Alibaba is up and about prepping for Tuesday, Nov.11, a day for "Singles" and is the world's biggest online shopping day of the year.
Singles' Day, or Anti-Valentine's Day started in China two decades ago as a time for bachelors and bachelorettes to celebrate the single life.
Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce company, used this an opportunity to boost sales by giving out deep discounts on everything from cars to clothes.
Last year, Alibaba amassed $5.8 billion in sales from Singles' Day, up from $3.1 billion in 2012. This year, Alibaba Singles' Day sales are expected to shoot up to over $8 billion.
With the growing number of online shoppers increasing to 20 percent to 360 million, Alibaba expects to capture 70 to 80 percent of Singles' Day transactions tomorrow.
Americans only spent $2.9 billion in two well-known shopping days and the biggest online sales days in the United States, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Last year, the Alibaba's online shopping web sites offered huge discounts and half price on merchandise like hoodies and boyfriend body pillows that read "I am sing le because I am fat." Aside from those items, higher-end items like French wines, crystal chandeliers to BMWs even had huge price cuts.
Alibaba's two e-commerce sites, Taobao Marketplace and Tmall, both experienced exponential growth in sales since 2009, and has then changed what then was called "Double 11" (the date 11/11 is a loosely defined holiday celebrated by young single Chinese for its four "1's," the number representing their single status) into the biggest 24-hour shopping event in the world, Business Insider reports.
Apparently other companies have realized the market for singles on Singles' Day and other American reailers like apparel brand Zara and Tesla Motors are also jumping in on the bandwagon for the first time.
Alibaba won't be deterred by competition, though, as it will reportedly turn Singles Day into a worldwide event, offering over 1 million items to consumers outside China.
