There is Valentine’s Day, on February 14th. And there’s Single’s day of Chinese origins that is celebrated on November 11th, 11/11, where the number 1 is not surprisingly a clear reference to a single individual. In Michele Franzese’s stores in Naples, in via Morelli – Piazza dei Martiri, and in Sant’Anastasia, as well online, Singles’s day has already started some days ago with exceptional discounts. In 2009 Alibaba made the anniversary famous all over the world with the aim of relaunching business in November, when many are waiting for Christmas shopping, and promoting a day of virtual discounts as a local response to the American tradition of Black Friday and of Amazon Prime Day. The event has become so important to Alibaba that in 2020 it started on November 1st, ending at midnight on the 11th and registered merchandise sold for $ 74 billion to become the largest online shopping day in the world. Singles Day therefore opens the season of discounts which, by now, covers the entire month of November, thanks to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so much that there is more and more talk of Black November. Singles Day is spreading more and more also in Italy. Retailers may find it convenient to focus on single’s day because they can distinguish themselves from their competitors by taking part in a new initiative; you can communicate with customers at a time when few do, it’s a great opportunity to stand out from the crowd and it’s a great excuse to start promotions earlier than Black Friday. In 2020, an estimated 800 million people worldwide shopped during Singles Day, and Alibaba’s Cainiao network processed over 32 billion deliveries during the offer period.
