The world’s biggest online shopping holiday is one that many Americans have never heard of.
It’s called Singles Day, and it’s a Chinese shopping holiday that’s grown from a day of flash sales to a multiday online shopping bonanza in November.
Does another seasonal shopping event come to mind? Both Singles Day and Black Friday are misnomers at this point, in that their deals often span weeks.
And while there’s no perfect comparison between the two shopping holidays, consider these numbers:
- Last year, shoppers spent roughly $132.6 billion between the two largest Singles Day retailers, Alibaba and JD.com. That combined figure is according to numbers from Alibaba and JD.com, and it reflects about the first two weeks of November 2021.
- On Black Friday last year, shoppers spent $8.9 billion, according to an Adobe report. Shoppers also spent $10.7 billion on Cyber Monday in 2021.
- Throughout the holiday shopping season in 2021 (from Nov. 1 through Dec. 31), shoppers spent $204.5 billion, according to Adobe.
As more Western brands get wise about Singles Day, U.S. shoppers can expect even more hefty deals during the end-of-year retail rush.
What is Singles Day?
Singles Day doesn’t have its roots in retail. In the 1990s, a group of Chinese college students wanted a cheeky way to commemorate being single, so they dubbed Nov. 11 as Singles Day. (And if you look at the numbers, it’s 11/11, or 1-1-1-1.) On that day, people treated themselves to an indulgent splurge or two.
Of course, retailers eventually spotted an opportunity. In 2009, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba adopted Singles Day as a 24-hour online shopping spree. The company offered exclusive deals on its website and marketplaces, where third-party businesses use Alibaba’s platform to sell directly to consumers.
Now, Singles Day isn’t just a shopping holiday anymore: In 2017, Alibaba transformed the event from a 24-hour period into an 11-day affair, dubbed the Alibaba Global Shopping Festival. In China, it’s become a part of popular culture, as Alibaba kicked off its 10th Singles Day in 2019 with a massive, glitzy gala in Shanghai headlined by Taylor Swift.
In 2009, only 27 brands participated in the holiday, according to research from the International Institute for Management Development. In 2021, a whopping 290,000 brands offered Singles Day deals, according to Alizila, the corporate news arm of Alibaba Group.
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pretty hispanic woman doing online shopping at home with credit card and smartphone
How big is Singles Day?
The numbers behind Singles Day are staggering. Alizila estimates that at least 900 million people — just over 11% of the world’s population — shopped Singles Day deals throughout the two-week event in 2021. Meanwhile, nearly 180 million people shopped around Thanksgiving weekend, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to the National Retail Federation.
Singles Day is dominated by two major players: Alibaba and JD.com, another Chinese e-commerce company.
Alibaba is one of the world’s largest online shopping companies. Its size is hard to overstate: Alibaba boasts 925 million mobile monthly active users, according to its holding company, Alibaba Group. For comparison, Amazon has just over 300 million active customer accounts, according to Amazon.
Alibaba’s online shopping business is spread across several distinct marketplaces, where third-party brands can offer exclusive deals to Alibaba customers. Its main marketplace, Tmall.com, hosts roughly 25,000 brands from nearly 100 countries around the globe, according to Tmall Global. The company recently launched a “luxury pavilion” for designer brands, and it’s now carrying products from luxury giants like Hermès International and Chanel.
How to shop on Singles Day
Despite Singles Day’s mammoth size, few U.S. retailers have historically participated in the event. That’s changed in recent years, though, and Western brands like Nike and Sephora have started rolling out Singles Day products and discount codes.
As more Western brands begin offering Singles Day discounts, U.S. shoppers should keep an eye out for online sales cropping up before Black Friday, said Ryan Turner — founder of Ecommerce Intelligence, an online shopping analytics firm — in an email.
“Searching for Singles Day deals in the U.S. is definitely worth it, and shoppers might be surprised at the number of brands who are running 11/11 promotions this year,” Turner said.
Look out for coupon websites, too. Andrea Woroch, a consumer finance and budgeting expert based in Bakersfield, California, recommends using CouponFollow.com for Singles Day deals. The coupon aggregator will offer double cash-back deals on Singles Day for participating retailers, Woroch said in an email.
