At this time of year for the past few years, Chinese ecommerce company Alibaba has arranged hundreds of lounge chairs throughout its headquarters for exhausted staff to slump into. It has also rented dozens of hotel rooms for those requiring longer breaks in the days leading up to November 11.
Staff know they will be working round the clock: November 11 is Singles’ Day that each successive year breaks the previous year’s record for the world’s largest shopping day. Last year, 2.5 times more merchandise was sold on Singles’ Day in China than on Black Monday in the US – the first Monday after Thanksgiving that is America’s biggest annual shopping day. Alibaba says it processed 254m orders worth $5.8bn on the day.
But instead of lines at shopping malls, Singles’ Day is an entirely virtual experience: an orgy of clicking, pop-up ads, spam, jingles and slogans which last year resulted in 166m packages delivered across China, more than 10 times the daily average.