At 4.31pm and 12 seconds, Alibaba exceeded Singles Day 2018 sales smashing through the RMB213.5 billion, mark ($30.8 billion) and all previous Singles Day records. They are now on course for a mammoth Singles Day 2019 and the only question remaining is how much they’ll beat last year’s sale by. With the evening rapidly approaching in China, the final sales push will see consumers coming back to purchase again and the tally is likely to rise even further.
Singles Day is not firmly not just a Chinese phenomenon and one that retailers around the world are cashing in on, by 1am in China, the following were the top 10 countries/regions selling to China during Singles Day 2019 by total GMV:
- Japan
- United States
- Korea
- Australia
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- France
- Italy
- Canada
- New Zealand
It’s also not just Alibaba who are seeing Singles Day records smashed, JD.com have $25.6 billion by mid afternoon bring the total sold today to well over $50 billion in a single day. According to JD.com, electric appliances, fresh food and household items were the most popular categories for consumers to snap up bargains.
This year, Alibaba’s sales will be artificially increased due to their expanding the sale to AliExpress, Lazada (for the 2nd year), Daraz (in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Nepal). India (with the UC Shopping Fest, in association with Paytm, VMate and 9Apps) and Fliggy offering different vacation packages to Chinese consumers. Even taking this into account, the final sales tally will dwarf this month’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday weekend sales in the West.
