Singles’ Day

Singles’ Day, also known as Double 11, began as a lighthearted celebration of singlehood, initiated by university students in China back in 1993. The date, November 11 (11/11), was selected for its repetition of the number “1,” symbolizing solo life. Over time, it became a day for self-pampering, a chance for singles to buy gifts for themselves as a celebration of independence.

In 2009, Alibaba, China’s leading e-commerce platform, spotted an opportunity and transformed Singles’ Day into a massive shopping event with discounts across thousands of products, elevating it from a cultural day to a global shopping phenomenon.

ℹ️ A similar day, Singles Awareness Day, is celebrated on February 15th. While both honor singlehood, Singles Day focuses more on consumer-driven celebrations, whereas Singles Awareness Day emphasizes emotional and social connections.

The World’s Biggest Shopping Day

What began with modest success quickly gained traction. By 2022, Singles’ Day’s sales volume reached nearly $85 billion, outpacing U.S. Cyber Week, which includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined. To promote the event, Alibaba and other e-commerce players in China engage top celebrities, livestream influencers, and host elaborate events that bring millions of shoppers together online. Beyond Alibaba, other major platforms like JD.com have joined the day, turning it into a nationwide shopping holiday where nearly all online platforms participate.

How Singles’ Day Took Over E-Commerce

Singles’ Day has grown from a single day of deals to a multi-week extravaganza. In recent years, Chinese e-commerce has expanded beyond the country’s borders, promoting Singles’ Day through platforms like AliExpress, reaching consumers across Southeast Asia and globally. The sheer volume is astounding: on Singles’ Day 2021, over 1.16 billion packages were shipped within China, a figure demonstrating the event’s far-reaching impact on logistics and consumer habits.

Singles’ Day: A Celebration Turned Shopping Spectacle

Today, Singles’ Day is no longer just about singlehood—it’s a retail celebration for anyone looking for a bargain. With over 884 million online shoppers in China alone, the event taps into one of the world’s largest consumer markets. And while awareness of Singles’ Day is growing globally, the event remains largely concentrated in Asia.

Singles’ Day not only underscores the power of e-commerce but also reflects shifting consumer habits, where self-gifting and online shopping have become the norm.

When Is Singles’ Day?

Since 1993, Singles’ Day has been celebrated annually on November 11.

Singles’ Day Social Media Post Ideas

Singles’ Day is massive on social media in China in particular, but also in the Western world. Since China’s Singles’ Day has never been about actual singles, only about online shopping, it is probably best to stick to showcasing your amazing products and offering considerable discounts and exclusive Singles’ Day products. Having said that, there is nothing wrong about targeting singles on Singles’ Day. After all, it would be a lost opportunity not to, right?

Post Idea 1: Create an exclusive product for Singles’ Day. This product could be aimed at singles, especially if your target audience is mostly single. Remember to tease the product already well before product launch. Instagram and Facebook Stories is the perfect medium for this. Videos with sneak-peeks of the product should do the trick. Then, on the big day, you should have people already eagerly waiting for your product to launch. If your product is a limited Singles’ Day exclusive, remember to prepare in advance a post where you thank everybody who bought the product and offer an alternative for those who didn’t manage to get their hands on the product this time.

Post Idea 2: Offer an amazing discount. Offering a fantastic discount for everybody on Singles’ Day must be the oldest trick in the book, but it works. For best results, tease the discount a bit in advance and build hype for the product launch already a bit in advance. Consider making the best discounts limited: first 50 people get the product for -90%, the next 50 for -80% etc.

Singles’ Day Hashtags

There are a few important hashtags that are used on Singles’ Day in the USA and the rest of the English-speaking world. Here is a list of hashtags related to SIngles’ Day:

• #singlesday
• #singlesdaysale
• #singlesdaydeal
• #singlesdaypromo
• #singlesdayspecial

In addition to these hashtags, small businesses should also use other popular hashtags, such as:

• #smallbusiness
• #supportsmallbusiness
• #handmade
• #shoplocal
• #shopsmall
• #supportlocal
• #localbusiness

Whatever hashtags you use, make sure that they are relevant to your product and your niche. Most importantly, use hashtags that you think your target customer would use. Instagram allows you to use up to 30 hashtags, but going for fewer, but more targeted ones, probably makes more sense and will make you look less spammy.

