This annual promotion has paid off, making Singles Day a much, much bigger sales day than Black Friday or Amazon Prime Day. Year after year, Alibaba's Singles Day has pushed sales higher and higher. In 2017, consumers clicked on Alibaba e-commerce sites or visited in-person sites to purchase merchandise worth £19bn.
Yes, that's billion.
And Singles Day was truly a global event in 2017, with marketers from many nations participating by offering goods via Alibaba retail platforms. The company splashed out on its Global Shopping Festival Gala (above) featuring celebrities from around the world.
The result was a day of buying that broke the 2016 record by nearly 40%. In all, 812 million transactions were processed, a record-setting number -- and Alibaba says 90% of transactions were conducted on mobile devices, a key element of consumer buying behaviour these days.
