More than one million retailers worldwide will participate in the ninth annual Singles Day.
I still remember growing up in communist China in the 1970s, when my mother and neighbours would use their ration tickets to buy meat at a state-run store.
Very little thought went into shopping because there was not much to buy. People simply bought what little was available.
Even in the 1980s, shopping in Beijing was little better.
Back then, shopping was just something you had to do to get what you needed. It certainly wasn’t the big extravaganza it has become with the popularity of Singles Day.
Now in its ninth year, the day is officially called the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival. 11.11 stands for the 11 November when it is held. The two numbers were chosen to symbolise wishes by single people to be in a relationship, as two elevens next to one another appear like two couples.
It was originally a non-commercial festival started by male college students who didn’t have a girlfriend. They created a day to get together to celebrate bachelorhood.
But the Chinese retailer Alibaba caught onto it and has turned it into the largest online shopping day in the world. Alibaba says more than one million retailers worldwide are participating this year, including the US department store Macy’s.
They say that last year’s sales amounted to $18bn (£14bn). This year’s total has already surpassed this. And here’s what impressed me the most: Alibaba handled 175,000 transactions every second during a peak period in last year’s Singles Day.
