Sales worth billions in just a 'Singles Day': Online shopping extravaganza now China's biggest annual commerce spree
Online extravaganza started by Alibaba to coincide with traditional celebration has grown into the country's largest annual shopping spree
With giant billboards in subways, posters plastered in lifts, advertisements splashed across newspapers and magazines, and commercials being screened repeatedly during primetime TV and radio programmes, it's hard to miss the arrival of the "Singles Day" shopping festival.
The online shopping extravaganza, which takes place on November 11 every year, was started in 2009 by e-commerce giant Alibaba. It has since become Chinese consumers' biggest annual shopping spree.
READ MORE: Singles Day explained
Despite a gloomy economic outlook as growth slows in the retail industry, this year's Singles Day is expected to set yet another record in takings.
"The Singles Day shopping festival is growing bigger every year. The importance of this date for the local retail sector is rising so quickly that it's diluting the impact of traditional sales windows like the Lunar New Year and Mid-Autumn Festival," said Jason Yu, general manager of consumer research unit Kantar Worldpanel China.
"Still, it would be hard for the incremental shopping sales increase brought by the event to offset the declining growth of the entire retail sector."
Retail sector growth has been sliding in recent years. Total sales rose 10.5 per cent to 21.6 trillion yuan (HK$26 trillion) for the first three quarters of the year, compared with a 12 per cent increase last year and 13 per cent in 2013.
Online shopping sales, which maintained growth of 36 per cent over the same period, accounted for 12 per cent of total retail sales.
"It would be hard for Singles Day to boost the entire retail sector as it's still too small [a part of] the industry," Yu said. "But as the world's largest online sales festival, the day is an opportunity not only to boost sales but also to acquire new customers, promote brands and explore new industry trends."
In 2009, Alibaba picked November 11 - a day meant for people to celebrate being single - to host an online shopping festival in an effort to boost their sales during a traditionally slow retail season. Only 27 brands took part that first year, slashing prices by half or more on selected products.
By 2011, Singles Day sales on Tmall had risen to 3.36 billion yuan, with 24-hour sales at some Tmall stores exceeding 10 million yuan. The event saw more than 400,000 courier staff work around the clock to deliver shopping parcels across the nation.
From 2013, the event began to involve more brick-and-mortar shops. Alibaba estimated its sales for the day that year at 35 billion yuan.
"This year, we have no pressure [for the final sales figure]," Alibaba founder Jack Ma Yun said as he addressed a Shanghai university last week.
Ma plans to introduce 5,000 brands from Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea on its Tmall platform for the shopping festival this year. Alibaba will also promote Chinese products to buyers in 64 countries and regions as well as work with offline retailers including Intime Department Stores and Suning Appliance.
This year will also be the e-commerce giant's first time hosting a gala at Beijing's National Aquatics Centre stadium to expand the festival's "cultural content", according to Alibaba.
"When you've put so many promotions together, you have to come up with more creative ideas to bring the event to a whole new level," said Seton Vermaak, head of strategy for digital marketing agency Razorfish.
"The idea of a gala seems a smart one as it will attract people's attention and anticipation worldwide."
