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Online shopping is slowly but surely outgrowing brick-and-mortar retailers worldwide.
With the recent release that stated how China’s Singles Day racked up 14 billion dollars for Alibaba, the e-commerce company is basically gleaming with joy at the moment.
The Alibaba Group Holding Limited, Alibaba for short, was able to sell in the first 17 minutes and 329 seconds merchandise valued at two billion dollars, adding up to a 14 billion dollar sum by the end of the day, roughly 92 billion Yuan.
The event known as Singles Day is similar to our very own Black Friday, sporting aggressive discounts throughout China. It was first introduced in 1993 as a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day, for men to appreciate their bachelor nature and treat themselves with various presents.
The total sum of money spent through online shopping last year during the five days Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in the US is basically nothing when compared with the amount of money Chinese people have spent this Singles Day.
This event was meant to help alleviate the emerging concerns regarding China’s slowing economy. Because of the popularity of the Singles Day event, more and more companies are starting to ponder joining in; given the fact that the amount of money spent during that single day is not a sum to be overlooked.
Almost 28 million mobile users joined in the event in the first hour, making it one of the most popular sale events on the planet. Because of this, more and more companies are starting to look into expanding their interest towards online shopping.
More than 6 million products from 30.000 different brands were made available during Singles Day, with new offers and discounts popping every hour. Alibaba employees elected to even camp out at their desks and on campus in order to face the sheer amount of orders that were coming through.
The previous record that Alibaba had from 2014 was broken after only 12 hours have passed, mostly due to the fact that more offers from even non-Chinese retailers were appearing every hour. And if things progress like they did this year, it is expected that in 2016, records will be broken again.
It’s safe to say that by deciding last year to commence releasing this service to the US public as well, Alibaba is slowly becoming, if not already, the largest e-commerce company and online retailer in the world.
If the fact that China’s Singles Day racked up 14 billion dollars for Alibaba by the end of its 24 hour period is not surprising for companies who are used to an booming growth during sale events, it sure leaves the general public in awe.
Image source:www.pixabay.com
