Chinese e-commerce giants Alibaba and JD.com reported nearly $70 billion in sales Monday on Singles Day, an annual marketing event that is the world's busiest online shopping day.

The day was a temporary relief to retailers that face fading demand as Chinese consumers tighten their belts, anxious over slowing economic growth and the tariff war with Washington.

University students created Singles Day in the 1990s as an alternative to Valentine's Day for people without romantic partners. Alibaba adopted it as a marketing tool a decade ago.

Rivals including JD.com, China's biggest online direct retailer, and electronics seller Suning joined in. The tactic has caught on in other Asian countries, too.

The creators picked Nov. 11 because the date is written with four singles - "11 11."

On Monday, retailers offered discounts on goods from smartphones to craft beer to health care packages.

"Yesterday night, I was browsing past 11 p.m. Many of my friends around me were staying up till 2 a.m. to buy stuff," said Zhu Yirun, a graduate student in Beijing.

Alibaba said sales by merchants on its platforms totaled 268.4 billion yuan ($38.3 billion) for the 24 hours ending at midnight Monday after passing its 2018 total before 6 p.m. JD.com said its sales were 204.4 billion yuan ($29.1 billion).

Alibaba kicked off the event Sunday night with a concert by Taylor Swift at a Shanghai stadium.

E-commerce grew rapidly in China due to a lack of traditional retailing networks and government efforts to promote internet use. The country has the biggest online population with more than 800 million web users.

Alibaba, JD.com, Baidu and other internet giants have expanded into consumer finance, entertainment and offline retailing.

Monday was Alibaba's first Singles Day since its founder, Jack Ma, stepped down as chairman in September. He stayed on as a member of the Alibaba Partnership, a 36-member group with the right to nominate a majority of the company's board of directors.

E-commerce has created some of China's biggest fortunes.

Ma, 55, is China's richest entrepreneur with a net worth of $39 billion, according to the Hurun Report, which tracks the country's wealthy.

Colin Huang of Pinduoduo was No. 7 on Hurun's list at $19 billion. Zhang Jindong of Suning was No. 15 at $14 billion and Richard Liu of JD.com was No. 28 at $11 billion.

Last year, Alibaba reported Singles Day sales of 213.5 billion yuan ($30.8 billion), or more than 13 times its daily average of about 16 billion yuan ($2.3 billion).

Suning said sales of smartphones and other electronics passed 1 billion yuan ($160 million) in the first minute after midnight. The company said later sales were up 86% over 2018's Singles Day but gave no total.

Dangdang, an online book retailer, said it sold 6.8 million copies in the first hour.

Chinese online spending is growing faster than total retail sales but also is weakening as economic growth decelerates. Growth declined to a multi-decade low of 6% over a year earlier in the quarter ending in September.

Online sales of goods rose 16.8% over a year earlier in the first nine months of 2019 to 5.8 trillion yuan ($825 billion), according to official data. That was more than double the 8.2% growth rate for total consumer spending but down from an average of about 30% in recent years.

E-commerce made up 19.5% of Chinese consumer spending, compared with about 11% of spending for American consumers.

Yang Wei, a migrant worker in Beijing, planned to skip the online rush.

"I feel like the difference (in price) is not that big, and since everyone's buying all at once, the logistics and delivery are slower," said Yang. "I think that it's actually better for me to buy when not everyone's buying."

Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited inaugurated its 350th Branch as Basabo Branch at Central Basabo in the capital on Monday. Md. Mahbub ul Alam, Managing Director and CEO of the Bank inaugurated the branch as chief guest.

Abu Reza Md. Yeahia, Deputy Managing Director, presided over the program. Mohammod Ullah, Head of Dhaka East Zone gave the welcome speech while Md. Ruhul Amin, Head of Basabo Branch thanked the audience.

Masud Hasan Shamim, Md. Monir Hossain, Md. Golam Mostofa, Gopinath Das and Akhteruzzaman, social organizers, Masuma Khanam Rani, Women Entrepreneur, Md. Shafiuddin, businessperson and ANM Main Uddin Siraji, academician also spoke on the occasion.

Local businesspersons, academicians, professionals and social elites attended the programme.

A fire drill was conducted at PRAN factory in Ghorashal of Palash upazila in Narsingdi marking the Fire Service and Civil Defense Week 2019. 

Palash Fire Station arranged the programme on Saturday noon with the assistance of Ghorashal PRAN Factory. 

Fire fighters of Palash and Narsingdi participated in the drill at the PRAN factory’s premises while a discussion programme was also held to create public awareness.

Nurul Islam, Deputy Assistant Director at Narsingdi Fire Service and Civil Defense said that “In any case of fires, people should contact fire service authority first as we are always ready to help the people.”

