Singles Day 11/11 - E-Commerce Boom

November 11 (11/11) is not that significant in the rest of the world, but in China it is an online retailer's best dream come true. Singles Day, so named because the date is made up of four "1"s, broke world records for online retail this year. Dubbed as the anti-Valentine's Day, on November 11, Chinese consumers generated $3 Billion of revenue at eCommerce websites like Tmall and Taobao. This number may not be significant, until you compare it to the previous record held by last year's Cyber Monday, which generated $1.25 Billion in revenues. Singles Day more than doubled that number.

Ok, so why do we care? This is a trend that shows the changing mentality of the Chinese consumer. In the past, Chinese people were a nation of savers. They only spend when necessary and focused their efforts in saving their earnings. Trends show a change from a savings driven culture to a consumption driven one. With 1.3 billion consumers, China will soon catch up to the U.S. on consumption and U.S. companies should take note of this giant opportunity.