Forrester released a Quick Take report today about Singles’ Day in China. While the well-known eCommerce day fell short of expectations, it still broke records in 2016, generating almost $18 billion in one day just for Alibaba, the company that turned the holiday into a flagship online shopping event. For example, JD.com surpassed its 2015 Singles’ Day sales by 2 p.m., and there was a noteworthy increase of sales via mobile from 2015 to 2016 — from 68% to 82% — proving that mobile dominated sales even more this year.

The report dives into the numbers of Singles’ Day, highlighting the five key trends that surfaced this year in comparison to Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US, including aggressive discounts, creative promotions, the popularity of global brands, online-to-offline efforts, and increased cross-border shopping made the list. Additionally, newer trends like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) came into play, with Alibaba showcasing its new Buy+ VR shopping experience, enabling 8 million shoppers to partake in VR shopping experiences.

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