Did you buy anything on Singles Day?

[AhMeng]

Alibaba Singles Day sales frenzy surpasses record...

Media captionAlibaba Singles Day: Dollars or data?

E-commerce giant Alibaba has set new sales records on Sunday for its biggest shopping day, the annual Singles Day.

The Chinese company hit a record $1bn in sales in 85 seconds, and then just shy of $10bn in the first hour of the 24-hour spree.

Alibaba also beat its 2017 revenue total, $25.3bn, with several hours still remaining.

Online discounts have been offered on 11 November, Alibaba's informal holiday for singles, since 2009.

The shopping festival is projected to hit over $32bn this year, according to a report by the global app market data provider App Annie.
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The event was kicked off on Saturday with a gala featuring US singer Mariah Carey, a Japanese Beyoncé impersonator and a shoe-shopping-themed Cirque du Soleil performance.

What is Singles Day?

Alibaba invented the occasion to celebrate the unattached as an antithesis to the romantically involved on Valentine's Day.

It is now the world's biggest online sales event and last year's total was more than Black Friday and Cyber Monday's totals combined, according to Bloomberg.

Image copyrightAFP/GETTYImage captionThe shopping spree was kicked off with a gala featuring international acts

Some 180,000 brands are available in the shopping blitz, including top technology companies Xaomi, Apple and Dyson.

Last year, the Chinese company expanded the event to the Western market, with downloads of its app AliExpress surging in the US and UK.

Will Singles Day keep on growing?

The shopping frenzy has broken world records in e-commerce sales - surpassing last year's record at 17:34 Hong Kong Time (10:34 GMT).

However, observers believe as the event matures, its growth rate will slow down.

Alibaba has also faced new challenges this year, such as new rivals in the market, a slowing economy and its stock dropping 16% thanks to China's trade war with the US.

The November sale event is expected to founder Jack Ma's last at the helm of the company. The current chief executive will take over as schairman next year, Alibaba announced in September.

 

[kkbutterfly]

buy once taobao.item cost near 1 k.

when item reach..only 80% close to spec.

ask seller to refund..they ingnore all my question and request.

buy at your own risk

 

[AhMeng]

buy once taobao.item cost near 1 k.

when item reach..only 80% close to spec.

ask seller to refund..they ingnore all my question and request.

buy at your own risk

Generally, for Singles Day, based on statistics, there's a return rate % of around 5 to 10%...

 

[garlic]

I bought mcdonalds via grabfood, $10 off for every $15 order. I'm lovin it!

 

[Bonut]

I bought firecrackers.

 

[syed putra]

I bought a love doll.

 

[Bonut]

I bought a love doll.

The doll got wear tudung or not ?

 

[syed putra]

The doll got wear tudung or not ?

Its from china. Like porcelain.no hair on skin.

 

[KuanTi01]

Its from china. Like porcelain.no hair on skin.

It's called a sex doll! Never heard of love doll.

 

[glockman]

I bought a love doll.

You are more atas than me. All I can afford is a tenga egg.

 

[no_faith]

I wanted to buy a shot, thinking got sales, knn no discount.

 

[Focus]

11.11 is the day to mark the end of WWI.

100th anniversary in 2018

 

[congo9]

No thanks.

 

[garlic]

Geylang chickens no follow 11.11 trend.. i asked, they say no such things one..

 

[Bonut]

Very soon someone will come up with a Virgins' Day and Divorcees' Day.

But only one person in this world can celebrate both occasions.

 

[JohnTan]

The offers look good. But wife and I did not buy as we are not singles.

 

[johnny333]

I've decided to avoid using Lazada\Alibaba\taoba which is the same company. There are I think safer & better options like Amazon, eBay, Q0010,...

I've had bad experience with Alibaba. When I tried to make a purchase from one of their merchants, the order was cancelled because I tried to use a voucher that Alibaba was providing

I decided to postpone my purchase & got a refund. Problem with buying from Alibaba is that they take your $$$ first even if you don't go through with a purchase. They will refund you the $$$ if the transaction does not go through, such as in my case. When I checked my bank statement, I did get a refund but I took a hit because it processed weeks later when the exchange rate went against the Spore dollar.

Another problem with Alibaba is that they charge extra $ to act as a guarantor that the merchant will deliver the item ordered. Isn't this wrong? If I order something I expect to get what I ordered. If Alibaba cannot rely on their merchants to fulfil the order then why are including the merchants products?

Compare this with Amazon, they would give me a refund if I didn't get an item or it was not the item I ordered. In the case of Qo10 they would hold payment to a merchant until I received my order. They don't charge anything extra.

Another thing I dislike with Lazada is that they try to hide the location of their merchants. I've had bad experiences with merchants from China & have decided to avoid them. I will only deal with merchants from Spore with locally ready stocks. By so doing I avoid the long shipping delays from China. The items being offered locally are I think better quality because local merchants know what Sporeans expect.

 

[Bonut]

I've decided to avoid using Lazada\Alibaba\taoba which is the same company. There are I think safer & better options like Amazon, eBay, Q0010,...

I've had bad experience with Alibaba. When I tried to make a purchase from one of their merchants, the order was cancelled because I tried to use a voucher that Alibaba was providing

I decided to postpone my purchase & got a refund. Problem with buying from Alibaba is that they take your $$$ first even if you don't go through with a purchase. They will refund you the $$$ if the transaction does not go through, such as in my case. When I checked my bank statement, I did get a refund but I took a hit because it processed weeks later when the exchange rate went against the Spore dollar.

Another problem with Alibaba is that they charge extra $ to act as a guarantor that the merchant will deliver the item ordered. Isn't this wrong? If I order something I expect to get what I ordered. If Alibaba cannot rely on their merchants to fulfil the order then why are including the merchants products?

