$BABA - Alibaba to smash Single's Day sales record

Held on November 11, Single's Day - also known as 11/11 - was initially created by young Chinese to celebrate or lament being single, but it has evolved into the biggest 24-hour online shopping event in the world.
Alibaba's Single's Day sales are expected to hit a new record this year driven by China's burgeoning internet population and a growing number of retailers participating in the event, say analysts. 

Held on November 11, Single's Day - also known as 11/11 - was initially created by young Chinese to celebrate or lament being single, but it has evolved into the biggest 24-hour online shopping event in the world. 

Last year, Alibaba booked USD 5.8 billion in transactions on the day, more than double the USD 1.7 billion sold on the Cyber Monday - the biggest online sales day for the US that falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving. 

This year,Alibaba's sales are expected somewhere in the range of 50 billion yuan (USD 8.17 billion), according to Ben Cavender, principal at China Market Research Group, a 40 percent increase from last year. 

"I think we will probably see stronger overall sales this year compared to last year," said Cavender. "In terms of products, the most popular items will probably be various food products like baby formula and consumer and home electronics."

Countdown to 11/11 

The excitement has been building with the majority of e-commerce players launching aggressive online promotional campaigns to draw consumer attention and drive traffic to their sites. 

Alibaba's pre-orders for 'Singles Day' promotions started in mid-October; consumers can pay a deposit upfront to reserve the product at the 'Singles Day' price and fork out the balance on November 11.