Singles Day is approaching, we have it around the corner and with it comes the day of the singles offers. This party from China aims to celebrate the pride of being single. Today it has become one of the most important celebrations in e-commerce. With the beginning of the biggest sales season of the year, many companies have begun to prepare their strategies, especially the large marketplaces. We refer to the two giants par excellence, Amazon and Alibaba, who for another year will be the world reference in digital commerce.
Why the 11 of the 11?
The call has its origin in the University of Nanking, which started it 28 years ago, 1993. The students celebrated their singleness by indulging in a great shopping day. And is that if lovers had a day on the calendar, why couldn’t they have the same while being single?
The choice of the day is not by chance, November 11 is a special date. The reason is very simple, it is the day of the year with more about 11/11. This number refers to a tree without leaves or a single person so they decided that this was the perfect day. Currently 11/11 is one of the most famous days on the calendar, stores, websites and even shopping centers do a lot of promotions. The festive mood that this date acquired fell to second place, becoming a day where commerce and great sales triumph.
Although it began as a festival only in China, eventually with the passage of time it has spread throughout the world. The crucial moment in which this happened was in the year 2009 when the Alibaba company occupied its website of incredible discounts. Discounts for singles from all over the world to indulge themselves and celebrate their singleness. According to Alibaba, the sales on November 11 are 2.5 times higher than those accumulated on Black Friday and Cyber Monday together.
It is estimated that as of today there are more than 20 million singles in China. Probably all of them in the search to start a family and fulfill this important requirement within society. The reason for its importance is not to let the lineage die, something essential to Chinese culture since ancient times.
Singles day in figures
The number of sales around this holiday is of such magnitude that in 2012 Alibaba Group registered the term double 11 as its own. Since then, it has only seen its earnings increase that day, from $ 5.8 billion in 2013 to $ 63.811 million in 2020.
This festival will count in this new edition with the participation of more than 290,000 brands, 40,000 more than in 2020. Tremendous difference if we compare it with the 27 vendors who participated in the first edition of 2009.
This new edition is scheduled to be the largest to date on Singles Day, well, rather, the Global Shopping Festival. What began as a party to mark a little detail for being single has turned into a madness of sales, discounts, offers and figures.
This year the event will maintain its two-period sales format with which it obtained great results the previous year. Therefore the first round will take place between November 1 and 3. The second round and main event day will be November 11.
A more sustainable and supportive edition of the Global Shopping Festival
Alibaba announced that this 2021 edition will revolve around a theme of sustainability in the field of commerce. For this, some measures are being taken such as
- The creation of a vertical section that will display energy-efficient products.
- The issuance of 100 million RMB (digital version of the Chinese national credit currency equivalent to fiat currency) in green vouchers.
- The donations collected will serve to support older people living alone, abandoned children in remote areas and low-income workers.
This is intended to drive purchasing decisions to support an environmentally friendly lifestyle. Another important objective of this edition is to support vulnerable populations with a senior sales method. This method will facilitate the shopping experience of the elderly. This functionality has voice-assisted technology, simplified navigation, some games to unlock special offers, and larger size of icons and letters.
This year for each successful social media engagement Alibaba will give a donation of 1 RMB through Goods for Good. The program will allow merchants to donate part of their sales to charities of their choice. In the same way, consumers will also be able to support the causes they prefer through their purchases.
From Somos Sinapsis we will be very attentive to everything that happens to be able to tell you first-hand.