Yesterday was November 11th, for many an ordinary day in an ordinary week. For example, a couple of days ago I ordered a pair of new headphones from a Swedish online store. Certainly not a purchase I make every day, but an ordinary one all the same.
But yesterday, I received an ad from the same company – 25 percent off everything in the store 11/11 because it’s “Singles Day.” Singles Day is China’s – and in fact, the world’s – largest online shopping event (apparently now also present in Sweden). And in that sense, it was very much NOT an ordinary day.
This major Chinese shopping day is now “beating” the big U.S. shopping days we hear about all the time – Black Friday (this year November 27th, always the day after the United States’ Thanksgiving Day) and Cyber Monday (November 30th, the Monday after Thanksgiving Day). Last year Singles Day generated $9.34 billion online sales in a single day, compared to Cyber Monday’s and Black Friday’s combined sales of $4.15 billion.
These massive November shopping events also mark the start of the shopping season that culminates in the celebration of Christmas, Hanukkah and other end-of-year cultural celebrations worldwide. Check out the rest of the post at the Networked Society blog >>
Mikael Eriksson Björling 
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