Singles Day Sales will rise 50% and create a shipping ‘bounce’

Singles Day sales will rise to $21.45bn; and create a knock-on effect leading into Black Friday, predicts global courier Fastlane International. The e-commerce delivery specialist Fastlane International  says Singles Days sales will grow by $7.15bn and create new shipments as traders buy stock cheaply ready for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend.

While many analysts are predicting a 40% growth in sales this year, Fastlane’s Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks MILT, says total sales could be nearer 50% higher than last year’s; as marketplace traders buy cheap ready to take advantage of the Black Friday weekend.

Says David: ‘Singles Day is the biggest sales day on the planet; with $14.3bn spent online last year: dwarfing the entire combined US spend for Black Friday and Cyber Monday of $5.8bn. And it’s going to have an increasingly dramatic impact on the UK domestic and international parcels market.’

Explains David: ‘The vast majority of Singles Day sales are made in China on Alibaba’s Tmall site; but AliExpress, the main sales outlet for Alibaba in the West, is also pushing Singles Day as ‘the world’s biggest global shopping day’. It’s previewing significant discounts on a wide variety of products as Alibaba wants Singles Day to take off beyond China. UK small traders already rely heavily on AliExpress and Alibaba’s wholesale site. But, bearing in mind the weakness of the pound, they will welcome Singles Day discounts to stock up for the Thanksgiving weekend sales bonanza.’

And David predicts that Singles Day could spread beyond Alibaba’s tentacles. ‘It is ideally timed in mid-November just as shoppers become ‘Christmas conscious’. If a significant UK internet retailer such as John Lewis were to promote the day it could become larger than Cyber Monday within five years.’