Online trading reaches $5.7bn as online firms slash prices for twenty-four hours.
"Just 39,999 more of these to go..." Image: TNT |
What started out as the Chinese equivalent of Valentine's Day has developed into an annual shopping frenzy.
Jack Ma, the charismatic founder of China's largest e-commerce platform Alibaba expected trading to reach as much as 30bn yuan ($4.9bn) on 11 November. In fact, sales topped $5.7bn.
In order to gain market share, many internet firms operated at a loss, with most stores offering discounts of 50% or above. As Alibaba holds over 80% of the e-commerce market, smaller firms such as 360buy and Sunning's online arm, struggled to gain a foothold as online shopping hit new heights.
For shoppers, the frenzy lasted just twenty-four hours, but companies spent months planning for the spike in activity.
Elle, a purveyor of luxury branded handbags, expected to take 40,000 orders on the 11th, compared to a daily average of 200. The fashion retailer hired additional staff to deal with a surfeit of customer queries and rented out extra warehouse space.
Meanwhile, Shanghai-based courier Shentong Express Co hired an additional 45,000 temporary staff - about a third of its full-time workforce - to deal with the increased demand. S.F. Express Group Co, China's biggest private express delivery service, acquired a Boeing 757 aircraft to ship goods, while Tmall, another B2C web giant, reckoned its users chartered around 100 private planes to make the most of the event.
Sales on Singles Day wildly exceeded even the most optimistic expectations. In the first six minutes of trading, shoppers spent $160m. 1.6m bras were sold - three times the height of Mt Everest if folded and stacked - alongside 2m pairs of underwear.
Delivery companies expect to courier around 324m packages as a result of Singles Day, representing 2% of China's total online shopping spend in 2013.