E-commerce has always been somewhat unpredictable, characterized by predictable peaks on “shopping holidays” such as Black Friday (and the weekend that follows) and Singles Day. Other more “everyday” events and trends make online shopping spikes inevitable but completely unpredictable, such as when a celebrity wears something that sparks off a spike in demand. 

Savvy consumers know that shopping for bargains is a year-round endeavor. And e-commerce companies who have orchestrated major shopping events throughout the year, rather than relying on the be-all, end-all nature of the traditional Black Friday shopping period in the US, are finding ways to lure in revenue at typically lean times of year. What began as primarily American with the post-Thanksgiving holiday chaos of Black Friday has crept into not only a longer shopping period, extending across the entire weekend after Thanksgiving (and sometimes earlier), but has ballooned globally, with retailers worldwide latching onto the Black Friday sales theme to promote pre-holiday shopping. 

Despite a Chinese economic slowdown, ongoing tension between China and the US as the tariff and trade war drags on, and escalating Hong Kong unrest, there’s been no damper on another record-breaking Singles Day. You’d never guess that there was any change to consumer spending power or appetite at all.

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.