Singles’ Day was created in 1993 by university students as a celebration of being single. The day falls every year on November 11, known as “bare sticks holiday” because of how it looks numerically (11/11), consisting of four lonely ones. Started as an “Anti-Valentine’s Day”, the celebrations quickly spread outside the university and across the APAC region. In 2020 alone, around 800 million shoppers worldwide participated in 11.11.

• As of 2019, Singles’ Day has surpassed Black Friday as the busiest online shopping event in APAC.
• 45% of Single’s Day participants shopped via a mobile platform, while 53% of participants shopped via desktop
• The shopping event caused massive e-commerce sales spikes around the globe, with Alibaba (the event’s main player) reporting a record breaking $75B in sales this past 11/11/20. 
• Compared to its October average, Singapore produced a 250% spike in sales on 11/11/20, an almost 350% increased on 11/12/20, and a 275% increased on 11/13/20

Check out our Black Friday / Cyber Monday insights for the US, UK, France and APAC regions!

In Australia, all categories saw huge growth, but apparel and accessories led the pack, up 164%, followed by food and beverage (+139%), and toys and games (+136%).

Southeast Asia also increases in all product categories, with apparel and accessories up the most at +325%, followed by arts and entertainment at +258%.