Chinese bachelors and bachelorettes used to drink or visit karaoke bars to seek solace on November 11^th, the unofficial holiday for single people. Now they are throwing their money at computer screens to break free of the monotony of their single lives. The Chinese e-commerce company, Alibaba, launched its first Singles Day Sale in 2009 and created a frantic shopping spree. On this particular day in 2013, Alibaba processed more than $5.75 billion in its online payment system, Alipay, exceeding by 2.5 times the total for American retailers on Cyber Monday. With 180 million single people in China, their passion for this year’s shopping carnival is about to be kindled very soon.

Undoubtedly, Alibaba has impressed the market with its astonishing amount of sales transacted on Singles Day. I believe the key to its huge success is that the company well understands its customers’ needs. Alibaba captures single people’s loneliness and creates a hyper of overcoming it by shopping online. Serving as a painkiller, Alibaba turns some customers’ sorrow of being single into an online shopping bonanza. The success of Singles Day Sale confirms that in order to be competitive in the market, a company must address consumers’ needs and provide products and services that can alleviate their ‘’pains.” By incorporating the goal of satisfying people’s requests into a company’s value proposition, it will definitely appeal to more and more customers.