New | For the love of shopping: Singles Day turns it up to 11 with smartphones the favourite
From a celebration of singlehood to an all-out buying spree, the Singles Day shopping event rakes in the sales as smartphones top the list
It used to be all about love - or the lack of it. China's Singles Day was the one day every year when lonely hearts would seek out one another for comfort, drowning their sorrows in beer and song at karaoke bars across the mainland.
But now, the country's bachelors and bachelorettes have taken instead to celebrating their singlehood in the world's largest shopping therapy session.
READ MORE: Singles Day sale beats spectre of 2014 by delivering record US$10bn for Alibaba, after arch bachelor James Bond launches event
On Wednesday, to mark November 11, millions of mainland consumers headed online in a buying frenzy, scoring huge discounts as they snapped up goods many had waited all year to buy.
Singles Day, also known as the "Double 11", was started in 1993 by a group of Nanjing University students to encourage bachelors to celebrate their single status. The date was chosen as 11.11 resembles four singles.
Watch: Alibaba's Singles Day sales surge sixty percent
In 2009, e-commerce giant Alibaba began promoting its online sales events on the day to entice singles to pamper themselves with gifts. In the years that followed, other shopping sites followed, along with brands both local and foreign.
By this year, the annual festival had transformed the day meant for lonely hearts into an all-out 24-hour shopping extravaganza that has overshadowed even the United States' biggest shopping event, Cyber Monday.
At mid-day, smartphones and clothes were the most sought-after products, according to Alibaba statistics. Domestic smartphone maker Huawei topped the list by gross merchandise volume (GMV) - meaning total value - on Alibaba's Tmall, followed by Japanese casual-wear brand Uniqlo and Chinese smartphone brands Xiaomi and Meizu.
Global brands including Nike, New Balance and menswear brand Jack & Jones were also among the top 20 on the list.
READ MORE: For couriers, China’s ‘double 11’ shopping day means double the work
Many consumers also made more diverse purchases.
Wei Han, a 32-year-old office worker in Wuhan, Hubei province, on Wednesday afternoon splashed out more than 10,000 yuan (HK$12,000) on furniture, household appliances and daily necessities including toothpaste, laundry detergent and body lotion.
To ensure she would get the best deals, Wei spent months compiling a price table for the items she intended to buy. Her list included the items' prices in every sales event from Labour Day on May 1 to the mid-year sale on June 18 to the National Day holiday on October 1.
"This time, I simply bought the items without any hesitation because I'm sure they're the best deals of the year," she said.
Liu Li, a 31-year-old housewife who was travelling in Hainan province, chose to stay in her hotel room for the faster internet connection.
READ MORE: All praise Jack Ma: Prayers to tycoon, camp beds and instant noodles as China’s online retailers gear up for Singles’ Day shopping binge
To prepare for her shopping spree, which began at the stroke of midnight, Liu went to bed early the previous evening and had her husband wake her before midnight to wait for the sale to start.
The mother of a five-month-old girl was happy that she managed to snap up dozens of baby clothes, diapers and wet wipes, among other purchases. She had to repeatedly refresh her browser pages before completing the transactions, she said, as the website coped with the millions of orders that were flooding in.
Not everyone on the mainland was so caught up with the shopping event, however.
Beijing-based public relations professional Tang Ge said she bought just three items of clothing this year.
"I used to buy a lot, from tissues to facial cleansers. But I found that I still had some leftover from last year," Tang said. "It might save you some money, but the shopping also takes up space and costs you energy."
READ MORE: Singles Day shopping spree sees sales soar 50pc to 85 billion yuan, raising hope that online sector will boost China's slowing economy