Singles’ Day Quotes

When choosing suitable Singles’s Day quotes, it is good to remember that (in the West) this is a shopping holiday, not a day for really discussing single life in general. For this reason we have chosen fun shopping quotes that can go well together with whatever promotion you are running on this day.

Online Shopping Quotes For Singles’ Day:

• “Online shopping. No makeup. No pants. No problem.”
• “Happiness is receiving what you ordered online”
• “Stay home and shop online. You are too pretty to have to look for a parking spot.”
• “I love buying things online, because when they arrive it’s like a gift to me from me”
• “Stay home and shop online”
• “Shopping is cheaper than a psychiatrist”
• “The worst part of online shopping is having to get up and get your card out of the wallet.”

Retail Shopping Quotes For Singles’ Day:

• “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping” – Bo Derek
• “Happiness is not in money, but in shopping” – Marilyn Monroe
• “I am not a shopaholic. I’m helping the economy.”
• “Shopping is my cardio” – Carrie Bradshaw (from Sex and the City)
• “If you can’t stop thinking about it. Buy it”

Singles’ Day Facts & Trivia

• Singles’ Day has been a major online shopping holiday since 2009, when Alibaba first ran a big online sale on November 11.
• Alibaba’s sales on Singles’ Day have increased each year ever since its inauguration in 2009, going from 7 million USD to 85 billion USD in 2023.
• To put it in perspective, Alibaba’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) during Singles’ Day 2023 reached around $84.5 billion USD. This amount is over six times the global GMV from Amazon’s Prime Day and nearly ten times the total online spending by U.S. consumers across all retailers on Black Friday 2023. (Source: Statista)
• In 2022 and 2023, Alibaba chose not to disclose specific sales data, stating that sales were “in line” with those of previous years. Similarly, JD.com, China’s second-largest retailer, did not release exact figures in 2023 but described their sales as “record-setting.” (Source: Queue-it)
• Ever heard of live stream shopping? Chinese customers have. In recent years live streams with celebrities showcasing products on Singles’ Day have become more and more common. The hosts of these live streams often give away special discount coupons and offer flash deals to the viewers. In 2023, JD.com’s “JD Procurement and Sales Manager Livestreaming” initiative attracted over 380 million viewers, demonstrating the effectiveness of integrating entertainment with shopping. (Source: JD Corporate Blog)
• In 2023, data provider Syntun estimated that cumulative GMV sales across major e-commerce platforms rose 2.08% to 1.14 trillion yuan ($156.40 billion), compared with growth of 2.9% the previous year. (Source: U.S. News Money)
• In 2023, data provider Syntun estimated that cumulative GMV sales across major e-commerce platforms rose 2.08% to 1.14 trillion yuan ($156.40 billion), compared with growth of 2.9% the previous year. (Source: U.S. News Money)
• In 2020, the number of orders peaked at an astounding 583,000 orders per second.
• Due to COVID-19, the 2020 Singles’ Day ran for longer than the usual 24 hours: from November 1 to November 11.
• An increasing number of foreign brands participate in China’s Singles’ Day: in 2020 over 31,000 brands from outside China took part.
• Interestingly enough, Singles’ Day is now the most popular wedding day in China.
• 2020 was the year when luxury brands “found” Singles’ Day: the number of luxury brands participating doubled to over 200 from the year before.
• The success of Singles’ Day has made it spread to other parts of the world in recent years. In the UK, Singles’ Day sales in 2020 were expected to reach £1.44bn.

Before You Go:

We have many more national days lists for you to explore.

• Food-related national days: complete list of national food days, pasta & noodles days, vegan & vegetarian days, mushroom days, ice-cream days, pizza days, coffee days, chocolate days, wine days, alcohol & drinking days.
• Non-food national days: National Days Calendars 2024-2025 (check out the printable calendars in my Etsy shop), National Days for Teachers, and a wide array of special lists such as cat days, dog days, animal days, cleaning & organizing days, book days, music days, family & relationships days, national days for women, stationery days and even Harry Potter days.
• Country-specific national days: Australian national days, more coming soon.

This article was originally published on August 16, 2021. It has been completely rewritten, so the publication date has been updated accordingly.