During the two-week shopping events until November 11, 2021, also known as Singles' Day shopping festival, Chinese consumer spending on Alibaba’s e-commerce platforms amounted to ***** billion U.S. dollars. Singles’ Day online sales in China usually surpass the U.S. Cyber Monday sales, Black Friday or any other 24-hour shopping campaign by a wide margin making it the biggest shopping holiday in the world. What is Singles’ Day?   The holiday is believed to have started in the early 1990s as a student initiative to celebrate their singledom. November 11 (or 11.11) was chosen to represent solitary figures (singles). In 2009, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group created the connection between Singles’ Day and online shopping as the company tried to generate sales for its Tmall platform by offering special pricings and promotions. Since the successful Alibaba’s shopping festival launch, other e-commerce platforms in China besides Tmall and Taobao have also implemented sales on Singles’ Day, profiting immensely from millions of netizens on shopping sprees. What are the drawbacks of the festival?    Many argue that the Singles’ Day bonanza encourages people to shop irrationally and wastefully. Alibaba’s logistics alone delivers around ********* orders placed on that day that require cardboard boxes as well plastic wraps and packaging – a huge burden to the environment. It is also a day of overtime and chaos for many workers in thousands of warehouses and courier units across the country. Finally, no matter how good the sales bargains might be, a considerable portion of the Chinese population still cannot afford to participate. Hence the sense of inequality and the income gap becomes even more evident on Singles’ Day.

In 2024, China's Singles' Day sales online transaction value reached **** trillion yuan, rocketing from *** billion yuan in 2015. Singles' Day is the largest online shopping festival in China, which takes place around *********** every year.

Between October 7 and November 11, 2025. China's commerce platforms generated a GMV of around *** trillion yuan from the Singles' Day sales, of which around **** trillion yuan were from comprehensive e-commerce platforms. In comparison, community group-buying platforms made a total of **** billion yuan during the observed period.

The leading Chinese B2C e-commerce platform Tmall accounted for around **** percent of the GMV during the Singles' Day sales in 2024. In the meantime, the sales share of the social commerce platform Pinduoduo accounted for about **** percent.

On November 11 of 2024, around ***** million people shopped on Alibaba’s C2C e-commerce platform Taobao. The social e-commerce platform Pinduoduo received approximately ***** million active shoppers that day. Is China’s Singles’ Day comparable to Black Friday? While U.S. shoppers battle through crowds of equally eager bargain hunters on days like Black Friday, many Chinese consumers are content to complete their annual shopping sprees online, having their orders delivered at doors instead. Compared to Black Friday, the Singles' Day sales in China might be less physical, but undoubtedly, they are similarly intense. In 2021, the e-commerce giant Alibaba recorded a GMV of **** billion U.S. dollars during the Singles' Day sales in China, nearly seven times more compared to the global sales value of Amazon's Prime Day. A day not only for singles Singles' Day was an unofficial holiday celebrated by singles in China. The holiday lands on November 11 every year, as 1 represents single. Since Alibaba started its first online shopping festival in 2009, Singles’ Day has become the most-known online shopping festival among Chinese consumers. Since 2020, the Singles' Day sales have morphed into a three-week-long sales event, starting from the end of October.

During the 2023 Singles' Day campaign in China, Tmall, including Diantao, held the largest online retail sales in non-alcoholic beverages at **** percent. The second-largest distribution channel of non-alcoholic beverages was JD.com, accounting for **** percent of the total online retail sales.

During the Singles' Day sales in China in 2025, home appliances captured **** percent of the online retail market with an online gross merchandise volume (GMV) of *** billion yuan. Mobile and digital products followed with *** billion yuan, making up **** percent of the market. Apparel generated an online GMV of *** billion yuan, representing a ** percent market share.

In 2009, Alibaba Group created the connection between Singles Day and online shopping as the company tried to generate sales for its Tmall unit by offering special pricing and promotions within a 24 hour period. Today, Singles Day online sales surpass U.S. Cyber Monday sales by a wide margin with online shoppers placing more than 2.3 billion orders on Alibaba’s Tmall and Taobao e-commerce properties during the Singles Day sales.

