Double 11 (双十一), sold abroad as Singles' Day or 11.11, is the largest retail event on earth — and it no longer happens on one night. In 2026 it opened on 7 October with Kuaishou, went live on JD.com on 12 October, and Tmall's in-stock sale runs until 13 November.
For a visitor that is either a spectacular opportunity or a fast way to lose money, and the difference is four things: the real calendar, the new "direct price cut" mechanic, how to pay and receive goods without a Chinese bank account, and which purchases the 11% departure tax refund covers (fewer than most assume).
It began in 2009 as a one-day Taobao promotion built around "Bachelor's Day" (11 November, all those ones) and is now a five-week season. Alibaba and JD.com stopped publishing official GMV totals in 2022; the most quoted figure is Syntun's third-party estimate of roughly RMB 1.695 trillion across all platforms for 2025 over 37 days — a scale indicator, not a precise number.
Participation is published: Tmall says the 2026 festival has 1 million brands and 72 million products (both records), 60,000 first-time merchants and roughly 64 million 88VIP members, with Apple debuting its foldable iPhone Duo on the platform — not a clearance bin.
Context: China's National Immigration Administration reported on 20 October 2026 that border crossings hit 192 million in Q3 (+7.9%), including 23.27 million crossings by foreign nationals, with visa-free entries up 24.1% to nearly 9 million.
There is no single start date any more — which is why travellers keep arriving three days late.
| Platform | Opens (China time) | Runs until | What is different in 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kuaishou | 7 October (pre-sale) | Mid-November | First to start, as in recent years |
| JD.com | 12 October, 20:00 (in-stock) | 11–15 November | Scrapped deposit pre-sales; direct price cuts |
| WeChat Shop | 12 October | 15 November | First official Double 11; coupons passed between friends |
| Tmall / Taobao | 15 October, 20:00 (deposits) | 13 November, 23:59 | One mechanic: official direct reduction (官方立减) |
| Douyin | 15 October | 11 November | Coupons extended into Doubao and Hongguo |
Tmall's mechanics set the rhythm: deposits 15 October 20:00 to 20 October 17:59, balances 20 October 20:00 to 25 October 23:59 (miss it and the deposit is normally forfeited), in-stock sales to 13 November, and the deepest coupons on the peak night of 10–11 November.
The useful window for a shopping trip is 26 October to 13 November: no deposit paperwork, full in-stock prices, peak night included, and no first-week shipping backlog.
For years Double 11 meant cross-store "spend 300, save 50" puzzles and stacked coupons. In 2026 the platforms have largely dropped that: Tmall's headline mechanic is 官方立减 (official direct reduction) on the item itself, JD.com runs plain price cuts with no basket to fill, and Douyin and Kuaishou have simplified similarly.
Two regulatory moves sit behind this: the Ministry of Commerce and six other agencies issued rules targeting "automatic price-matching" and "lowest price on the internet" claims, and a struck-through "original price" cannot exceed the lowest price the seller charged in the seven days before the promotion. Sticker prices are therefore more honest — but not every discount is real, since sellers still set the pre-sale price. Check a price-history tool before believing a percentage, and remember 价保 (price protection) is opt-in: you must claim a price drop yourself in the platform's price-protection centre (价保中心).
| Route | Setup needed | Delivery | Tax refund? | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A. Order online, deliver to hotel | Taobao account, Alipay with passport verification, foreign card | 1–3 days inside China | No | Electronics, clothing, anything you can carry |
| B. Shop physical stores | Passport, departure flight | You carry it | Yes — about 11% back | Luxury, silk, tea, ceramics, gifts |
| C. Order from home | Account; overseas address | Official direct shipping or consolidation, 1–3 weeks | No | Bulky goods, furniture, repeat buys |
This is the route most visitors should use, and it became genuinely easy when Alipay opened to international cards in 2023.
Installments (分期) and some deposit flows assume a mainland card; a foreign card usually gets full payment only. And real-name verification is mandatory — an unverified Taobao account can browse but not check out. Finish it before you fly, not in a hotel lobby at midnight.
Department stores, malls and brand flagships run their own 11.11 promotions in parallel, and many honour platform coupons in store. The offline route has one big advantage: it is the only one that qualifies for the departure tax refund.
Under the upgraded system you can claim about 11% VAT back on qualifying goods, minimum ¥200 per person, per store, per day. More than 14,000 tax-refund stores take part, over 8,000 offering 即买即退, where the store pays you on the spot against a credit-card pre-authorization. The 28-day instant-refund window and 17-province cross-region arrangement are covered in our tax refund 2.0 guide. Get the customs stamp before check-in and carry the goods out yourself — shipping them separately breaks the claim.
Discounts are deepest where Chinese manufacturers compete hardest, shallowest where a brand controls its pricing.
| Category | Typical discount | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| Phones, laptops, tablets (domestic models) | 10–25% plus coupons | Strong — check network bands and warranty first |
| Audio, AI glasses, drones, e-readers | 15–30% | Excellent; Chinese brands lead this segment |
| Robot vacuums, purifiers, small appliances | 20–40% | Great prices; check 220V and plug type |
| Chinese-designed fashion and sportswear | 20–50% | The best category for a suitcase haul |
| Silk, tea, ceramics, embroidery | 10–20% in store | Buy offline for the refund and to inspect |
| Designer toys, plush, collectibles | Thin | Scarcity-driven; resale is risky |
| Luxury and imported cosmetics | 5–15% | Often cheaper at Hainan duty-free than on 11.11 |
Two caveats: the gap on imported brands is smaller than social media suggests (Chinese list prices are high, so discounts mostly reset them to home-market levels), and Hainan's offshore duty-free allowance is a separate system with its own quotas — see the Hainan duty-free guide.
