China’s Singles Day sale, the world’s biggest annual shopping event, is known for regularly smashing sales records.
China’s Singles Day sale, the world’s biggest annual shopping event, is known for regularly smashing sales records.
This year’s bonanza, which wraps up on Friday and is led by internet titans Alibaba (BABA) and JD.com (JD), will likely be no exception: Analysts expect it to rack up 1 trillion yuan ($140.8 billion) in sales for the first time.
Singles Day sale usually eclipses two of the world’s most popular sales events — Black Friday and Cyber Monday — combined. The festival, also known as “Double 11,” is pegged to China’s unofficial, anti-Valentine’s Day holiday that celebrates people not in romantic relationships. The date — 11.11 — was chosen since written out, it appears as four ones, or singles.
But the projected tally would represent just a small uptick — about 5% — on the 952.3 billion yuan ($134.2 billion) notched up last year. That already marked a historic slowdown in growth.
Experts have flagged two major factors behind the loss of momentum this year: Competition is up, and consumer confidence is down.
The focus, they said, has shifted from generating massive sales to keeping customers happy, particularly in an uncertain environment.
Xiaofeng Wang, a principal analyst at research firm Forrester, told CNN Business that she believed Singles Day sale would cross the trillion-yuan mark this week.
However, “it’s just impossible to sustain high growth year by year,” she said. “Eventually, [companies] know it’s not a sustainable strategy. That’s why they want to focus on customer experience and customer loyalty.”
Singles’ Day is a holiday celebrated by unmarried people in China on Nov. 11. The idea originated at China’s Nanjing University back in 1993 as a sort of anti-Valentine’s Day. Singles’ Day has since spread to various other parts of the globe.
First promoted by Alibaba in 2009, Singles Day was designed as a consumerist bash built to harness the power of the Chinese consumer for the world.
Originally published at CNN