As shoppers go wild on Black Friday, some Americans already stocked up during Alibaba's massive $30.8 billion shopping bonanza

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As the American holiday shopping season kicks off, the shadow of Alibaba's Singles Day still looms large.
More Americans than ever shopped on Alibaba's Singles Day. They spent $1.82 billion, an increase of more than 29% over 2017.
The biggest impact of Singles Day on Black Friday is American companies taking a page out of Alibaba's playbook and kicking off sales earlier to drive greater online spending.

Black Friday sales hit record highs this year. But, that doesn't mean it was the biggest online shopping day in the world this November.

Shoppers spent $2.4 billion online on Wednesday, a whopping 31.8% increase from 2017, according to Adobe Analytics data. Thanksgiving Day online sales hit $3.7 billion, 28% growth year over year. Black Friday was similarly impressive, with $6.2 billion in online sales.

However, there was another major shopping day earlier in November. On Singles Day — November 11 — Alibaba sales reached $30.8 billion online globally, far exceeding Black Friday figures.

Most of those sales were in China. However, US shopping on Singles Day grew 29.1% compared to 2017, according to Adobe data.

"If you look at the average Ali Express consumer in the US, they're middle class folks just like in China," Alibaba president Michael Evans told Business Insider on Singles Day in Shanghai.

American shoppers spent $1.82 billion online on Singles Day — less, even, than on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. However, the impact of Singles Day in the US is quietly and swiftly growing.

alibaba gala

Perhaps the biggest effect Singles Day in having on the US is American companies learning to take a page out of Alibaba's handbook. While the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the closest thing to Alibaba's 11/11 kickoff gala, companies across the board are imitating Alibaba in stretching Black Friday to be longer and start earlier.

"US retailers are looking closely at the success of Alibaba's 'Singles' Day' shopping extravaganza to inform next year’s Holiday shopping season, particularly the concept of its 'pre-sale' period," Accenture Strategy's Frank Layo said in a comment on Friday morning.

"It allows shoppers to preview merchandise and deals in the run up to the main event and secure goods in their shopping carts, usually for a small deposit," Layo continued. "This helps to improve conversion rates and gives retailers granular visibility into inventory requirements."

Next year, Alibaba may poach shoppers more directly. While the trade war has helped dump some cold water on Alibaba's move into the US, executives have hinted that they want Singles Day to become more of a global event.

"Everywhere I go, which is pretty much everywhere in the world, there are not very many people who do not know about 11/11," Evans told Business Insider.

"Many people ask the question — how can we participate next year? People are very interested, I think partly because they've heard of Black Friday and Cyber Monday and they think that's quite big."

He continued: "They've heard of Amazon Prime Day. But, we sold as much in five minutes as Amazon sold in an entire Prime Day."