What U.S. Retailers Can Learn From Alibaba’s Record-Setting Singles Day

In all, Singles Day 2016 raked in roughly seven times as many sales as Cyber Monday 2015, the most comparable U.S. holiday, according to Euromonitor International. Still, this is a China-based event, so how much value do such comparisons have? And what implications does Singles Day have for merchants in the U.S., or other parts of the globe? Probably very few, says Keith Anderson, vice president of strategy and insight at e-commerce analytics firm Profitero. For starters, Alibaba doesn’t appear to have much intention of entering the U.S. market in a major way, Anderson says. To the extent that Alibaba has made it increasingly easier for American retailers and brands to participate, many do jump in, and that trend will continue. But U.S. retailers already have existing sales holidays to contend with. Plus, there are many unfamiliar aspects of Singles Day — the marketplace, the pricing and the merchandising — that retailers must consider. Read more at Retail Dive.