Why You Should Start Holiday Shopping Today - Lifehacker
College students in China pick up their Singles Day 2018 packages.Photo: Getty Images
Black Friday may be the traditional start to the holiday shopping season, but the sales are starting earlier every year. It’s not because of “Christmas creep” (you know, that awful tradition where stores start putting out their Christmas inventory around Labor Day). It’s because of Singles Day, the biggest holiday you’ve probably never heard of.
Singles Day debuted in China 11 years ago, hosted by ecommerce giant Alibaba. The company chose November 11, a date that’s often associated with singleness with its row of lonely ones (11/11), as an anti-Valentine’s Day celebration. What do you buy when you’re single? Stuff for yourself! (But only online. Physical stores don’t do Singles Day.)
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It just so happens to coincide with Veteran’s Day here in the U.S., which, honestly, is an awkward-at-best holiday to run sales on items like mattresses and cars. Singles Day is huge in Asia: After Alibaba introduced the event, other ecommerce retailers got in on the act, and it’s spread to lots of other countries. Last year, Mariah Carey performed at Alibaba’s annual Singles Day live-streamed gala for Singles Day; this year, it’ll be Taylor Swift.
The shopping holiday is just starting to gain steam here in the U.S., but it’s big enough that there are solid sales that take place on Nov. 11. If you’ve already made a shopping list for the holidays, you’ll want to check your favorite retailers today to see if they’re offering an online sale.
Don’t believe it’s a big deal? Alibaba generated more sales in the first 10 minutes of Singles Day last year than Amazon did during its entire Prime Day event. And more than twice as much merch gets sold on Singles Day than during the five-day period that includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
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So, who’s having a Singles Day sale in the U.S.? Anywhere you shop online, probably. Levi’s is promoting $29.99 sweatshirts and $14.99 tees online today. Nike is offering 20% off select styles with code SINGLES at checkout. Japanese brand Uniqlo is offering a bunch of one-day deals along with several items priced at $11.11. Rakuten, the rebate site formerly known as eBates, will offer 11% cash back for purchases at a whole slew of stores.
Of course, the gimmicky sale is to offer 11% off items, but you may find retailers offering deeper discounts in this one-day-only sale to start to boost their important fourth quarter sales. And if they aren’t doing a Singles Day sale, there’s a good chance your favorite store is doing either a holiday preview sale or a Veteran’s Day sale, so it’s a win-win-win.
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Have you ever shopped on Singles Day? Trying it today for the first time? Share where you found the best deals in the comments.
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