A challenge for couriers China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba announced its GMV on Singles’ Day hit 74.1 billion U.S. dollars in 2020. The one-day shopping craze resulted in a tremendous amount of packages waiting to be delivered. Owning to the express delivery companies’ efficiency, consumers in China have become accustomed to short delivery times. According to China’s State Post Bureau, around 2.8 billion packages were distributed and delivered in the week following Singles’ Day in 2019. Red envelopes on Singles’ Day For most young Chinese, red envelopes not only represent gifts of lucky money on Chinese New Year, but also a way to secure the best deal at the Singles’ Day sales. To improve consumer engagement, Alibaba developed an elaborate sales scheme for its Singles’ Day sale, such as pre-sale deals and coupons. Consumers could also play various games to receive coupons (or red envelopes) for extra discounts on Singles’ Day.

During the Singles' Day sales in China in 2025, home appliances recorded an online gross merchandise volume (GMV) of *** billion yuan, ranking first among all retail sectors. Mobile and digital products ranked second, with *** billion yuan in GMV. These two alone made up more than a quarter of the total online GMV generated during the Singles' Day sales.

Singles' Day is a shopping festival that was inaugurated in 1993. Since then, the event has grown in popularity not just in China but around the Western world as well. Celebrated on November 11, Singles' Day is reported to have generated **** billion US dollars on Alibaba in 2019.

In Europe, between 2019 and 2020, sales made during Singles' Day was expected to see a general increase. According to forecasts, sales made during Singles' Day in 2020 are predicted to reach **** billion British pounds in the United Kingdom, the highest among the European countries displayed here.

This statistic presents mobile share of consumer spending on Alibaba's Tmall and Taobao e-commerce properties during the 24-hour Singles Day sales. In 2017, mobile buyers on tablets and smartphones accounted for 90 percent of GMV. In 2009, Alibaba Group created the connection between Singles Day and online shopping as the company tried to generate sales for its Tmall unit by offering special pricings and promotions within a 24 hour period. Today, Singles Day online sales surpass U.S. Cyber Monday sales by a wide margin.

During the Singles' Day sales in China in 2024, livestreaming and content-led commerce recorded a gross merchandise volume (GMV) of *** billion yuan, representing a year-over-year growth of **** percent. By contrast, traditional e-commerce saw a decline in GMV compared to the same period in the previous year.

As a shopping event once held on November 1, China's Singles' Day has become a shopping carnival lasting nearly a month. Tmall and Taobao, Alibaba's B2C e-commerce platforms, launched their Single's Day presale on October 14, 2024, lasting ** days until November 11.

During the Singles' Day sales in China in 2024, traditional e-commerce saw the first decline in gross merchandise volume (GMV) over the past decade to around***** billion yuan. By contrast, livestreaming and content-led commerce demonstrated a strong year-over-year growth of nearly ** percent.

In 2021, the online transaction value of China's Singles' Day sales increased by about **** percent compared to the previous year. Singles' Day is the largest online shopping festival in China, which lands on November 11 every year.

During the Singles' Day sales in China in 2024, approximately **** of the newly added Mobile Taobao users were born between 1970 and 1989. Comparatively, users born after 2000 only accounted for ***** percent of Taobao's user increase.

From 1st of November to11th of November 2021, Tmall, a leading e-commerce retailer in China, recorded a sales revenue of over ***** billion yuan. Tmall's Singles' Day sales expanded from 24-hour to ** days this year.

In 2020, both female and male consumers increased their spending on Singles' Day sales in China. In that year, female shoppers spent on average ***** yuan on Singles' Day, while male consumers spent only *** yuan.

In 2023, Taobao gained on average around ********** new users a day during the Singles' Day campaign in China. Douyin followed with ************* daily new users. All leading e-commerce platforms in China saw an overall decrease in daily new users compared to the same period in the previous year.

In 2021, online transaction value of JD.com's Singles' Day sales reached ***** billion yuan, up from ***** billion yuan in 2020. Singles' Day is the largest online shopping festival in China, which lands on *********** every year.