Alibaba’s annual Singles Day event sees slowest ever sales growth of 8.5% YoY since it was launched in 2009, but customer spending still hit a record $84.5B (Katie Silver/BBC)

Katie Silver / BBC:
Alibaba’s annual Singles Day event sees slowest ever sales growth of 8.5% YoY since it was launched in 2009, but customer spending still hit a record $84.5B  —  Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s Singles Day is known for being the world’s biggest online shopping extravaganza.