This changed most in 2026. Taobao is running the festival across 20 overseas markets, with free shipping in 13 countries and regions and more than 1.2 million merchants in the overseas push. Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia get zero-threshold free shipping; the other nine get subsidised rates. Taobao says over 90% of medium and large items — furniture included — qualify for direct overseas delivery, and Malaysia is adding more than 1,400 J&T return drop-off points from November, which finally makes cross-border returns plausible.
| Option | How it works | Cost / time | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hotel delivery (in China) | Order to your hotel, carry it out | Free or ¥0–15; 1–3 days | Baggage limits; lithium batteries |
| Official overseas direct | Choose your country at checkout | Free in 13 markets; 5–15 days | Product and category eligibility |
| Consolidation (官方集运) | Sellers ship to a Cainiao warehouse, parcels pool, you pay one international fee | Cheapest per kilo; 2–3 weeks | Storage deadlines; pay before dispatch |
| Freight forwarder / AliExpress | Third-party warehouse or Alibaba's English platform | Varies | AliExpress costs more than Taobao |
One rule people miss: parcels mailed into China are capped at ¥1,000 (¥800 from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan), with duty waived only when assessed tax is ¥50 or less — so do not post your haul to a Chinese address as a workaround.
Blunt answer: platform orders generally do not qualify. The system is built around physical tax-refund stores issuing a form against an invoice, and a Taobao order delivered to your hotel is a domestic retail transaction. If the 11% matters, buy at a refund store, in person, with your passport.
| Dates | What to do |
|---|---|
| Before you fly | Install Alipay and Taobao, complete passport verification, link your card, save the hotel address in Chinese |
| 21–25 October | Pay balances before 23:59 on the 25th if you placed deposits; otherwise start watching in-stock prices |
| 26 October–9 November | Order bulky or made-to-order items now; note protection windows |
| 10–11 November | Peak night: best coupons, slowest shipping. Buy only what you can carry |
| 11–13 November | Final in-stock days; shift to physical stores for tax-refund purchases |
| Departure day | Customs verification before check-in; invoices in hand luggage |
| Chinese | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 双十一 | shuāng shí yī | Double 11 / Singles' Day |
| 预售 / 现货 | yù shòu / xiàn huò | Pre-sale / in stock |
| 定金 / 尾款 | dìng jīn / wěi kuǎn | Deposit / balance payment |
| 官方立减 | guān fāng lì jiǎn | Official direct price reduction |
| 优惠券 / 红包 | yōu huì quàn / hóng bāo | Coupon / cash red packet |
| 价保 / 退差价 | jià bǎo / tuì chā jià | Price protection / refund the difference |
| 包邮 / 集运 / 直邮 | bāo yóu / jí yùn / zhí yóu | Free shipping / consolidation / direct mail |
| 发票 | fā piào | Official invoice (needed for tax refund) |
| 退税 / 即买即退 | tuì shuì / jí mǎi jí tuì | Tax refund / instant refund at purchase |
| 前台代收 | qián tái dài shōu | Front desk receives on my behalf |
Yes. Register with a foreign phone number, complete passport verification in Alipay, link an international Visa, Mastercard, JCB, Discover or Diners card, and check out through Alipay. No Chinese ID or bank account is needed; expect roughly 3% added on foreign-card transactions above ¥200.
No. Taobao runs the festival in 20 overseas markets, free shipping in 13, with no minimum spend in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Malaysia; elsewhere use consolidation or AliExpress.
Not necessarily. With in-stock sales running 20 October to 13 November and price protection on labelled items, buying earlier and claiming the difference often matches waiting. Peak-night coupons are deepest, but shipping slows sharply.
No — only goods bought in person at a tax-refund store with an invoice and your passport, minimum ¥200 same store same day. See the tax refund 2.0 guide.
Inside China, use the platform return flow within seven days of delivery — a legal right for most categories. After you leave, cross-border returns are expensive; local drop-off points are arriving market by market, starting with Malaysia.
Related reading: the China haul guide for what to buy and how to ship it, the tax refund 2.0 guide, the payment guide for Alipay and WeChat Pay, the payment apps walkthrough, the Hainan duty-free guide, the Yiwu wholesale market guide, the factory tourism guide, the Canton Fair autumn 2026 guide, the luggage and customs guide, the translation apps guide, and city guides for the best shopping cities: Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.
Last updated: October 21, 2026. Sources: Alibaba Group newsroom (15 October 2026); Taobao merchant education centre rules and price-protection Q&A (29 September 2026); Taobao overseas announcement via EqualOcean (21 September 2026); Taobao Malaysia release via PR Newswire (20 October 2026); BigGo and Caixin on the 15 October launches and Ministry of Commerce pricing rules; National Immigration Administration Q3 2026 data via Xinhua; Syntun 2025 estimate (third party). Dates, prices and rules change — confirm in-app before paying.