We live in an era in which e-commerce and shopping online are integral to the “experience economy”. What this means is that shoppers shop in new ways, and online shopping is completely integrated in, and often driving, that experience. What makes e-shopping experiential, as compared to the highly experiential real-life, physical-world shopping experience, is the growth in personalized content and services, tailored individually for online shoppers. The personalized online shopping experience is expected by users, and retailers likewise aim to improve the user experience and fatten their bottom line by making personalized content lead to more sales, more engagement and greater customer loyalty. The better the algorithms work to tailor content for individual users, the better these results are.

Okay, so it’s March. Black Friday and holiday shopping aren’t high atop most people’s priority lists right now. But… this is the time of year when businesses are getting their e-commerce operation in order to test its robustness for the arguably expanding holiday shopping season. It’s beginning earlier and earlier every year, and with people shopping on more devices than ever, meeting peak demand becomes more challenging all the time.

In the years since the 1990s, when Singles’ Day was launched in China to rival Valentine’s Day, it has ramped up to not only rival but completely crush famous, volume-heavy shopping events, such as Black Friday. In the last few years, Singles’ Day, which takes place annually on 11 November, has become a countrywide online shopping spree, with each year far surpassing the last in online sales.