China set e-commerce history again for this year’s 11/11, with sales of Taobao and Tmall alone combining for RMB 19.1 billion (USD 3.1 billion). This number is a staggering 3.7 times greater than 11/11 sales in 2011, which previously set the mark as the biggest e-commerce day in China. To put this into context, just 2 e-commerce companies produced sales figures that is 2.48 times the total sales of Cyber Monday, which is the biggest e-commerce shopping day in the US.
These figures are even more mind-boggling when you see how much time it took for Chinese consumers on Taobao and Tmall to shatter the old records.
Let’s see the timeline below:
Breaking the numbers down by platform, B2C sales (Tmall) are 2.2x bigger than C2C (Taobao). This is partly because Alibaba’s advertising and promotions for the 11/11 event were mostly focused on Tmall. However, it also reflects the bigger trend that B2C is gaining momentum over C2C.
By geography, it’s predictably dominated by China’s richest regions, namely the coastal provinces and Sichuan.
Why did 11/11 get so big?
The 11/11 phenomenon started in the early 1990s among Chinese university students. Chinese people always had a fixation with numbers, and as the only day in the year with four 1s or singles, 11/11 came to be known as Singles Day. Young single Chinese people would spend this holiday to buy gifts for themselves and for potential romantic partners.
The gift-giving tradition of Singles Day eventually became a major shopping event, and businesses were quick to capitalize on the opportunity. It thus became China’s version of Cyber Monday, the day after Thanksgiving and typically the biggest shopping day in the US. The event gained momentum partly due to its origins with university students, as people in that demographic are more open to shopping online. Add to that the holiday’s romantic angle and the timing of the event within the winter shopping period and they all result in a winning combination for marketers.
Brands and businesses still see 11/11 more as a promotional event rather than as a profit opportunity. For the tens of thousands of sellers on Taobao and Tmall, it’s a way for them to make their store known to the public. It’s starting to pay off. This year, 10,000 sellers joined in the action, and 3,321 of them sold over 1 million RMB in 24 hours, and 109 stores sold over 10 million RMB. With such incredible figures, it seems that China will be the only country which can top itself in e-commerce in the years to come.
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