Alibaba and the magic of Singles’ Day

China’s most valuable tech company, Alibaba, may have invented Singles’ Day — the world’s largest online shopping event — but in recent years, the event has expanded beyond Alibaba’s platforms and even China’s borders to include JD.com, Pinduoduo, Amazon, and South-east Asian e-commerce platform Lazada. Here’s an inside look at how Alibaba delivered 1 billion parcels in 2.5 days, and its creative strategies to sustain double-digit growth of a shopping event now in its 11th year. For management accountants, a question worth pondering is: How will such swipe, click, and pay mobile-first culture alter expectations on your organisations’ customer experience?