Alibaba‘s early performance indicators show that this year’s Singles Day was a blowout.
The e-commerce promotional sales event, held each year on Nov. 11, was started in 2009 by 27 Tmall.com merchants to fill a gap in China’s retail calendar. Singles Day celebrates young Chinese single people’s independence by encouraging them to treat themselves to a special purchase.
Over the years, the day has exploded in popularity. In 2014, more than $9.3 billion worth of purchases were placed during the 24-hour period through China’s top payment platform, Alipay. And at least 27,000 merchants from across the globe participated. By comparison, 2014’s Cyber Monday promotional event generated an estimated $2.65 billion in sales.
Here are the stats to know about this year’s Singles Day:
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- Alibaba featured 6 million products by 30,000 brands.
- Alibaba said $14.32 billion was spent on the website during Singles Day.
- Shoppers have spent more than $9 billion in the first 12 hours.
- Over 70 million people used a mobile device to shop Alibaba by 2 p.m. China time.
- Sales on Alibaba via its Alipay platform topped $5 billion in the first 90 minutes of the e-commerce sale.