Also, check to see which retailers offered Singles Day deals last year. In 2021, these brands were among those that rolled out Singles Day deals throughout November:
- ASOS.
- Brooklinen.
- Clinique.
- Dell.
- Lovehoney.
- Nike.
- Sephora.
- Walmart.
If your favorite retailer isn’t offering Singles Day discounts, there’s always Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Thanksgiving) and Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) to satisfy your shopping needs.
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4 easy ways to start investing with $100 or less
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File
This holiday shopping season is shaping up to be longer, pricier and in some ways more chaotic than in previous years, which makes it easy to overspend. But there are also opportunities for significant savings if you know where and how to search for them.
“There are supply chain issues, inflation, major retailers reducing inventory — when you put all of that together, it looks like a recipe for disaster,” says Jill Cataldo, a consumer coupon expert based in Chicago. Her solution? “I started shopping now. If you see something and it looks like a good deal, it’s time to pick it up.”
That’s because while prices are higher overall, retailers have already launched the holiday deal season, spreading out discounts and sales over the final three months of the year. Given that complicated background, here are the best ways to save money this Black Friday season:
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File
This holiday shopping season is shaping up to be longer, pricier and in some ways more chaotic than in previous years, which makes it easy to overspend. But there are also opportunities for significant savings if you know where and how to search for them.
“There are supply chain issues, inflation, major retailers reducing inventory — when you put all of that together, it looks like a recipe for disaster,” says Jill Cataldo, a consumer coupon expert based in Chicago. Her solution? “I started shopping now. If you see something and it looks like a good deal, it’s time to pick it up.”
That’s because while prices are higher overall, retailers have already launched the holiday deal season, spreading out discounts and sales over the final three months of the year. Given that complicated background, here are the best ways to save money this Black Friday season:
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4 easy ways to start investing with $100 or less
AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File
It might sound counterintuitive, but starting early can ease the impact on your budget and allow you to score the best deals. “I watch prices, see which retailer is offering the best price and always look for coupons before I buy — anything is better than paying full price,” Cataldo says. When she makes an early purchase, she keeps the receipt handy in case the price drops and the retailer offers a price match.
AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu, File
It might sound counterintuitive, but starting early can ease the impact on your budget and allow you to score the best deals. “I watch prices, see which retailer is offering the best price and always look for coupons before I buy — anything is better than paying full price,” Cataldo says. When she makes an early purchase, she keeps the receipt handy in case the price drops and the retailer offers a price match.
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4 easy ways to start investing with $100 or less
AP Photo/John Minchillo, File
Apps, browser extensions and other tools that will help you track and compare prices abound; you just have to pick the one that you like using most. You can find choices that scour the web in the background while you shop and alert you to lower prices, coupon codes and cash-back opportunities.
For example, the shopping app ShopSavvy will follow price changes on specific items. John Boyd, co-founder and CEO of Monolith Technologies, which owns ShopSavvy, says he uses that feature for things he has his eye on, like a digital single-lens reflex camera. “I want to get an alert the second those things get marked down, because it might only be on sale for a few minutes and then the quantity runs out,” he says.
The Camelizer app performs a similar function for Amazon prices specifically.
Greg Lisiewski, vice president of PayPal Shopping , which includes the shopping browser extension Honey, says when he wants to buy something, he looks up the retailer in the PayPal app to see if any discounts are available (under the “Deals” section).
Those discounts are especially valuable now because PayPal Honey reports that toys and games are 11% more expensive this year compared with last year, coffee machines have increased 7%, and cycling gear and equipment is up 9%. The company also reports that the biggest discounts this holiday season have been in cosmetics, musical instruments and general department stores.
AP Photo/John Minchillo, File
Apps, browser extensions and other tools that will help you track and compare prices abound; you just have to pick the one that you like using most. You can find choices that scour the web in the background while you shop and alert you to lower prices, coupon codes and cash-back opportunities.
For example, the shopping app ShopSavvy will follow price changes on specific items. John Boyd, co-founder and CEO of Monolith Technologies, which owns ShopSavvy, says he uses that feature for things he has his eye on, like a digital single-lens reflex camera. “I want to get an alert the second those things get marked down, because it might only be on sale for a few minutes and then the quantity runs out,” he says.
