China’s Single’s Day, the world’s biggest shopping event booms, braves headwinds

Editor’s notes:

Nov. 11 is called "Singles' Day" in China. The date was chosen because of the four ones it contains, and it is commonly referred to as "Double Eleven." Initially, unmarried people commemorated the occasion by treating themselves to gifts and presents. Now Singles' Day has ballooned into the world's biggest shopping event, with hundreds of thousands of retailers ranging from small businesses to top designer brands participating in the event.

Started in 2009, the annual Singles' Day shopping festival entered its twelfth year. This year marks the largest Singles' Day shopping festival with a record 290,000 brands participating and more than 14 million types of commodities offering discounts, according to Alibaba, China's e-commerce giant and the biggest beneficiary of the Singles' Day shopping festival. Despite the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic and disrupted global supply chains, the event remains a consumer bonanza of epic proportions. On Oct. 20, Taobao, Alibaba's shopping platform, crashed for 20 minutes due to the heavy traffic created by overenthusiastic consumers scrambling to pay for goods in their electronic shopping carts.

Sales volumes during the Single's Day shopping event are often viewed as a barometer of China's consumption power. This year's event closed on Thursday, and both Alibaba and JD.com, another China's e-commerce giant, set new records, racking up 540.3 billion yuan and 349.1 billion yuan in sales, respectively. The figure shows that the sales volume during Single's Day has maintained momentum. It seems that the COVID-19 pandemic has not derailed the spending plans of the Chinese people. The consumption has been robust, as always and forever.

Let's take a glimpse of this year's event in more detail.