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The Single’s Day sale, also known as 11.11, has made a comeback. Sellers are launching massive discounts, banking and e-commerce sites collapsed due to the large volume of transactions in just one day.
I was even tempted by an incredibly cheap gaming monitor, and before I knew it, I saw a purchase confirmation in my inbox.
Buy now, regret later. I’m right?
It’s the only time of year that gives you a good reason to spend your hard-earned money. And now that COVID-19 is hampering our shopping plans, it’s hard to get gifts for our loved ones (and ourselves), especially when Christmas is just around the corner.
As you plan your shopping cart, here are some facts about Singles Day that you might not know:
Singles Day was created by students.
In 1993, a couple of Nanjing University students were bored and felt that they wanted to start a revolution of some kind, as well as celebrate people who are not in a relationship.
They chose November 11 because if you write it down in numbers it would be 11.11. Number one resembles a ‘bare stick’, which is also internet slang for men who are not married.
Therefore, you cannot add ‘branches’ to the tree (family tree). But when the two are placed together, it is to be expected that single people will pair up and have a relationship.
90 percent of sales were made through smartphones.
Yes, I am also surprised. In 2019 it was reported that in China, a large number of orders were placed via smartphones, which surprised American experts. In Western countries, most online purchases are made through the website.
On the eastern front, many incentives were given to people using their phones. Even in Southeast Asia, companies like Shopee and Lazada have games, daily login challenges that will reward you with promo codes and ‘coins’ that you can redeem for more vouchers or flat discounts.
You won’t believe how much baby formula was sold.
Baby products can be pricey, so when a sale approaches, parents are sure to have enough to feed generations of future children. In 2014, about half a million cans of baby formula were sold during 11.11. That’s enough to feed all two-year-old babies in China for two weeks.
Along with that purchase, parents bought about 66 million diapers.
Having children can be quite expensive.
Singles Day generates more money than three US holidays combined.
One might think that nothing can beat the sales during the US holidays like Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday. But that is far from the truth.
The amount of money made during 11/11 sales will generally exceed the three largest online shopping days in the US combined: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday.
In 2019, Alibaba made $ 1 billion in just 68 seconds, and in 2017, Alibaba set a world record for the most payment transactions made in one day, with 256,000 payments per second.
It’s amazing how the company’s servers didn’t melt.
3 million people are ready to handle your orders in 2020.
Alibaba, which leads the 11.11 sales charge, has worked together with its logistics arm, Cainiao, to charter 3,000 long-haul flights and cargo ships to deliver goods to China.
3 million Cainiao people will participate to ensure logistics runs smoothly. It will also use 10,000 mobile lockers to avoid human contact when customers pick up their packages.
At the same time, the logistics company plans to operate 700 chartered flights to deliver goods outside of China.
What are you buying this time?
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Cover image from SCMP.
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