An express delivery man and the parcels he will deliver in Beijing. (Photo: Li Hao/GT)
Video blogger Yanzhi Biao ("attractiveness-obsessed B*tch") sits in front of a pile of cardboard boxes filled with items she ordered online. "I'm worth it" by Fifth Harmony plays in the background as she reveals body lotion, a phone charger inside a teddy bear and a Swiss Army knife from an endless sequence of boxes.
The video is entitled "What I purchased for my Singles' Day."
"I have no boyfriend to send me gifts," she says, smiling into the camera. But her smile freezes as she slowly pulls out a pair of cheap slippers with a black and white cow design.
"The smell!" She cries out. "They are stinky." But Yanzhi Biao gets another chance this year during Singles' Day, China's infamous shopping holiday, to order herself a pair of new slippers with a more pleasant scent.
On November 11, online shop servers will turn red hot, millions of delivery personal will work extra shifts and shopaholics' hearts will beat in excitement as they press the order button over and over again.
Be ready when the nation celebrates its eighth e-commerce carnival.
Here are the eleven reasons why Singles' Day is the world's raddest shopping holiday.
1. It's way bigger than Black Friday (and also more sophisticated)
Nothing can compare to the sheer enormity of China's online shoppers' favorite day of the year. Singles' Day is already the most significant shopping holiday in the world, and it's growing every year. People buy truckloads of consumer goods that they start preordering several weeks before.
Last year on November 11, Alibaba made nearly 120.7 billion yuan ($18.20 billion) in gross merchandise volume, almost three times as much as Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined together.
Taobao and Tmall processed 657 million orders last year. This year, consumers are expected to spend an average of 2,126 yuan ($320), Forbes reported, according to a survey conducted by the magazine.
And there is another reason why Singles' Day beats Black Friday. When people think of Black Friday, in addition to great deals, they think about people cramped inside shopping malls and losing their dignity in a fistfight for an HD flat screen TV.
With Singles' Day, you can sit at home in your comfortable pajamas, holding a mug of green tea and simply order the items you previously put in your shopping cart with a touch of your fingertip and a mobile phone. Then, you can sit back, relax and wait for delivery.
2. It has three different names
For something as incarnated in Chinese popular culture as Singles' Day, one name is not enough. So let's dive into the brief history of the yearly event.
November 11, or 11/11, has been created as an antidote to Valentine's Day, which is celebrated three times a year in China, but that is another story. The four ones in the date symbolize absolute solitude; therefore, they are perfect to celebrate the single life.
On this day, singles often eat fried dough sticks, as they resemble the four ones in the date. Therefore, people also refer to the holiday as "Bare Stick Day."
But in 2009, Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma saw his chance and turned it into an occasion where singles can be treated by showering themselves with gifts in an online shopping frenzy. The four ones are also "Double Eleven," and this has become the most common name of the shopping holiday in China and a registered trademark of Alibaba.
Today, it is a holiday not only for singles but for everyone with a full bank account.
3. It's a paradise for bargain shoppers (with a mathematician's brain)
The Chinese, as do most people in the world, love to save money. Double Eleven is so famous because many companies offer crazy discounts of 50 percent off or more.
However, the online promotions and discounts reach another level in China. If consumers buy, preorder, share or recommend the product, various discounts apply. The advertisements and discount get so complicated that it is hard to calculate the actual price of the product, as famous video blogger Papi shows in her recent parody where she ends up calling her primary school math teacher to help her figure out the price after deducting all the different discounts.
