SHOPPING GALA RISES TO BECOME GLOBAL GIANT

Singles Day reflects significant shift in consumer behavior

In the past decade, Nov 11 has undergone a dramatic transformation from being just another date on the calendar to becoming the world's largest single-day discount shopping festival.

Also known as Singles Day, it debuted in 2009 as an online antidote to the sentimentality surrounding the Western Valentine's Day. It takes its name from the way the date is written numerically as 1111, which resembles "bare branches," a Chinese expression for the unattached.