The 11.11 Debrief: China's retail bonanza

Want to change the world? Papermaking, gunpowder, printing techniques and the compass have had their heyday. We dare say that China's four great inventions have a fifth: The successful commercialisation of Single's Day, which has the world sitting up and taking notice.

The headline numbers for this year’s Single’s Day (11.11) sales in China are, again, very impressive. Consumers spent more than RMB 57.11 billion (US$9.3 billion) on Alibaba platforms alone. A 60 per cent year-on-year increase, that represents nearly double the combined online sales of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US last year. Alibaba's closest rival, JD.com, was coy about its figures but still boasted about its GMV more than doubling compared with the same period in 2013.

To get 11.11 orders to homes in far-flung Chinese cities in a matter of days instead of weeks, SF Express, one of China’s leading shipping companies, flew 36 cargo aircraft capable of hauling 1,800 tons of packages daily, and tried not to have a nervous breakdown.

Here at Campaign Asia-Pacific, we also attempt to give you a drone overview of the global retail bonanza, including:

• How Alibaba softened its stance on the 'Double-Eleven' trademark battle
• How it took only 13 hours 31 minutes to break the record of last year's total sales value
• How AdMaster captured consumer sentiment before and after the whole process
• How Single’s Day obliterates sales and what this means for global brands
• How the last mile in commerce matters more than anything else, and
• How to know what we should do with ourselves come 2015.