Alibaba's Singles' Day Sales Stagnate

After years of sales records, Alibaba's Singles' Day shopping holiday in China saw sales stagnate for the first time, so much so that the company abandoned its practice to publish exact sales figures for the event. In 2021, Alibaba newsroom Alizila had put the Singles' Day gross merchandise volume at $84.54 billion. This year the company simply said that sales had been "in line" with last year's.

Slowing economic growth around the world in the face of rising inflation as well as economic hardship brought about by reoccurring Covid-19 lockdowns in China have been identified as reasons why consumers in the country could not be moved to a new sales record this year. Stronger sales of domestic brands were another indicator that money was somewhat tighter in China than in recent years. Singles' Day remains a mammoth event, however, dwarfing Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the United States.

Up until 2019, China's Singles' Day shopping holiday had been a one-day event taking place on Nov 11. Starting from 2020, Alibaba extended the sales period, with pre-orders and sales events spread out over several weeks and concluding on Nov 12 at the latest. Singles' Day started out as a day of people showing their pride in being single despite cultural conventions in China. It turned into a huge day for online shopping on the symbolic date of Nov 11 (11.11.), with the number 1 seen as representing the single individual.