Singles' Day (or Guanggun Jie) – not to be confused with Singles Appreciation Day – had its humble beginnings in China to celebrate the pride of being single. It started in 1993 as Bachelor’s Day at Nanjing University, quickly spreading to other universities during the next few years.
November 11 (11/11) was chosen as the day for celebrating single-dom as the number 1 best represents someone sailing solo. Parties are organized where singles can mingle and, more recently, it has become the largest shopping day in China, spearheaded by retail giant Alibaba.
Singles' Day, however, is no longer restricted to China. With Alibaba operating worldwide, Single’s Day sales have spread to South-East Asia and is now creeping further south, heading below the equator to Australia and, potentially, New Zealand.
in 2019, Alibaba set a new world record for the most payment transactions made during the unofficial holiday, raking in a staggering $38.4 billion in just 24 hours. And, we’re expecting the retailer to outdo that performance in 2020.
Single's Day retailer quicklinks for Singapore and Malaysia
- AliExpress (Singapore)
- Geekbuying (Singapore)
- Senheng (Malaysia)
- Canon (Singapore)
- Newegg (Singapore)
- Lazada (Singapore)
- HP (Singapore)
- HP (Malaysia)
Single's Day offers in Singapore and Malaysia
To give you an idea of what you can expect from the Singles' Day event in 2020, we've left some of examples of deals from previous years below. Please note, all of the deals listed below have long expired.
What about Australia?
With Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales so close to Single’s Day each year, the festival hasn’t picked up in popularity with retailers Down Under. However, with a growing Asian population in Australia, local retailers are gradually getting into the action.
According to the government body Trade & Investment Queensland, Australia became the third highest seller of goods to China via Alibaba’s e-commerce platform, but Aussie retailers have so far refrained from offering bargains directly to local shoppers.
Last year saw Aussie shop on Alibaba to make the most of Single’s Day deals, so there’s a good chance we could start seeing local retailers participate in the celebration by offering discounts on a wide range of products in the years to come.
While Aussies can make score some offers from AliExpress mentioned in our quicklinks sections above, this year Microsoft Australia has jumped on the Single's Day bandwagon, along with huge discounts from Lenovo.
- After some more bargains? Check out our Australian tech deals coverage for more information.