Kazi Wahidur Rahman, General Manager (EHS) of Corporate Finance of PRAN-RFL Group said “The safety of workers is the first priority for PRAN. We have a fire service team in every factory.”

Imrul Kayes, Additional Deputy Commissioner in Narsingdi, Rumana Yeasmin, Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) of Palash, Farhana Ali, Assistant Commissioner (Land) of Palash, Dipak Kumar Dev, General Manager, PRAN Factory at Ghorashal, Mostak Ahmed, General Manager of PRAN Industrail Park were also present at the programme.

Walton Plaza, one of the sales networks of Walton Group, received sale order of 4 lakh electric fans from dealers across the country on October 28.

October 28 of 2019, the local electronics giant got sales orders for around 2.75 lakh and 85,500 units electric fan from the dealers of its two other sales’ networks ‘Walton Distributors Network’ and ‘Marcel brand’ respectively, said a press release.

Walton Group’s Managing Director SM Shamsul Alam, Directors SM Mahbubul Alam, SM Rezaul Alam, SM Monjurul Alam Ovee and Mahabub Alam Mridul congratulated the Plaza sales networks on the sales of record volume of fan in a single day through cutting cake at the group’s Corporate Office in the capital on Saturday.

Walton sold out around 6.13 lakh units fan during the month of January to October of the current year, registering a 90 percent higher sales compared to previous year’s corresponding period. 

Centering the next year’s summer season, the local multinational electronics company set a target of selling out 15 lakh units fan and to achieve this target, they started ‘Pre-Sales Booking’ of electric fan in last week of October.

The use of 99.99 percent super enameled copper and H-class insulation in the fan’s armature have protected Walton fan from burning for high voltage. Speed of the Walton fan is being sustained due to the use of European standard boll-bearing and capacitor of Japanese brand.

11.11 (Eleven Eleven), the world’s biggest online sale organised by country’s largest online marketplace Daraz Bangladesh(daraz.com.bd) is finally being held on Monday.

Daraz Bangladesh has organized Daraz 11.11 sale for the second time.

The Co-Sponsors of the campaign are Dettol, Bata, Esquire Electronics Limited, Nokia and Lux.

On this day Daraz is offering special vouchers, mega deals, flash sales, 11-taka deals, big sale time and many other attractive offers, said a press release.

Bangladesh National ODI Cricket Team Captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza inaugurated the 11.11 campaign through Facebook Live at 11:30 pm on Sunday.

During the Facebook Live, the winners of the “1 Taka Game” has been announced, which was the biggest attraction of the campaign.

How to get more discounts from the 11.11 Campaign:

Best Deals

Among all the best deals of Daraz 11.11 sale, the notable deals are:

1. Samsung Galaxy M40 - Smartphone only at 25,690 BDT

2. Samsung Refrigerator only at 47,300 BDT

3. Amazfit Bip SmartWatch - Onyx Black only at 4,430 BDT

4. Google Play Gift Card only at 8,450 BDT

5. 5 Nights / 6 Days Tour Package with Air Ticket - BALI, INDONESIA only at 37,140

Discounts from Bank partners

For the convenience of the customers, Daraz(daraz.com.bd) is offering multiple bank discounts

and bkash cashback offers. Up to 15% off will be offered (Maximum Cap 2,000 taka) on

transaction through BRAC Bank, United Commercial Bank-UCB, Southeast Bank, Mercantile

Bank, Eastern Bank, City Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, and Dhaka Bank. Along with that, all

visa card users issued in Bangladesh will avail 10% discount (up to 400 taka per customer). Payment through bKash online also has a maximum of 15% (up to 500 taka per customer, up to 300 taka per day) instant cashback facility.

Vouchers

There will be interesting discount vouchers especially for Daraz customers. On this event Daraz(daraz.com.bd) is offering I love voucher, Happy Hour Voucher, Double Taka Voucher,  Shake-Shake Voucher, and many other lucrative offers. Customers can buy their favorite products and avail more discounts by using these special vouchers from Daraz app.

Hourly Attractions

As the main attraction of the campaign, there will be 11-taka deal at 5pm where the customers can avail - smartphone, trimmer, wireless mouse, router, power bank, and many other lucrative items.

 There are also interesting games like outer space, fruit crush and flying Dazz available inDaraz App, through which scoring the highest, customers can win attractive gifts like TV and Daraz(daraz.com.bd) voucher.

The shake shake voucher is available at 12pm, 6pm and 9pm where there will be amazing products including i-phone and motorbike. These offers will be available only at scheduled time and with limited stock. To avail these, customers will have to be active and visit Daraz app on every hour.