We have noticed that there are few things as big as sale seasons in China and one of the biggest is Singles’ Day sale which falls on the 11th of November in China and it used to be a single day sale event but it has expanded to weeks now same as the Black Friday sale and Cyber Monday sale which were originally two days but have now become weeks and some even start it beginning of November. However, there is something to worry for Chinese e-commerce operators as well as local businesses as a new survey claims that the people of China are not going to spend too much in Singles’ Day sale this year.
As per the report, “Singles Day has expanded from a one-day shopping festival into a multi-week period of shopping promotions across different online platforms in China. Excitement has waned, and nearly half of consumers surveyed this year also said they were turning to cheaper brands or private label products, the Bain study found. Private-label products tend to be cheaper than those from comparable big-name brands. For this year’s festival, more than three-fourths of consumers surveyed — or 77% — said they did not plan to increase spending”.
In a phone interview, partner at Bain said “Look at the broader macroeconomy. The consumer sentiment remains a bit lower than where it was pre-Covid,” and added that “There is more cost [consciousness] among consumers in where and how they want to spend their money.” He also said that “we expect that there is probably going to be more stocking up of consumables”. It is also worth noting that last year, “both Alibaba and online retail giant JD.com for the first time declined to disclose Singles Day gross merchandise value, an industry measure of sales over time”. This could be because of the low number of GMV that they reached during the sale which could affect their share prices. It is estimated that the same will be repeated this year but the impact will be even bigger compared to last year’s sale due to current economic conditions all over the world.