The Camelizer app performs a similar function for Amazon prices specifically.
Greg Lisiewski, vice president of PayPal Shopping , which includes the shopping browser extension Honey, says when he wants to buy something, he looks up the retailer in the PayPal app to see if any discounts are available (under the “Deals” section).
Those discounts are especially valuable now because PayPal Honey reports that toys and games are 11% more expensive this year compared with last year, coffee machines have increased 7%, and cycling gear and equipment is up 9%. The company also reports that the biggest discounts this holiday season have been in cosmetics, musical instruments and general department stores.
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4 easy ways to start investing with $100 or less
Getting a good deal isn’t only about price: You can add on other savings with coupon codes and cash-back offers.
Cataldo takes advantage of cash-back offers, which are available through apps like Rakuten, CouponCabin and Ibotta. “It’s just one extra step if you are going to buy online, and then you receive a check,” she says. “I like things that are easy, and that’s very easy.”
Scott Kluth, founder and CEO of CouponCabin, says stores with excess inventory will often have discounts of 10% to 15%, and cash-back offers range from 3% to 20%. “Stack all of those savings on top of each other,” he says, adding that sometimes online retailers accept multiple coupon codes plus provide free shipping.
Getting a good deal isn’t only about price: You can add on other savings with coupon codes and cash-back offers.
Cataldo takes advantage of cash-back offers, which are available through apps like Rakuten, CouponCabin and Ibotta. “It’s just one extra step if you are going to buy online, and then you receive a check,” she says. “I like things that are easy, and that’s very easy.”
Scott Kluth, founder and CEO of CouponCabin, says stores with excess inventory will often have discounts of 10% to 15%, and cash-back offers range from 3% to 20%. “Stack all of those savings on top of each other,” he says, adding that sometimes online retailers accept multiple coupon codes plus provide free shipping.
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4 easy ways to start investing with $100 or less
With so many people feeling the strain of rising prices, it’s a good year to talk with family and friends about setting limits. For Sarah Schweisthal, social media manager at the budgeting app You Need a Budget, that means creating a gift exchange with family members so each person purchases just one gift within an agreed-on spending cap. “We used to all buy gifts for each other, but there are a lot of adults in our family. It just took one of us to say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t feel sustainable,’” she says.
Schweisthal estimates that the gift exchange approach has saved her family hundreds of dollars — and this year especially, that’s more important than ever.
With so many people feeling the strain of rising prices, it’s a good year to talk with family and friends about setting limits. For Sarah Schweisthal, social media manager at the budgeting app You Need a Budget, that means creating a gift exchange with family members so each person purchases just one gift within an agreed-on spending cap. “We used to all buy gifts for each other, but there are a lot of adults in our family. It just took one of us to say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t feel sustainable,’” she says.
Schweisthal estimates that the gift exchange approach has saved her family hundreds of dollars — and this year especially, that’s more important than ever.
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4 easy ways to start investing with $100 or less
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Deborah Weinswig, CEO and founder of Coresight Research, a retail research and advisory firm, says that getting to know your local stores and attending in-person events can be the way to score the biggest deals. “Store managers are being given the ability to negotiate and price match or price beat,” she says, especially when they have excess inventory in stock.
She suggests joining livestreams, following your favorite brands on social media and signing up for brand loyalty programs to be the first to hear about discounts or sales. “Some codes are only good for 24 hours and some prices are only good for four hours,” she says, so if you want the best deals, be ready to move quickly.
AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Deborah Weinswig, CEO and founder of Coresight Research, a retail research and advisory firm, says that getting to know your local stores and attending in-person events can be the way to score the biggest deals. “Store managers are being given the ability to negotiate and price match or price beat,” she says, especially when they have excess inventory in stock.
She suggests joining livestreams, following your favorite brands on social media and signing up for brand loyalty programs to be the first to hear about discounts or sales. “Some codes are only good for 24 hours and some prices are only good for four hours,” she says, so if you want the best deals, be ready to move quickly.
