credit cards.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re abroad\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u5fae\u4fe1\u56fe\u7247_20171110172201.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Photo:Bing<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Since most of the sites are in Chinese, prep yourself with a translation<\/a> tool like Google Translate to help you navigate. Before checking out, ensure the products can be shipped to your destination. Lastly, do a quick research to find out which credit cards offer the lowest rates for inter-bank transactions and exchange rates.<\/p>\n

Source: Tarandip Kaur from Forbes<\/p>\n

\n

\"gic.jpg\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s that time of the year again. China\u2019s \u2013 and the world\u2019s \u2013 biggest online shopping event is about to take place on 11 November. Known as Singles’ Day, Alibaba …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3643,3662,1948,60,3673,1852,353,306,1891,229,29,34,1209,383,1834,3007,230,30,288,1319],"class_list":["post-990","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3643","tag-3662","tag-business","tag-china","tag-chinas-11-11-is-the-worlds-biggest-shopping-day","tag-cloud-computing","tag-e-china-cities","tag-hiredchina","tag-international","tag-jack-ma","tag-jobs","tag-jobs-in-china","tag-market","tag-online-shopping","tag-processes","tag-sales","tag-shenzhen","tag-shopping","tag-shopping-mall","tag-translation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25865,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/990\/revisions\/25865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hiredchina.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}