The online check-out page of luxury-goods department store Neiman Marcus was stormed early Thursday when tens of thousands of Chinese and Chinese Americans kept adding expensive skincare sets and $400 hair dryers to their shopping carts.

"$350 off on orders over $1,000 for almost all of their beauty products! 35% off, that's probably the best deal I've ever seen for beauty," said Vivian Cai, 28, who moved from Beijing to the US to go to college and now resides in New York.

Cai and those thousands of consumers in the US who shopped online for the products at Dallas-based Neiman Marcus were taking part in Singles Day - the world's largest online shopping day.

While Singles Day in China is a one-day event, consumers in the US get more time to shop because of the time difference between the two countries.

In 2009, Alibaba spotted a commercial opportunity with the day, and marketed it as a shopping day for single people to buy things to pamper themselves.

The singles shopping spree has grown. This year, analysts expect Singles Day retail revenue to surpass $20 billion, shattering last year's record of $14.4 billion. By comparison, last year's Black Friday in the US brought in $2.72 billion in e-commerce sales and $12 billion in total sales over two days.

On Singles Day, Cai used to sit in her New York apartment and shop for her parents, who are in Beijing, through Alibaba. Then two years ago she started to see good deals for herself offered by American retailers through Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, and deal sites that specifically target Chinese consumers in America.

"Singles Day has become more relevant to us Chinese in the US. It's amazing to see that many great deals are just for us. The Neiman Marcus promo code this year was 'Dealmoon'," she said.

DealMoon, the largest shopping-recommendation site for Chinese Americans and a major player in promoting the 11.11 shopping bonanza in the US, partnered with more than 250 department stores and international brands this year, up from 180 in 2015.

Focusing on high-end beauty products and fashion for Chinese Americans who are known for their buying power and devotion to luxury brands, its partners include Saks Fifth Avenue, Bloomingdale's, La Mer, Lancome, Estee Lauder and Michael Kors.

"Some of our partners sold over $1 million last year," said its co-founder Jennifer Wang. The top winners were American luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman and beauty brand Glam Glow.

"It's becoming the Cyber Monday for luxury brands," said Wang. "Almost all that participated last year will be making offers again this year, some with deeper discounts, and we have more brands joining us, including Adidas and Jimmy Choo."

According to the 2010 US Census, the Chinese American population in the US was approximately 3.8 million. There are also about 300,000 Chinese students studying in the US, along with a good number of people who have graduated and now work in the country.

Last year, DealMoon received 53 million screen views and 2.9 million visits on its mobile app. Wang expects the number to increase this year.

When they went shopping on the Neiman Marcus site, Wang and Cai bought the La Mer gift set for $410 and La Prairie caviar eye cream for $335.

"I've never bought them before because they are too expensive, but with this discount, I'm going for it," said Cai.

hezijiang@chinadailyusa.com