Compare this with Amazon, they would give me a refund if I didn't get an item or it was not the item I ordered. In the case of Qo10 they would hold payment to a merchant until I received my order. They don't charge anything extra.

Another thing I dislike with Lazada is that they try to hide the location of their merchants. I've had bad experiences with merchants from China & have decided to avoid them. I will only deal with merchants from Spore with locally ready stocks. By so doing I avoid the long shipping delays from China. The items being offered locally are I think better quality because local merchants know what Sporeans expect.

I don't know enough about the rest but Lazada WILL DO EVERYTHING TO PREVENT YOU FROM SPEAKING TO A REAL PERSON if you have an issue with your purchase. The live chat provides STANDARD TEMPLATE ANSWERS and it's almost impossible to get through their customer service hotline. They always put you on hold.

 

[johnny333]

I don't know enough about the rest but Lazada WILL DO EVERYTHING TO PREVENT YOU FROM SPEAKING TO A REAL PERSON if you have an issue with your purchase. The live chat provides STANDARD TEMPLATE ANSWERS and it's almost impossible to get through their customer service hotline. They always put you on hold.

Same, same with Alibaba. I had to really look around to finally by-pass their auto help. When I did get through to a life person I was disconnected a few times. I persisted & finally communicated to someone who said he would do something about my problem.

This turned out to be a lie.

Someone from Alibaba sent me a customer survey about my complaint. I put in all the details of my complaint. Unsurprisingly they did not do anything about it.

I've had more positive responses when I had a complaint with Amazon, iHerb, Qoo10 .... That's why I still do business with them. The Jack Ma group may be large but if they continue with their substandard treatment of their customers, they will not be as successful.

 

[Hypocrite-The]

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BUSINESS
Singles Day online shopping frenzy in China shatters sales records
UPDATED EARLIER TODAY AT 7:12AM
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VIDEO 0:59 China's Alibaba records over AUD$42.5b in sales on Singles' Day
ABC NEWS
Online shoppers in China have shattered the record for the country's annual Singles Day sales, ringing up almost $2 billion in purchases in the buying frenzy's opening two minutes.

Key points:
Sales break last year's record of $33.5b about 16 hours into the event
The informal Singles Day holiday was co-opted by e-retailers in 2009
Alibaba founder Jack Ma says it is "not a day of discounts, but rather a day of gratitude"
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba cashed a record 213.5 billion yuan ($42.4b) in sales on Sunday during its 24-hour online sale.

The figure easily passed last year's record of $33 billion in sales, but as the tradition marked its 10th year its annual growth dropped to its slowest-ever rate, falling from 39 per cent to 27 per cent.

The spending binge on items including iPhones, furniture and milk powder has for years eclipsed Cyber Monday in the US for online purchases made on a single day.

This year's tally breaks from gloomy forecasts about the world's second-largest economy, which is struggling with a tariff war with the US, a stock market slump and slowing overall growth.

The clamour for deals and discounts was heralded with characteristic fanfare by Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, which has turned an unofficial holiday for people without romantic partners into a yearly windfall for digital retailers.

A massive screen at Alibaba's gala in Shanghai showed the surging sales numbers in real time.

At two minutes and five seconds after midnight on Saturday (local time), $1.99 billion in purchases had already been made on Alibaba's platforms.

By the one hour and 47 minute mark, that number had increased tenfold.

Just before 4:00pm on Sunday, about 16 hours into the event, the sales reached $33.5 billion — surpassing the total purchases from last year's Singles Day, according to figures posted online by Alibaba Group.

An informal holiday co-opted by retailers
Infographic about single's day which means single sticks holiday
PHOTO Alibaba started marketing Singles Day as a shopping festival in 2009.
ABC NEWS: JARROD FANKHAUSER
Singles Day began as a spoof event celebrated by unattached Chinese university students in the 1990s.

In Chinese, it is called "Double 11", after the numbers in the month and date.

The informal holiday was co-opted by e-retailers in 2009 and transformed into China's version of Cyber Monday, as the Monday after Thanksgiving is known.

About $9 billion in sales were made on Cyber Monday in 2017, up about 17 per cent from the previous year, according to Adobe Analytics.

Ren Xiaotong, a 27-year-old accountant in Beijing, said she suspected online stores jacked up their prices in the lead-up to Singles Day so they could declare that items were discounted.

But in the end, her scepticism did not stop her from partaking.

"Singles Day is different now — it has more tricks than before," she said.

"You only save a few dozens of yuan at the end. That being said, I still bought a pair of shoes, simply to celebrate the festival."

The Twitter-like Weibo platform was blanketed with Singles Day-related posts on Sunday, from users proudly proclaiming they had resisted the shopping urge this year to those who cheerfully listed an array of mundane purchases.

'A day of gratitude': Alibaba founder
Jack Ma is seen leaning forward in his seat and pointing
PHOTO Alibaba founder Jack Ma was on hand for a gala to kick off the event.
AP: NG HAN GUAN
Alibaba founder Jack Ma, who will step down as chairman in less than a year, attended the start of the gala in Shanghai and appeared in a video message in which he wrapped up live hair crabs, a popular online purchase.

Singles Day "is not a day of discounts, but rather a day of gratitude", he said in the video.

"It's when retailers use the best products and best prices to show their gratitude to our consumers."

Chinese e-commerce platforms have come under fire in the past for peddling low-quality and counterfeit items.

Hong Tao, an economics professor at Beijing Technology and Business University, said Singles Day encouraged shoppers to prioritise cheap prices over high quality, causing them to purchase items they do not need.

"People are swept up in the festivities," Professor Hong said in a phone interview.

"This burst of consumption, confined to just one day, can be exhausting for both buyers and sellers."

ABC/wires

POSTED EARLIER TODAY AT 6:42AM
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