Chinese Singles Day to hit UK next year

The Chinese holiday for singles that saw $14.3 billion worth of sales in 24 hours, might be coming to the hit the UK next year. International e-commerce delivery company ParcelHero reckons the holiday will “conquer” UK as global sales increase by 60 per cent.

And Enda Breslin, head of sales and business development at eBay Enterprise, argues that with record-breaking sales, it is “baffling” that Singles Day is not spoken about more in the west.

ParcelHero said that although Singles Day is predominantly celebrated by the Chinese, the huge sales would not “go unnoticed” by the UK and the rest of the west.

“Alibaba’s charismatic CEO Jack Ma said last year he hopes Singles Day will be “a global shopping day for the U.S., Europe, anywhere in the world” within five years, and we think he is correct,” a spokesperson said.

Breslin said: “It’s only very recently that some sleeping western giants are beginning to wake up to eastern opportunities. Alibaba owned Tmall is a platform offering a fantastic way to launch in the Chinese market – offering a huge ready-made audience, but without the risk of bricks-and-mortar retail. Macy’s for one has tapped into this potential, launching earlier this year and already targeting sales of $50 million for the next 12 months.”

The ParcelHero spokesperson pointed out that Alibaba has hired former Tesco executive Amee Chande as its first UK boss.

“Amee won’t be slow to see its potential in the UK. Sainsbury’s has already joined in the event, selling Singles Day bargains to customers in China via Alibaba’s Tmall site. Tmall is setting up partnerships with other UK and global brands to manage logistics and sales from outside of China and use Tmall as largely a front-end. Beyond China, bargain conscious UK Consumers yesterday were already hitting the AliExpress site for bargains.”