Double 11 (November 11th) is by far the world’s biggest online shopping day.

This week is the week of Double 11: absolutely horrific to me, but heaven for my wife. Double 11, China’s Single’s Day is a day when about everything can be purchased online with a discount. It’s also sort of Jack Ma’s personal holiday as it was his company Alibaba which started it and launched a massive marketing push around Single’s Day in 2009, offering special “Double 11” deals. Last year in 2015, the different Alibaba’s platforms alone raked in more than 14 billion USD (of the 19 billion USD in total revenue from all online platforms). That is nine times more than Black Friday, the American online shopping holiday.

From an obscure holiday it has become the frenzic of online shopping. In 2015 at the evening of the show which I also saw, international stars like Daniel Craig (007) were present. Not only was he there to promote his latest James Bond movie, he also promoted online shopping. There was also a small movieclip with Kevin Spacey in which he played Frank Underwood from the series House of Cards. He urged people to buy 10 smartphones because ‘you can’t have enough of them’. Then he threw one on a glass of water, just like in the series. Via WeChat, people could play and win lots of prizes, including a few airplane tickets to the US. At midnight viewers at home could compete to win Cadillacs for 15 cents. Jack Ma himself also showed up as a superstar. The first package of the day was being delivered 40 minutes after ordering. Nothing could show better how China and consumption go hand in hand.

China has grown into biggest e-commerce market in the world. Last year it generated more than 600 billion USD of sales, and is predicted in 2020 to be as big as the United States, Great Britain, Japan, Germany and France together. That by itself is already absolutely impressive. Our familiy also is now completely dependent on online shopping. On a normal day courier services deliver at least 3 to 4 packages to our home. In most case deliveries are being handled within 2 days. If a delivery takes more than that my Chinese wife starts to complain. These deliveries need to be done fast, completely in line with the expectations of customers who prefer speed and convenience.

China is not only the biggest e-commerce market in the world, half of all the purchases are being done by smartphone or tablet. Till 7 years ago or so I barely saw a smartphone in China, now it’s impossible to live without one. My wife or none of her friends use a computer anymore. That also has consequences for companies. If you don’t sell online, you barely exist in China anymore. If we go to the cinema with our children we always buy our tickets online. Most platforms we use also offer services like reserving seats in the cinema, and detailed info regarding nearby restaurants and parking spots. Anything less would be considered by my wife as ‘bad service’. These services are being considered standard procedure, not something extra. Restaurants without wifi are being badly assessed. Places where one cannot pay with WeChat or Alipay (the biggest online payment company) are being avoided. As my friends nowadays say: “you don’t need cash, just make sure you bring your smartphone”. 10years ago when I needed to may my rent to my landlord in Beijing, I needed to stand in line for an hour, withdraw cash, and bring that cash to the bank of my landlord and deposit it there. Now it takes 1 minute by smartphone. How China is surprising the world, again….

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