'Singles Day' chalks up an astonishing $5.7 billion for Chinese shoppers

The record-breaking figure -- was up 83% from last year. It was almost three times the sales of 2012's Cyber Monday.

So how did the event known as 11/11 and also Singles Day become such a blockbuster?

The answer: With the event in its fifth year, more brands and merchants than ever joined Alibaba's online sales platforms, Tmall (an online shopping mall) and Taobao (similar to eBay). About 20,000 merchants took part, double last year's figure, including international brands like Nike and the Gap.

Alibaba launched TV commercials, outdoor ads and social media promotions , though not more than in the past. But since individual brands also publicised the event, the big increase in participants meant more buzz.

Many brands let shoppers to put items in their shopping baskets early to allow for quick checkout Monday at midnight.

"Every year on 11/11 we have a lot of users who never shopped online before -- they hear about the event, and because prices are lower and there's a massive selection of products, they give it a go," Alibaba spokeswoman Florence Shih said.

Over 24 hours there were 402 million unique visitors to the platforms – "or about two-thirds the entire online population in China," as Ms. Shih put it.The huge sum was driven by special promotions.

By comparison U.S. consumers last year spent $1.46 billion on Cyber Monday, or the Monday after Thanksgiving, when e-retailers offer big promotions.

'Singles' Day' was invented by students in the 1990s, according to the People's Daily, which said the date (11-11) was reminiscent of the Chinese phrase -- "bare branches -- for bachelors and spinsters."

Taobao and Tmall, Alibaba's two main platforms, broke last year's sales in the first 13 hours of the 24-hour period, Alibaba said on its official Twitter account.

Tmall's vendors, starting midnight, began cutting prices by 50% or more on selected products from 20,000 Chinese and international merchants, including Gap and Steven Madden.


Alibaba's Tmall site began marketing the day as its biggest sales event in 2009, rivals joined in , and the day turned from an opportunity to seek out a partner -- or celebrate singledom -- into an online shopping bonanza
, said AdAge.

Singles' Day bargain hunters were also able stock up on cut-price American Standard toilets, crystal chandeliers, ducks' tongues, French wines and pineapple cookies.

Alibaba, part-owned by Yahoo!, valued by some analysts at as much as $190 billion, may be headed for the biggest initial public offering since Facebook, said commentators.