Western Brands Join Singles Day Online Shopping Rush In China

China’s Singles Day holiday offers Western brands an opportunity to expand their online presence in China. Created by university students in 1990s who figured the data November 11 or 11/11 resembled four lonely stick figures, the annual event has become the world’s largest ecommerce occurrence. In 2012, online transactions during the holiday overloaded banks, with Chinese ecommerce company reporting $3 billion in sales, which is twice the amount that all of the U.S. retailers jointly recover on Cyber Monday. Also referred to as Double 11, this year’s version of the informal holiday sees many Western brands, including Gap, Adidas, and Toys ‘R’ Us are pushing their discount deals and promos on online stores in China, such as Tmall and Taobao. Software giant Microsoft is joining Tmall for the first time this year.