Alibaba’s Singles’ Day sales for 2022 stagnate at $84B
Alibaba’s sales for Singles Day reached $84 billion, which is in line with last year’s sales, according to Tradingplatforms.com.
The slowing global economy, rising inflation, and Covid-19 lockdowns have been blamed for the sales stagnation. This is the first time in Alibaba’s history that Singles’ Day sales have not increased year-over-year. The event was first created by Chinese college students in the 1990s as a way to celebrate being single and has since morphed into the world’s biggest online shopping event.
According to Tradingplatforms’s Edith Reads, “Singles’ Day is the world’s largest shopping festival, outshining similar US events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday in terms of sales. The event is supposed to encourage Chinese consumers to shop online and has been increasingly popular. This year, however, things are different. The global pandemic has put a halt to many people’s spending habits, and this is reflected in Alibaba’s sales figures.”
Reads goes on to say that “It is not just Alibaba that is feeling the effects of the pandemic. Other major retailers such as Amazon, also reported slowing sales growth in recent months. The good news is that Alibaba is still seeing strong growth in other areas, such as its cloud computing business. This shows that the company has diversified and will be able to weather the storm.”
Other companies are also feeling the effects of the pandemic. For example, Amazon announced that it would not be hiring as many seasonal workers this holiday season as it did last year. Google and Microsoft have also said they will slow down their hiring rates. Apple has stated that it plans to be more cautious about expanding its workforce during these difficult economic times.
Originally launched by Alibaba as an e-commerce promotional gimmick in 2009, Singles Day takes place every year in China and elsewhere on November 11, and has morphed into the world’s largest shopping festival, dwarfing similar US events such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday in terms of sales. The event’s title riffs on a tongue-in-cheek celebration of singlehood inspired by the four ones — “11/11” — that denote the November 11 date.
The full story and statistics can be found here: Alibaba’s Single’s Day Sales Stagnate at $84B
