Singles’ Day posts record haul despite slower pace, as China’s antitrust moves dampen world’s biggest online shopping event

This year’s Singles’ Day was weighed down by China’s slowest economic expansion pace in decades, as growth slowed to 4.9 per cent in the third quarter

This year, Tmall issued 100 million yuan worth of ‘green vouchers’ to encourage purchasing decisions that ‘contribute to an environmentally friendly lifestyle’

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A sign promoting Alibaba Group Holding’s 11.11 Singles’ Day online shopping event at the company’s headquarters in Hangzhou on Wednesday. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 1:25am, 12 Nov 2021Updated: 2:56pm, 23 Feb 2022

Singles' Day, the world’s biggest online shopping event, recorded a slower pace of annual growth after Alibaba Group Holding swapped the usual razzmatazz for a more down-to-earth retail promotion that stressed sustainability.

Alibaba reported that gross merchandise value (GMV) for this year’s Singles’ Day grew to a record 540.3 billion yuan (US$84.5 billion) during the 11-day campaign, marking 8.45 per cent year-on-year growth. This is the first single-digit GMV growth since Alibaba created Singles’ Day in 2009.

Hangzhou-based Alibaba is the parent of the South China Morning Post.

Created by Alibaba’s chief executive Daniel Zhang in 2009, Singles’ Day takes place on November 11 every year, a reference to the four stick-like digits of the day that are a metaphor for guang gun, a slang for bachelors in Chinese.

Singles’ Day has since evolved from a 24-hour university campus pun into a multibillion-dollar gala event featuring appearances by Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey and other celebrities, spanning weeks of heavy promotion, discounts and marketing, turning it into a bellwether event for China’s consumer spending.

Alibaba Group Holding’s chief executive Daniel Zhang speaking during the wrap-up of the 2017 Singles’ Day, with the total gross merchandise value recorded over 24 hours on 12 November 2017. Photo: Simon Song

“For this 11.11 shopping festival, we delivered steady and quality growth that is a reflection of the dynamic Chinese consumption economy,” said Yang Guang, a vice-president at Alibaba.